HP Z420 PCIe x16 Not working?

[sepheronx]

I have this HP z420 I am working on for a sale and it was running fine until I updated Windows 10 and let it reboot. Then it gave me the 6 red light code. I tried resetting the cmos, I tried reseating the GPU (GTX 970 4GB Model) and clean out the slot. I then decided to try PCI-e x16 Slot 2 on the board (near bottom) and it works!

Anything I am missing or I should do to try and get the top one working? I didn't notice any damage on the pins and i tried blowing it out with compressed air.

 

[silentbogo]

If it was working fine before, I doubt it's a GPU issue. Maybe a quirk or a bug with Windows 10 and EFI drivers.
Check the voltage on CMOS battery w/ multimeter, replace if needed (just a week ago I got a bad one, which would show 3.1V with no load, but drop below 2v as soon as you put it in MoBo).
Reseat the GPU, reseat your PCIe power cable(s), and try again. I believe both slots are wired to CPU and are PCIe 3.0, so even if it failed, you aren't losing anything by switching slots (except maybe slight bump in thermals and non-accessible PCI).

 

[sepheronx]

If it was working fine before, I doubt it's a GPU issue. Maybe a quirk or a bug with Windows 10 and EFI drivers.
Check the voltage on CMOS battery w/ multimeter, replace if needed (just a week ago I got a bad one, which would show 3.1V with no load, but drop below 2v as soon as you put it in MoBo).
Reseat the GPU, reseat your PCIe power cable(s), and try again. I believe both slots are wired to CPU and are PCIe 3.0, so even if it failed, you aren't losing anything by switching slots (except maybe slight bump in thermals and non-accessible PCI).

it is showing pcie 2.0 x16. It is Gen 1 of 420 not the gen 2.

Something's gotta be wrong here.

Call of duty warzone avg about 20fpd on med/low 1080p.

 

[silentbogo]

It doesn't matter whether it's v1 or v2 - it's the same board and those are CPU lanes.

If it never shows as PCIe3.0 on the second slot, and the first one is glitching out, you may also want to reseat your CPU, or worst case - test with another one.

 

[sepheronx]

It doesn't matter whether it's v1 or v2 - it's the same board and those are CPU lanes.
View attachment 174188
If it never shows as PCIe3.0 on the second slot, and the first one is glitching out, you may also want to reseat your CPU, or worst case - test with another one.

Ok, I'll try another cpu.

So I installed the E5 1603 and still same thing, only PCIe-2 x16

 

[silentbogo]

And have you tried the first slot with that CPU?

 

[sepheronx]

And have you tried the first slot with that CPU?

not yet. Just got CPU in and tested. I went into the bios and set it force to Gen 3 x8. But still showing as 2.0

Was reading some others had issues too. But we will see about first pcie slot if it works now.

edit: I was able to fix the PCI-e issue.

Apparently I had to download and run an executable force command in order to get nvidia cards to work on it in pcie-3 on x79 platform.

Edit 2: Nope, first PCIe slot isn't working. I presume it is dead.

For those who are curious on what I am talking about, here is the link:

NVIDIA Support

nvidia.custhelp.com

 

[silentbogo]

Also, you can try enabling PCIe Performance mode in BIOS. It may help with PCIe 2.0 issue on your second port, but I'm still a bit confused as to why the first one isn't working and nothing's burned or damaged....

 

[sepheronx]

Also, you can try enabling PCIe Performance mode in BIOS. It may help with PCIe 2.0 issue on your second port, but I'm still a bit confused as to why the first one isn't working and nothing's burned or damaged....

No idea. After windows 10 update, it just stopped working.

I presume it has something to do with that or just a really bad coincidence.

Now I got second problem. Due to the cards location now, it is overheating - temps as high as 95 C causing throttling.

Seriously, this is annoying.

 

[silentbogo]

Apparently I had to download and run an executable force command in order to get nvidia cards to work on it in pcie-3 on x79 platform.

That's weird. I swear to god my GTX1060 was running at x16 3.0, and for sure my NVME was on 3.0 as well, cause I had to juggle around PCIe x8 slots to figure out which one was CPU and did benchmarks afterwards. Recently moved it to my apartment and replaced GPU with tiny GT1030, and for some reason it ran at 2.0 (while NVME was still at x4 3.0 as before). Though, I also did reinstall windows (used to be 10 Pro from my old PC, switched to a fresh install of Enterprise LTSC). That is really-really weird. I need to do some more reading on this platform, cause even after my build project, and constant prodding with multimeter and soldering iron I start to realize that I still know jack shit about it

 

[sepheronx]

That's weird. I swear to god my GTX1060 was running at x16 3.0, and for sure my NVME was on 3.0 as well, cause I had to juggle around PCIe x8 slots to figure out which one was CPU and did benchmarks afterwards. Recently moved it to my apartment and replaced GPU with tiny GT1030, and for some reason it ran at 2.0 (while NVME was still at x4 3.0 as before). Though, I also did reinstall windows (used to be 10 Pro from my old PC, switched to a fresh install of Enterprise LTSC). That is really-really weird. I need to do some more reading on this platform, cause even after my build project, and constant prodding with multimeter and soldering iron I start to realize that I still know jack shit about it

It is OK. But now I am worried about temps. At bottom slot, the darn card gets hot and there is no room for the fans to pull air. I am running right now the render test in gpuz and have set hte fan curve to go up to 100% at 80+ c. I dunno if the fans are even running for crying out loud.

yeah, GPU fans are not spinning. What the heck?

Well, I put in a quadro fx 1800 I have laying around on the first pcie slot and it works.

I think my GTX 970 is borked.

 

[silentbogo]

Yep, that's probably it for the poor maxwell... Maybe use it as PhysX accelerator?

 

[sepheronx]

Yep, that's probably it for the poor maxwell... Maybe use it as PhysX accelerator?

Blah, it was working fine yesterday.

I think it overheated and that was that.

Guess I gotta find a used GPU. I'll sell this for parts. Maybe someone can fix it since it works technically...sort of.