PCI slots not working!

edited September 2008 in Hardware
Ok, my PC is really messed up right now. i have an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. Recently I tried installing a sound card because only the right speaker worked with my old sound card (both the new and old sound cards were from C-MEDIA, but were different models) I forgot to uninstall the driver and just replaced the defective sound card. The sound was working perfectly but after a few minutes I got a blue screen which didn't go away, so i restarted my computer. Windows loaded slower than before, and after logging in, I got the blue screen again after a few minutes. So I turned off the computer and took out the sound card.

I also had my wireless D-Link network adaptor in one of the pci slots. When I turned on my computer, it recognized the wireless card, but it wasn't working (It didn't show up in network connections) . I opened up device manager and it said "this device cannot start". I turned off the computer...took out the wireless card and put the card back in. Then after booting up, it didn't detect anything at all. I tried putting it into every PCI slot but got no luck. But the light on the wireless card was always flashing!! So i guess the PCI slots are still receiving power. I also tried putting my old sound card in but my computer didn't recognize it.

I put my wireless card in my other computer and it was working no problem. I didn't change anything in the BIOS when this happened. But when nothing worked i tried going into it and changing some things with no luck. I also took out the power cables and put them back in to make sure they were in properly.

I hope I can get the computer to work without replacing the motherboard. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Comments

  • edited July 2008
    I think I should post my PC specs:

    Asus A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard
    AMD Athlon 64 3200+
    250GB Western Digital SATAII HD
    500GB SATA II Seagate HD
    1GB Ocz ram
    XFX Nvidia Geforce 6800GS
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited July 2008
    I'd try resetting the BIOS.

    Sound boards are about the crankiest thing you can install. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's installation procedure. If the reset gets you up and running, try installing your audio once again and, this time, install and update the driver.

    Hope this gets it.
  • edited July 2008
    I just reset the bios....no luck :(

    I'm going to try to update the bios.

    Can it be Windows? Should I try installing a fresh windows on a different partition?
  • edited July 2008
    finished updating bios to version 1805....when i loaded windows it found a whole lot of new hardware such as PCI to PCI bridge etc... but not the card on the PCI slot.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    but not the card on the PCI slot.
    Which card?

    My advice. Shut down the computer, pull the power cord, remove ALL PCI cards. Then remove the CMOS battery an just let it sit for an hour that way. Reinsert the battery, start the computer and boot into safe mode. Remove an unneeded drivers. Shut down the computer. Restart with only one PCI card. Get it working right, then shut down and add another card. Some PCI cards require that you install the drivers first. Maybe your sound card is that way. I know some PCI wireless cards are that way.
  • edited July 2008
    Which card?

    It was my old sound card cuz someone was borrowing my wireless card. I have the wireless card now though.

    I just finished installing vista on a different partition. The first thing i did after installing vista was put in the wireless card, and install the driver for it. I then tried to set up a wireless network but windows couldn't detect any wireless networking hardware... but.... its a possibility that the card is not compatible with vista....
    My advice. Shut down the computer, pull the power cord, remove ALL PCI cards. Then remove the CMOS battery an just let it sit for an hour that way. Reinsert the battery, start the computer and boot into safe mode. Remove an unneeded drivers. Shut down the computer. Restart with only one PCI card. Get it working right, then shut down and add another card. Some PCI cards require that you install the drivers first. Maybe your sound card is that way. I know some PCI wireless cards are that way.

    I'll do what you said about pulling the cmos battery etc. but instead of uninstalling the drivers im just going to install windows xp on the vista partition just to be on the safe side. If this does not work..... then im pretty sure something is just wrong with the motherboard.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited July 2008
    I really doubt the problem is the motherboard. PCI sound cards can be the most difficult devices install. Wireless cards are next in line in the quirky category.
  • edited July 2008
    I spent the whole day tryin to install XP on the computer with no luck. First i couldn't load into my old XP because formatting the vista partition screwed up the boot loader etc. . i finally found a solution after alot of research (inserting vista dvd, using /nt52 with bootsect.exe in command prompt).

