Have you guys ever had this happen to you?

[Protomize]

I have resorted to placing my Sapphire Dual X HD 7970 into the second PCIe slot on my motherboard because it would randomly disconnect from the 1st slot (causing loss of video and system responsiveness) due to its weight. The card is always secured into the PCIe brackets via two screws. The SATA cables is what keeps the card from drooping down and detaching from the 2nd PCIe port as you can see in the pic below. Is this a fault in my motherboard's PCIe retention clips or can this possibly happen if the weight of the card is this much?

 

[KingFatty]

Hmm, I was never able to pull out my video card when it was "clicked" in to engage that lever thing - it locks the card in.

Maybe your card was not fully seated in the top slot (is there dust in the slot) so you never got that "click" where the lever would engage and lock-in the card?

Are you able to reproduce this reliably in the top slot? Maybe use your cell phone to get a close-up picture to see what that lever extension is doing - maybe you can verify that it's not engaging as intended and see that your card is slightly crooked or not fully seated in the PCI-e slot?

If I pulled my card up I think it would break that lever if I didn't manually disengage it, so the weight of the card would not pull it out, because it's not heavy enough to overcome the strength of the lever to break it or otherwise cause it to disengage.

 

[Protomize]

Hmm, I was never able to pull out my video card when it was "clicked" in to engage that lever thing - it locks the card in.

Maybe your card was not fully seated in the top slot (is there dust in the slot) so you never got that "click" where the lever would engage and lock-in the card?

Are you able to reproduce this reliably in the top slot? Maybe use your cell phone to get a close-up picture to see what that lever extension is doing - maybe you can verify that it's not engaging as intended and see that your card is slightly crooked or not fully seated in the PCI-e slot?

If I pulled my card up I think it would break that lever if I didn't manually disengage it, so the weight of the card would not pull it out, because it's not heavy enough to overcome the strength of the lever to break it or otherwise cause it to disengage.

It's fully seated in the slot because it makes the same 'click' noise as it does in the 2nd PCIe slot. The 3rd PCIe slot has a more robust looking retention clip as opposed to the 1st and 2nd slot which baffles me. The motherboard is completely clean and free of dust as far as I can see. Also, I used to own a HD 7850 prior to this and it worked fine in the 1st PCIe slot for 7 months before I sold it to fund for an HD 7970. The HD 7970's PCB and custom cooler is noticeably heftier than the H.I.S IceQ X HD 7850 I had.

The first picture is of the retention clips for the 1st and 2nd PCIe slot. It looks like they would be effective at keeping the card from coming up and out of the slot, but not keeping the pins from slightly drooping down and losing connectivity like the retention clip on the 3rd PCIe slot would.

 

[lavaheadache]

are you saying that screws won't hold the card in place?

 

[Protomize]

are you saying that screws won't hold the card in place?

They hold it in place, but the disconnection seems to happen at the slight bend of the opposite end of the card near the PCIe power cables.

 

[Rvenger]

That is a known issue of the dual-x sapphire. The back end sags to the point where it loses connection with the contacts of the PCI-E slot. I bet the card is warped towards the end making the retention clip useless for the top slot. I had a dual-x 7970 and it was extremely warped.

This is what mine looked like... (I could only find the 7950 with extreme warpage in a review.)

http://legitreviews.com/article/1862/

 

[Protomize]

That is a known issue of the dual-x sapphire. The back end sags to the point where it loses connection with the contacts of the PCI-E slot. I bet the card is warped towards the end making the retention clip useless for the top slot. I had a dual-x 7970 and it was extremely warped.

This is what mine looked like... (I could only find the 7950 with extreme warpage in a review.)

http://legitreviews.com/article/1862/

The PCB itself isn't warped, it's just that the weight of the entire unit causes it to sag downwards like you've said and disconnects some of the pins from the PCIe slot.

 

[Eureka]

Which with heat and time could actually cause it to warp. If you got time and some hand skill, you could build a simple support out of acrylic.

 

[Annisman*]

They sell pcie video card supports, they look like mini car jacks, and could help you with your problem.

 

[Rvenger]

The PCB itself isn't warped, it's just that the weight of the entire unit causes it to sag downwards like you've said and disconnects some of the pins from the PCIe slot.

The heat + overtightening the support brackets and heatsinks + weight = warpage.

Mine was brand new and was badly warped.


Like Annisman said, get a support. Powercolor sells a power jack that could help... or get some zip ties and tie it to the case to lift it a little.

 

[Annisman*]

Out of the many cards I have owned though I have never had warping or a card dissconecting because weight. And I've owned some hefty cards, like the 9800gx2, 4870x2 (with accelero triple slot cooler) and 8800gtx with HR03 aftermarket. So I'm guessing your motherboard may be partly the culprit, maybe it isn't sturdy enough to cope.

 

[KingFatty]

So you can achieve electrical disconnection, even while the locking lever is still engaged/clicked-in and locking the card in?

I suppose that is possible, but it kind of defeats the purpose of the locking mechanism if it still can't prevent the card from electrically disconnecting even while still "locked" in. Since it locks the card at its base where the electrical connections are, I'm wondering if warpage would affect that, unless the warpage allows the card to unlock because the lock can't grab the tab?

That third slot looks like it has a much beefier locking mechanism.

 

[Dstoop]

So you can achieve electrical disconnection, even while the locking lever is still engaged/clicked-in and locking the card in?

I suppose that is possible, but it kind of defeats the purpose of the locking mechanism if it still can't prevent the card from electrically disconnecting even while still "locked" in. Since it locks the card at its base where the electrical connections are, I'm wondering if warpage would affect that, unless the warpage allows the card to unlock because the lock can't grab the tab?

That third slot looks like it has a much beefier locking mechanism.

Those tab locks only really work if you can assume the card is flat with little to no warping. The tab part of the PCB itself can be straight as an arrow, if the rest of the card is warped there's no guarantee that the tab is truly forcefully maintaining electrical contact, the only thing it guarantees is that the tab part is locked in place.

With how warped the card is in that review picture, i'd almost expect to have problems like this.