Asus Z87 Pro problems...could it be faulty?

[northspoon]

I am a newbie here and I have an problem with my Asus Z87 Pro.

This is my new build:

Asus Z87 Pro
i7 4770K CPU
16 GB Corsair 1333 RAM
MSI GTX 660 VGA
Windows 7 x64 Pro
Samsung evo Pro SSD 256 GB
WD Black 2 TB

I have built PCs before but this problem is beating me.

I use the PC for video editing which needs a VGA card for FX realtime viewing and the Intel GPU for Quicksync HD encoding.

I can get the system to run with either GPU working, but not both together. Windows won't load if I try and the monitor is blank. I have tried using different PCie slots.

In BIOS I have set PCIe as primary and enabled iGPU multi monitor. I have connected both graphic outputs using DVI and in Windows 7 I have set the displays to extend desktop.

This is a new build with the latest BIOS and Windows updates and drivers. I have also run Memtest. I have also checked in Device Manager for error messages relating to drivers.

I have contacted Asus support who are not much help. They thought it might be a faulty MB, but I am not sure, so don't want to RMA it without reason.

I did RMA my original choice of graphics card, an MSI R9 270X. I could not get that to work at all. I got a BIOS error message about Thunderbolt resources being exceeded and to turn off unused controllers in BIOS. Well this MB doesn't have Thunderbolt. I got it to work briefly but Windows just kept locking up and crashing, needing a hard reset.


I have not taken the whole thing apart yet to check on bent CPU pins, but everything seems to run well if I am only using the one GPU.

I am not sure if there is a hardware fault somewhere or something I need to change in Windows or BIOS.

Has anyone else got the Asus Z87 Pro to work with the Intel and dedicated graphics cards?

[northspoon]

UPDATE:

Just to update my previous post.....I have now re-installed Windows 7 again, but this time I have removed the MSI GTX 660 and re-installed it.

I managed to get both the Intel 4600 GPU and the GTX working, but only by disabling Bluetooth and LAN controllers in BOIS.

Surely that can't be necessary, can it?

[AndrewPoole]

Reminds me of the old IRQ (interrupts) conflicts.

It's been quite a while since I have seen them, especially with USB devices now.

The resolution would be to change the IRQ number in the BIOS of the conflicted devices. See if there is a way to change the IRQ numbers for the Bluetooth and LAN controller and experiment with different numbers to resolve the matter.

[liammcd]

It's more likely to be a conflict with PCI Express channels.

The onboard Bluetooth and LAN controllers will use a PCIe lane each and that could interfere with one of a pair of GPUs if the board is not very well architected.

[northspoon]

Well on advice from Asus tech support, I have RMAd the motherboard. Just hope it solves the issue. Surely it should not be necessary to disable things in BIOS just to get the graphics working? I purchased the motherboard after reading reviews and thought that onboard Bluetooth and Wi-Fi might be useful. Nobody said it would be a problem.

I made a system image file yesterday to an external USB 3 hard drive. It took over 6 hours to back up 700 GB. That is slow.

Not sure if there is any IRQ issues because Device Manager says there are no conflicts on those devices...is that info reliable?

Don't think I have much choice in setting either IRQs or PCI Express channels in the BIOS.

If I need to choose another Z87 board, does anyone have any favorites?

[liammcd]

IRQ clashes disappeared with modern OSes years ago.

Channel allocation for the PCIe spectrum is a feature of the chipset. There is a restricted number of channels available from the controller, which is why a single GPU will use 16 channels, but a dual GPU setup will usually have both running 8 channels each.

I don't think you can 'fiddle' with PCIe channels manually in the way that we used to have to do with IRQs.

It may be that the board has reserved PCIe channels for slots that you don't use, so you could have tried disabling these.

However, the manufacturer's own support team should know the board and its capabilities better than anyone else (in theory) so I bow to their suggestion.

[northspoon]

It seems it was a faulty motherboard. I RMAd the Asus Z87 Pro and today fitted the replacement. All working fine now

[liammcd]

Well done.

Thanks for letting us know.