    Then i tried installing a fresh copy of xp on the formatted vista partition. (BTW, my old XP is on my WD hard drive, I'm trying to install another XP on my Seagate hard drive) I finished the first process of installing XP (when it copies the files to the hard drive) with no problem. But the second part, after the computer reboots to finish the installation, I kept getting an error saying "Error loading operating system" I made this message go away by deleting the partition, creating it again, and then formatting it instead of just formatting it and installing XP.

    But now I'm getting this error "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.

    Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.

    Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information."


    before starting any of this I did take out the CMOS battery for 1hr+ and unplugged all the power cables. I never had a problem installing XP in the past. Also I want to point out....ever since my pci cards stopped getting detected, I also stopped getting this screen (or something very similar to it) which i used to get every time i boot up:

    07.jpg

    I guess I'll just try uninstalling some drivers in safe mode and see if anything happens.... but I'm pretty sure it wont make a difference because I had all the drivers installed when I bought the card, and it worked.

    Is there anything else I can do if uninstalling the drivers does not work?
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited July 2008
    Wow...You're doing way too much to solve a simple problem.

    Make sure the PCI-port is clear of dust or other debris, and that you did not disable them while screwing around in the bios.

    I have never, ever had a problem with PCI devices. Ever.
    The second only true plug-and-play bus. Unless the card is damaged, or the port is dirty, it will work. Even if you have force IRQ assign in the bios, the devices will STILL work.
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited July 2008
    After reading your last post, I'd say that before all of this trouble you had your harddrives hooked up to the raid adapter on the mother board and when you flashed the bios, you didn't go back into the bios and reenable the raid adapter so no matter what you do with your OS installation, Windows can't see the drive/drives to work with them.

    I suggest starting from scratch with Bios setup, raid bios setup and THEN the OS load, whichever OS you choose. Then, once the OS is up and running, start loading ALL of the board drivers first BEFORE the sound card or wireless card. Get a stable system before you screw it up with 3rd party crappy drivers.

    I'd bet money that your motherboard is just fine!!

    Flint
  • edited July 2008
    Ok i got windows xp to install on the seagate drive (had to change the access mode to "Large" in the bios). After installing XP, I reset the bios. Left BIOS as default and loaded XP. I installed the motherboard drivers etc and the video card driver. After restarting my computer i installed the wireless card driver, but computer didn't detect anything at all. I tried putting my sound card in but same result. I changed PCI slots and still nothing.

    I'll post what my BIOS settings are tomorrow....

    @Flinstone : I know that I had the SATA cables for the hard drives in the same place on the motherboard...I had to disconnect my HD from time to time in the past....They've always been where they are now. Also, i dont think i ever messed around with raid in the bios in the past either.

    @Your Amish Daddy:
    Wow...You're doing way too much to solve a simple problem.

    I'm just doing it cuz I don't want to buy another motherboard. I'm pretty sure i didn't disable the slots....but I will post my bios settings so you guys can check if anything is wrong.

    Also are there any diagnostics/tools that I can run for hardware problems....including RAM/HD or PCI slots!

    Thanks alot for the help :)
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited July 2008
    If PCI devices are not working, and they did before you formatted, then they still work.

    If they ALL stopped working, and you don't have PCI-Express, if your integrated network and sound still work...Your PCI still works.

    If you have PCI-Express, and your normal PCI ports don't work, but your integrated network and sound work, you've changed a setting somewhere and "broke" them.

    I said you're doing too much work because of two things. You're formatting. Why the hell would you format if your PCI ports stopped functioning? That doesn't even make since, since the PCI subsystem is driver controlled, and if that driver is gone, your OS won't boot. XP's PCI blind host is like..the third driver to load, and it will halt the system.

