Question Case PCI-E slot screw holes don't line up with GPU's bracket screw holes: Could this be the reason for the issue I'm having?

[Dave3000]

My primary system has a Fractal Design 7 Compact case. I noticed that after I insert my RTX 4090 Founder's Edition GPU into the PCI-E slot, all 3 screw holes of the GPU's bracket don't line up with the PCI-E slot screw holes of the case. It's off by about 1 mm, which makes it impossible to screw in the screws into those screw holes. The only workaround I found was to put pressure towards the front in the back of the case with my left hand while I prevent the case from moving by putting my right knee against the front of the case, then finally I can get the screw holes to lines up with the bracket screw holes of the GPU. However, it concerns me that I may be damaging my GPU with this work around because the back of the case where I put the foward pressure to get the screw holes lined up might be trying to go back to it's natural position while the GPU is installed even though it's now screwed into the case and may be causing this issue that I'm going to mention in the next paragraph.

The issue I'm having, ever since switching to this case for my primary system, was while loading Flight Simulator 2020, it would sometimes exit out to the desktop interface. Additionally, when flying in X-Plane 12, in the Zibo 737, it would just exit out on me back to the desktop interface. This is in Windows 11. No error messages, no warnings, just exits out of those games on a random basis and this didn't happen with this system installed in the old case, which now my secondary system is using. Can that workaround to get my GPU lined up with the screw holes of the case, have anything to do with this? Maybe there is a slight backward tugging to the card as the back of the case is resisting that forced position, trying to get back to it's natural position, possibly slightly shifting the GPU in the process, while I was playing those games?

 

[bba_tcg]

Maybe. Take the screw(s) out to see what happens.

 

[Dave3000]

Maybe. Take the screw(s) out to see what happens.

I unscrewed the GPU from the case and the back of the case reverted back to it's original position from the release of pressure, which also means that the screw holes were once again not lined up with the screw holes the the GPU's bracket. Also I'm not going to use this system while the GPU is not screwed into the case, especially if it's a heavy GPU.

 

[bba_tcg]

I unscrewed the GPU from the case and the back of the case reverted back to it's original position from the release of pressure, which also means that the screw holes were once again not lined up with the screw holes the the GPU's bracket. Also I'm not going to use this system while the GPU is not screwed into the case, especially if it's a heavy GPU.

Lay it on its side and see if it works without doing what it was with it screwed down. If it does, then either get a different case or bend the back of that one in far enough the screws go in without any further contortions.

 

[Dave3000]

That can take days, maybe weeks for the problem to crop up again, and I don't want a bulky case laying horizontally on my bedroom floor that whole time. Besides, when I had this system in my old case which had no alignment issues with this card, I didn't experience this issue. Maybe I should swap cases around again between the systems. My secondary system does not have a dedicated GPU and just using the onboard GPU, therefore, I did not experience the alignment screw holes issue since there would be no GPU to install for that system, and didn't even know that case had that defect until I used that case for my primary system which has a dedicated GPU.