Could my PCIx16 slot be the cause of 3 bad graphics card fans?

[JohnnyScience]

Ok I've got an Asus mobo, this one in fact:

Newegg.com - ASUS P5K EPU LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

I've had this mobo for the last two years without any problems.

Over the last year or so, my first Asus 9600GT graphics card went bad (the fan warped & stopped working, causing it to overheat a lot)

Then I got the new one & ran that one for maybe almost a year and then the same thing happened, the fan warped & went bad.

Now I cant not say for sure which slot the 1st bad graphics card was in, if it was in #1 or #2

But I can say for sure that the 2nd time it was in PCIx16 1

Now I've received the 3rd card & installed it in PCIx16 1 and within a little while, I noticed the card was giving off a lot of heat, I unplugged it and upon closer inspection I see the fan was slightly warped again.

I will also say that I didnt inspect the card when I got it to be sure everything was ok, maybe they sent me another bad card...?

Now the fan still turns smoothly, but you can see it starting to cock up & become warped.

I've since talked to Asus again 7 they are doing another RMA for me, so the graphics card is covered.

But I'd like to get to the bottom of things and fix the root of the problem.

Do you think in any way possible it is the PCIx16 1 slot making it go bad?

I talked to the guy at Asus about it & he said it isnt likely as the slot just transfer data & said perhaps it was my power supply.

Here is my power supply:

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX630-S-B 630W ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

It's only 2 years old as well and powers A LOT of other stuff within my computer without any problems or hiccups at all ever.

So I'm reluctant to blame it on the power supply... but you never know.

Ideas?

Thanks.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Any ideas?

 

[mickey megabyte]

what sort of cooler and fan have you got on your cpu and\or in your case?

maybe you've got a seriously hot box and need to add extra air-flow?

 

[JohnnyScience]

what sort of cooler and fan have you got on your cpu and\or in your case?

maybe you've got a seriously hot box and need to add extra air-flow?

EAch video card has its own fan, there is 1 fan blowing in underneath the hard drives, 1 fan pulling air out the back & then of course the power supply fan is pulling air

Heat has never been an issue with things. This is really the only problem I've had with it.

Are my chances more on having 3 bad fans on graphics card vs. a bad pci slot?

 

[mickey megabyte]

having three bad fans is highly unlikely - but so is having a pci-e slot that can damage fans.

 

[JohnnyScience]

having three bad fans is highly unlikely - but so is having a pci-e slot that can damage fans.

Thats what I'm saying...

And I really dont think its the power supply either

 

[alphanumeric]

If it was a problem with the PCIe slot not suppling enough power to run the fan I think you would have other problems. You would be having other graphics related problems. Does the 9800 have the extra power connector on it, and if it does do you have the required power cable plugged into it? I think the first thing I would do is see what kind of case temps you have. Depending on what program you use you could probably see your vid card temps and hard drive temps if they have temp sensors in them. I usually just run the utility bundled on motherboard CD, and I'm really not up to speed on what is good and what isn't so I'll let someone else recommend something. I'm on my third GT220, the first one was DOA out of the box. The fan didn't work at all and the card went undetected in BIOS or windows. The replacement for that one worked but the fan buzzed and didn't run at full speed. Third times a charm I guess because the last one has been fine for almost a year now. They were made by BFG so if this one dies I'll be going to a different manufacturer anyway. It kind of sounds like Asus got a bad batch of fans.

 

[JohnnyScience]

If it was a problem with the PCIe slot not suppling enough power to run the fan I think you would have other problems. You would be having other graphics related problems. Does the 9800 have the extra power connector on it, and if it does do you have the required power cable plugged into it? I think the first thing I would do is see what kind of case temps you have. Depending on what program you use you could probably see your vid card temps and hard drive temps if they have temp sensors in them. I usually just run the utility bundled on motherboard CD, and I'm really not up to speed on what is good and what isn't so I'll let someone else recommend something. I'm on my third GT220, the first one was DOA out of the box. The fan didn't work at all and the card went undetected in BIOS or windows. The replacement for that one worked but the fan buzzed and didn't run at full speed. Third times a charm I guess because the last one has been fine for almost a year now. They were made by BFG so if this one dies I'll be going to a different manufacturer anyway. It kind of sounds like Asus got a bad batch of fans.