    That little screen you saw is a RAID bootstrap. That means you have RAID enabled in the Bios, and you need to go turn it off.

    There, I'm caught up.
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited July 2008
    Your Amish Daddy:
    He stated that he used to see the little screen indicating the raid bootstrap before the problems happened. He doesn't see it now. When he flashed his bios, he broke the raid that was already set up, whether it was intentionally there or not. The new bios doesn't have it turned on by default or the bios flash included different software for the raid that he never installed, which may or may not be wholly or partially true.

    In any event, since he's flashed the bios and since he's formatted and started fresh, he needs to start at the beginning and set up the bios how he wants it, activate the raid controller or not, etc. etc. No where in any of his descriptions has he said anything about even touching the bios after the flash and making sure all is as it should be.

    He needs to look at it as though he's building a brand new system since his drives are formatted and there's a new bios on the board.

    Flint
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited July 2008
    Yeah, now I see where I got lost.
  • edited August 2008
    Alrite I am going to post my BIOS settings up. For some settings I will post screenshots and for some I will just type up. I didn't include ALL of the settings, only the ones that I thought may help. If you think I should post more settings, just let me know.

    Here is my main screen:
    biosmainyb0.jpg

    These are the "Advanced" menus:

    biosadvancedmenuto6.jpg

    The "Advanced > PCIPnP" settings are:

    Plug & Play O/S [NO] (I tried YES, but slots didn't work)
    Init Display First [PCI] (tried pci express as well)
    Resources controlled By [AUTO]

    "Advanced > Onboard Device Configuration":

    biosonboarddevicepi2.jpg

    "Power" Menu

    ACPI Suspend Type [S1 &S3]
    ACPI APIC Support [Enabled]

    "Power > Hardware Monitor":

    biospowerhardwaremontt1.jpg

    "Power > APM Configuration"

    biospowerapmrt0.jpg


    Ok thats all that I have.

    About the RAID, I tried enabling RAID for both the drives, and that gave me the RAID setup screen again that i got at bootup. But the BIOS did not detect any of the hard drives, and I got an error that said something like"DISK BOOT ERROR, INSERT SYSTEM DISK". Then I tried enabling Raid for the Seagate drive only. I got the RAID setup screen again, and i was able to boot from the seagate drive (where I have my new windows XP installation). When XP loaded, it detected the WD hard drive in the Safely Remove Hardware" window with a question mark beside it, and in device manager it was under "Other Devices" with a yellow question mark.
    If I enabled RAID for the WD hard drive and not the Seagate, the same thing happened, I could boot into the WD hard drive but not seagate.

    I also want to note something weird that happened after my PCI slots stopped working. When I booted into Windows XP (on the WD hard drive) usually when MSN Messenger loads on the screen, there are usually about 5 emails that it always remembers. But that time it was blank and didn't remember any of the emails. Also the RAID setup screen didn't stop appearing after I reset the bios, but after my PCI slots stopped working. I turned to the BIOS after I tried everything else.

    Again if I should post something else from the BIOS let me know. Thanks for the help.
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited August 2008
    First of all- do not worry about RAID. Generally they require at least 2 matching drives and yours do not qualify. You can disable RAID if you want.

    Secondly, even though you don't need RAID, you likely need to pre-install the SATA/RAID drivers (see section 5.6 of the user's guide- READ THIS) before you install XP to get your SATA controller started. This is done by pressing F6 while the install CD is booting.

    Thirdly, if you have reset your BIOS, your default settings for PCI should be okay. However, we should get through getting your OS installed first. Get it running with your board drivers, etc. installed. If you have your original motherboard CD, I'd use it first and install for all the chipsets the board supports- LAN, controllers, etc, and, yes, audio. Then update everything. Do not add any other boards yet.

    Once you have the system up and running stable, then let's return to installing the extras.
    EDIT ADDED: A good sign of being ready is having all issues in Device Manager resolved. Get back to us with any questions.
  • edited August 2008
    when I installed the new windows XP i didn't press F6. I guess I can try installing again with pressing F6 this time. I didn't update the drivers either because I need internet access. But I did everything else that you mentioned.

