Knackered PCI slot on A8N-SLI?

[A1bert]

I've just tried installing my brand new and rather lovely Creative X-Fi Platinum soundcard on the bottom PCI slot on my Asus A8N-SLI (standard) mobo. While it seemed to work I started getting short lockups and freezes with the CPU going hell for leather when it shouldn't be. I had a look on Sysinternal's Process Explorer and sure enough about 50 per cent of the CPU's activity is dealing with Hardware interrupts and DPCs.

I'd had a similar problem when I installed my PCI wifi card with the machine when I built it about nine months ago. At the time a friend had told me it was probably poorly seated so I had tried it in another PCI slot (the second one from the bottom) and it worked fine.

Anyway, I've just moved my X-Fi to the top slot and sure enough the problem is solved.

But the real difficulty is that I intend to stick another 6800GT in alongside my current one and I need the top slot free so I can install a proper cooler on the graphics card.

So, is my bottom PCI card slot knackered? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

If it is borked, can I get Asus to replace it? I've replaced the comedy northbridge fan with a Swiftech, has that shafted my warranty?

Anyway, all help, advice and ideas appreciated.

 

[Megatomic]

No, it's not borked, there is a known firmware conflict between the original X-Fi cards and NF4 motherboards. Some mobos have had updated BIOS files released that fix it. For those that don't, Creative is offering to swap the X-Fi out for a new one that has updated firmware loaded on it.

Luckily your motherboard needed neither for the card to work properly. I'd keep on the lookout for an updated BIOS from ASUS that will improve the card's compatability with your system.

 

[A1bert]

But why does the soundcard work in the top slot and not the bottom one?

 

[Megatomic]

Probably an IRQ issue. Back in the old days, AGP days that is, you were instructed to NOT use the top PCI slot as it was shared with the AGP slot. Perhaps the bottom slot on your mobo shares the same IRQ as the PCI-e slots. I really don't know, that's just some speculation...