Yeah the 9800 has the same 6 prong power plug to it that the 9600 does (different power cords of course, but both 6 prong)

I dont know, I was blaming the cards till I thought the mobo was bad...

 

[stormy13]

Any chance of a couple of decent pictures of the inside of the case?

 

[JohnnyScience]

Any chance of a couple of decent pictures of the inside of the case?

Gave me a chance to use my new iPhone 4

The center cable mass might look like a mess... but there is nothing that can be done about it, its just a busy intersection for cables. But the nice thing is that only cables reside in that area.

You will see the blue PCI slot towards the top left

 

[stormy13]

One straight on please.

P.S. If it is warping, it isn't the fan that is warping but the card itself.

 

[JohnnyScience]

One straight on please.

P.S. If it is warping, it isn't the fan that is warping but the card itself.

That is straight on, I dont have a tower but a box... I'll take a front view for you to see what I'm talking about...

 

[Dwarf]

Could it be a slight misalignment of your motherboard relative to the case? Try loosening the motherboard mounting screws and then insert the card. When installed, retighten the screws.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Could it be a slight misalignment of your motherboard relative to the case? Try loosening the motherboard mounting screws and then insert the card. When installed, retighten the screws.

I dont think so, the machining on this case is really high end and very precise. Its an Origen and is all aluminum, model is X11 Home Theater PC.

Perhaps when I'm tightening down the mounting screw for the graphics card to the PCI slot on the back it does seem to move/tilt the card if tightened all the way

 

[sygnus21]

Maybe it's the angle of the dangle, but that main cable (24-pin connectors) looks to be disconnected (See red lines next to cable) :shock:

It should be connected to the motherboard! Am I missing something?

 

[Dwarf]

Looking at the image of your system, I would say that a bit of cable management would be beneficial. Your main ATX power cable is running straight across the board, and I see that you have a 20-24 pin extension fitted. Unfortunately, the connector is right next to the graphics slot. Could this be interfering with the fan on the graphics card?

 

[JohnnyScience]

Looking at the image of your system, I would say that a bit of cable management would be beneficial. Your main ATX power cable is running straight across the board, and I see that you have a 20-24 pin extension fitted. Unfortunately, the connector is right next to the graphics slot. Could this be interfering with the fan on the graphics card?

The cables arent long enough to do any good cable management, trust me I tried. theres a lot going on in there... 3 HDD's, 2 video cards, 8g of ram, dvd, 27 card slot etc

Nothing is disconnected, everything is good.

The fan will face left towards the other graphics card, so no, the cables are on the other side of it.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Maybe it's the angle of the dangle, but that main cable (24-pin connectors) looks to be disconnected (See red lines next to cable) :shock:

It should be connected to the motherboard! Am I missing something?

View attachment 102824

Angle of the dangle? haha what?

Some things are disconnected, but thats because I was working on it all day. Pretty much everything that needs to be plugged back in is. And the 24 pin is connected.

 

[Dwarf]

Could it be a slight misalignment of your motherboard relative to the case? Try loosening the motherboard mounting screws and then insert the card. When installed, retighten the screws.

I dont think so, the machining on this case is really high end and very precise. Its an Origen and is all aluminum, model is X11 Home Theater PC.

Perhaps when I'm tightening down the mounting screw for the graphics card to the PCI slot on the back it does seem to move/tilt the card if tightened all the way

Nonetheless, try what I suggested. The motherboard only has to be out of alignment by a fraction of a milimetre for problems to occur when installing cards, especially graphics cards due to the higher density of connectors in the PCIe socket when compared to a PCI one.

 

[sygnus21]

It should be connected to the motherboard! Am I missing something?

View attachment 102824

I see that you have a 20-24 pin extension fitted.

Hmmm... that explains it. It looked to be disconnected to me. Never mind.

I would say that a bit of cable management would be beneficial.

Yeah that would definitely help with heat in the long run. Not to mention cables rubbing up against things.