Computer Slows Down When VGA Card Installed

[Roman2179]

So as the title says whenever I have a video card in the PCIe slot, the system slows down to an absolute crawl. It even slows down the windows install.

Specs are as follows:
Supermicro PDSBA
Xeon X3220
Corsair XMS 4x2GB
Asus GTX660

Things I have I tried:
-New PSU
-Different video card
-Clean windows installation
-Onboard video is disabled in BIOS along with everything else I don't need
-Cleared the BIOS

At this point I am completely out of ideas. I might try flashing the BIOS next but I'm not sure there's a point since I already have the newest BIOS.

Does anyone have any other things that I could try? At this point, I'm about 95% sure that it's the motherboard.

I guess I should probably try installing linux to see if it behaves the same way as windows.

So, ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Roman

P.S. That video card will be a carryover to a new system, it was replacement for a card that had blown caps. The previous card worked without any issues.

EDIT: After the "Intel(R) P965/G965 PCI Express Root Port - 29A1" driver is installed, I can no longer boot into windows. It hangs at the logon screen where the mouse appears on the black screen. I can't do anything from there but push the shift key five times to get the "Sticky Keys" dialog box or put the computer to sleep.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Can you try a different slot for the GPU?

My first thought was the GPU slot is on the fritz, essentially motherboard problems.

 

[Roman2179]

Unfortunately that board only has one PCIe x16 slot.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Hmm, i'm going to still say it's the MB. But are you installing an upgraded or new OS? Like going from XP to Win7 ? Try to update the bios, not clear..

 

[cmdrdredd]

The board has a Intel Q965 NB which runs PCIe 1.1. It may require a BIOS update to function properly with PCIe 3.0 cards. Some motherboards with sub PCIe 2.0 support won't function properly. It's BIOS specific if I recall. My previous Abit IP35-Pro with a P35 chipset required a beta bios to work with a GTX 670. The board you have may not have any further BIOS support being done with it.

What video cards have you tried? Have you tried any PCIe 2.0 or earlier cards?

 

[Roman2179]

I have tried a GTX660, GT610 and the old card was a 7600 GTS.

The GTS 7600 worked without any issues. The PCIe difference would actually make a lot of sense.

I guess I'll have to hunt down a floppy drive and try updating the BIOS.

Edit: The GT610 was a 2.0 card.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I have tried a GTX660, GT610 and the old card was a 7600 GTS.

The GTS 7600 worked without any issues. The PCIe difference would actually make a lot of sense.

I guess I'll have to hunt down a floppy drive and try updating the BIOS.

Edit: The GT610 was a 2.0 card.

Yeah it is the most logical conclusion based on what info you have given. PCIe revision support

 

[Roman2179]

So much for backwards compatibility. I was going to start a new build eventually, I was just hoping it would be about 3 months from now. Oh well, guess I'll build sooner rather than later.

I think I'm just going to sell off the mobo, CPU and RAM to help partially fund the new system.

Thanks for all of your help, everyone!

EDIT: Not going to risk flashing the BIOS since I want to be able to sell it as "not bricked." Would make a decent backup server for someone.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm thinking the guys at SuperMicro just didn't update the bios to support later PCIe cards < 1.1 (poor motherboard support), I wouldn't completely say it was a backwards compatibility issue. I could be wrong though. But Good Luck

 

[Roman2179]

Maybe I'll be able to sell the CPU, RAM, and mobo and get enough to buy some ram for a new build. One can only hope. haha

 

[Roman2179]

As a quick update, I flashed the BIOS and at least now it boots into windows consistently albeit really slowly. So it seems it is an issue of the PCIe slot and the card not being able to agree on the speed. The slowness is probably because, for whatever reason, the CPU is at about 100%, no idea why. Almost seems like all of the graphics work is being passed off to the CPU.

Either way, I'm selling off this hardware as a way to partially fund a new build. Was hoping to hold off on another build for a little while since I put my ESXi box together not too long ago but I guess I'm starting it earlier than I planned. A laptop got me through college but I can't leave that thing crunching away on graphics for days on end. Definitely one of the times I miss having lab computers and using them as a small render farm in the evenings.

Maybe somebody will build a cheap backup file server out of this.

 

[tweakboy]

Maybe the CPU and PCIe are not playing nice with eachother.