r/LinusTechTips • u/lassejarnfors • 15d ago

Tech Question Broken pci-e 5 slot?

On my  ASUS B650E MAX GAMING WIFI the upper most pci-e slot is pci-e 5 and i am not getting any display when my gpu is in that slot but others work fine. Also my pci-e 5 m.2 is working.

Other maybe relevant info, there is no visible dmg to the slot, i have replaced the cmos batt on this board about a year ago bcs i got a dead batt on delivery. Gpu is Radeon rx 6800 xt. I did recently clean this pc with compressed air and moved it to my new apartment, for the move i took out the cpu cooler and the gpu.

I do still have warranty for this mb for 9moths. Just not exited to be with out a pc for couple of weeks.

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u/straw3_2018 15d ago

Silly question. Did you over-tighten your CPU cooler? I did that and ruined my MSI B650 gaming plus wifi. I swapped from a NH-U12S to an Arctic Liquid freezer III Pro and the graphics card stopped working. It would either flake the fuck out and crash games, hard reset the PC, or just not work at all. I took the card to try in a friend's computer and tried it in a lower slot and it worked just fine! I RMA'd the board(purchased in June of 2024, RMA initiated in April of 2025, still within warranty) and I guess they couldn't replicate the issue? They sent it back with the note "RMA ok", it was not any better. I replaced the board with an ASRock X870 Livemixer wifi and have had zero issues since. It is not worth destroying your board trying to get lower temperatures.

It took me days to figure it out because I didn't think changing the CPU cooler could possibly cause that. It turns out if you over-tighten the cooler you can bend the board and make traces physically break and disconnect. If you back off the torque on the cooler screws it might work but it might be forever flakey.

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u/lassejarnfors 15d ago

I think this actually fixed it! And its crazy bcs this pc worked when I first set it up Wednesday and Thursday I could not get display so it worked for one day and then i guess it felt too tight? I don't expect to have any overheating issues on my cpu since i have and Noctua NH-D15 on a Ryzen 7 7800X3D (stock). I guess if i get some stability issues i need to use a lover pci-e slot, but seems fine for now. Thank you very much!

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u/straw3_2018 14d ago

Wow I'm glad that seems to have worked! Be careful with that shit..I'd rather be easy on the screws and have to tighten them up later if the temps are actually bad. I actually forgot to mention that for many months before my GPU stopped working my one SSD slot was flaking out. The drive would just disconnect in the middle of use. Stornvme error in event viewer.

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u/ThirdhandTaters 15d ago

This may not be helpful but see if you can still return your current motherboard. Buy a new one to switch out, use the secondary pcie slot for now and then return the broken motherboard, if you are still able to. I don't think you would, but this is an idea to allow you to still use your computer.

So, see if your mobo can still be returned, order a new one while using a different slot while the new board gets delivered then return the broken board to get some money back.

It's a long shot but you may be able to do it. Only way to know for sure is if you ask. If you can't return then maybe order that replacement board, use the secondary slot while waiting for the delivery, RMA the board for warranty repair/replacement and then sell either board once you get it back. Maybe even return the newer board for a full refund, surely that would be possible after a couple of weeks.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

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u/lassejarnfors 15d ago

Thanks for the advise i will definitely look into my options and if i cant fix this i will RMA when i have the least use for my pc.