    Also, I tried running Asus Pc Probe, and it indicated the "Current Usage" of every PCI slot as "Available"....even though my wireless and sound cards were attached.

    Here's a picture showing a screenshot of pc probe and device manager:

    http://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshottm9.jpg
  • QeldromaQeldroma Arid ZoneAh Member
    edited August 2008
    NewGuy wrote:
    .... I didn't update the drivers either because I need internet access....

    ?

    I don't know how this would prevent you from doing this. You really should do this. Many times things like the LAN will not start without at least an initial install. Perhaps this is why your PCI is stuck as well(?). Moreover, ASUS will likely have only the last stable drivers that were availble when the board was still hot. You can check with the chipset makers (Realtek, nVidia, etc.) or driver download sites for the latest ones.

    I have to sign-off for the next few weeks, so hopefuly this helps. If not, keeps posting (someone generally picks it up) and, yes, the pictures really do help :) .
  • FlintstoneFlintstone SE Florida
    edited August 2008
    Rather than beat a dying horse, I would refer you to the owners manual for the motherboard as to installation procedures and the order and necessity of each. I am sorry, but I haven't the time to walk you through it but if someone else does then great. I do, however, think that you doing it yourself is a great learning experience unless this is the only computer you're ever going to build.

    By the way, who built it in the first place? Maybe you could get them to help first hand instead of posting and waiting for an answer? I'm not trying to be flippant, however it would seem the quicker way to go.

    Remenber, when I suggested you start from the beginning, I meant all the way back to unpacking the board and installing it in the case. There's always the possibility of something shorting out that can be remedied by a complete reinstall.

    Flint
  • edited August 2008
    Ok, First I updated all the drivers, except the vid card. But no luck

    Then I took everything out, including motherboard, and installed just the motherbaord, CPU, RAM, Video card, H/D and the PCI cards. I also reset the BIOS. When I loaded windows the slots still didn't work. :mad:

    I then tried to reinstall windows by pressing F6 for RAID drivers etc.....which gave me a message saying something like "setup cannot load device" or something. And it told me to put a disk inside drive A. I didn't get any disc or floppy with my Hard drive, and I don't even have a floppy drive.

    PS...I was the one that built this computer.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    After all that and your PCI slots still don't work. It seems your motherboard has become defective.
  • edited September 2008
    Hello everyone :)

    Since the motherboard was defective, I sent it to ASUS for repair and I just recieved it today. The onboard sound which wasn't working has been fixed (so no need for sound cards)...and I think the PCI slots work now as well.

    But there's one problem :tongue: Ok, before I did anything, i uninstalled all the drivers and re-installed every driver, because there seemded to be alot of new hardware being found. I still had one issue in device manager that didn't get resolved....which was the "RAID Controller". That is still unresolved ATM.

    Then I added my wireless card. Device manager detected my wireless card as "Ethernet Controller" under "Other Devices" with a yellow question mark.I installed the drivers for the card, and restarted my computer, but that didn't seemed to have any affect.

    Now here is the strange thing. When I double click "Ethernet Controller" the window that pops up is saying that the card is installed on PCI Slot 2...when its in PCI slot 1. And the "Raid Controller" is in PCI Slot 5 :confused:

    I tried putting the wireless card in pci slot 2, and it showed that its in PCI Slot 3 in device manager. If i put it in PCI Slot 3...it tells me that its in 4. But I only have 3 PCI Slots. Maybe this is why the card isn't working. Also PCI probe is telling the correct information, if i put my card in Slot 1, it shows that Slot 1 is in use.

    Here is a screenshot showing detailed information about device manager, and PC Probe (My card was installed on PCI slot 1):

    devicemanageryo8.th.jpg

    Thanks again for your help!
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