Only one PCI slot working; southbridge is shot? GA-7VRX

[CloudsShinji]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can give me a little advice here.

Yesterday, my roommate came home to find out that his PCI cards (Audigy, NIC) were not being detected in WinXP. Rebooting did nothing, so we reinserted the cards into various different slots, but to no avail. The cards work in other computers, we've tested that, but they just aren't detected in his computer.

What is strange, though, is that the uppermost PCI slot does work. Either of the cards will work perfectly in this slot, but will simply not be detected in any other slots. Also strange is that the on-board audio provided by the VIA 8233A southbridge does not work, either. I was hoping he could use the LAN card in the operative slot and then the on-board audio, to at least give his comp general functionality, but that just doesn't want to work either.

The USB ports DO work, though, so I'm not sure if I should place the blame on the southbrige here, or what.

As I mentioned in the title, it's a Gigabyte GA-7VRX, but here are the rest of the specs:

2200+
GA-7VRX
1 GB DDR333 (generic)
Radeon 8500
Audigy
D-Link NIC
WD 80GB SE x2


He's had this comp for about 2.5 months now, and we put it together ourselves with no issues up to this point. The only, ONLY thing we can think of is that an electrician was here yesterday looking at the furnace, and he flipped a breaker that may have cut power to the computer. But, the comp is plugged into a surge protector, so I don't know if this would cause a problem or not.


Anyways, I was wondering if anyone has heard of anything like this? I guess it will probably boil down to having to get a new mobo, but still, I would like to hear your thoughts on this issue, even if just for interest and learning's sake.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Peter]

Nah, the PCI slots are all on the same PCI bus, so if the PCI controller (the south bridge in your case) were toast, none would work.

Non-working slots happen with physically damaged mainboards, and also when people put a subtly wrong BIOS from a similar mainbaord into theirs. You want to check on that.

regards, Peter

 

[CloudsShinji]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks for replying.

Perhaps I will try to flash the BIOS, and see if it does anything.

 

[CloudsShinji]

Well, flashing the BIOS had no effect, unfortunately.


One strange thing I neglected to make clear about the on-board audio is that once it is enabled in the BIOS, Windows will detect it, and drivers can be installed for it, but no sound can be heard at all, and we've tried a couple speaker sets, headphones, etc.


It's just so strange that this all happened so suddenly!

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

strange stuff happens with computers
sometimes it just doesnt make sense

 

[CloudsShinji]

Yeah... so true.



(I'm just really happy this isn't MY comp.)

 

[Samsonid]

Same thing is happening to me.

A card was installed on PCI slot3 and has been working fine for months.

-Now it cannot be detected by Windows. If I instal it on PCI slot4 it works fine (then back to PCI3.....nothing)

Something must have happened while migrating the system to a new case. Still trying too figure it out.
The card was going in a little snag (on PCI3). The front of the card seems to need an extra 0.5mm to fit smoothly against the PCI openning of the case. Maybe if I loosen the motherboard screws and give it the extra room...

Just thinking out loud.

 

[Samsonid]

If I instal it on PCI slot4 it works fine (then back to PCI3.....nothing)

It's OK now. After loosening the screws of the motherboard, reinserting the card on slot3 and reinstalling the drivers for that card, now it WORKS ! yeeeha !