Graphics/System Instability due to case? Antec-900

[Napoleon]

I have noticed that the PCI express slot mounting screws and the case do not exactly line up. In the past I have 'forced it' which has the effect of letting me screw the card into place but shifts it withing the PCI-express slot.

Graphics Card - will screw in but shifts within PCIexpress slot
Lan card - I couldn't even use several of the ports because when I screwed it down it would pull some pins out of the PCI slot.

In a last ditch effort to bring about stability, I unscrewed my Radeon 5850 and set the case flat on the desk to take the pressure off. So far I've been running prime95 without a hitch for over an hour.

Has anyone else run into this?
Should I ever try to screw it down?
Should I mod the video card so I can tighten the screws?
I trusted Antec in the past; are there cases with better dimensions/squareness?

I was debating zip-tiing it in place, I think the main point of screwing down the card is to take pressure off the PCI express slot.

Check out pics:
radeonscrews2.JPG
radeonscrews1.JPG

 

[Napoleon]

just finished 8 hours prime95

Next question:

1. Do I mod the video card to not flex the mobo/PCI bus when I screw down the baseplate or
2. do I screw down the baseplate to flex it and retest?

Please help!

 

[c3k]

Pix would help.

At a guess, I would check your mobo standoffs first. There are differences.

 

[Napoleon]

Did the above pic links not work? The mobo is installed in the correct standoffs, there is a

Pic1: pci_alignment1.JPG
Pic2: pci_alignment2.JPG

Right now i've opted to use a zip tie to provide some support for the card to avoid either flexing the mobo or pulling the pins out of the pci-expres slot. My wifi card seems to be OK and shifts around a decent amount. After establishing stability, I have not screwed the GPU back into the back plate of the case

 

[c3k]

Okay...it seems like the mobo and case are both aligned to the back edge of the case correctly. That's good.

It seems like the height of the cards and the height of the case are correct, at the back. I.e., the card brackets don't "gap" above the case.

The problem seems to be that there is an angle between the cards and the case. Assume the case is built correctly. (Easily checked with a speed square and/or a tape measure.) Assume the motherboard isn't warped and the PCIe slots are correctly installed. Assume the add-in cards are also built correctly. If all those are correct, then the only answer is that the motherboard is not installed parallel with the case "bottom". ("Bottom" meaning the side of the case with the mobo standoffs.)

I still HIGHLY recommend pulling all the standoffs out of the case and lining them up: I have several different height standoffs, sourced from different vendors. It can happen.

If the standoffs are all equal, then the you've got a bad case. RMA.

Or, just live with it....

(Another solution would be to put a pair of clamps across (bar clamp style) the open face of the case and squeeze the case together. Don't use the add-in cards to hold the tension. Squeeze the case and make sure it holds the new position, THEN put in the cards. There shouldn't be any stress on the mounting screws.)

(The pix helped. Thanks.)

 

[Napoleon]

Thank you for your comments.

Here's some background which might help. The system was assembled in 2010, after some initial instability caused by a full plexi case w/o adequate grounding, the Antec 900 seemed to fix all issues. It ran without problems for a long time.

Recently I bought a 2560x1440 25" dell monitor which was the first that video artifacts appeared (previously I was running 1680x1050) ; additional instability was added due to inadequate thermal dissipation of the CPU (fixed). Symptoms would be the video drive would crash, vertical lines would appear, the cursor would fail to render or become mixed up upon alt+tab that caused resolution or 2D/3D switch. It felt like the card just couldn't handle the extra resolution.

During the rebuild I noticed the noted gap/misalignment (which i believe existed before, i just screwed it in and things seemed to work).

Post-rebuild and without the GPU screws forced into position, I ran prim95 for 10 hours this weekend, 8 hour at stock and 2 hours at 4.2ghz (auto voltages pretty high but adequate thermal control, 60's C load) , both passed with flying colors. As soon as I ran 3Dmark2011 the system became unstable upon completion. After this it crashed in BIOS with flickering screen and then went all black. This morning it booted and I ran at all stock voltages/frequencies. I played with the GPU fan speed and was able to run FURMARK to stress test it; temps appeared to be under control then the artifacts started, it became unstable, and restarted. After waiting a few minutes I was able to boot into windows. I played some Heroes of the Storm, pretty easy on the comp, and had google Chrome and HWMonitor open, among others. During alt+tabbing where the resolution needed to change, artifacts started to appear (mainly the cursor and some window distortion). The driver failed and then recovered, I was playing the game and at some point the screen when white/vertical lines, then black, recovered, then black again and i had to force shutdown.

Warranty isn't an option for any of my hardware; I suppose I'm willing to looking at changing out the standoffs (I'd need to research where to get as I'm not sure my case came with a different set), it's not like the Antec 900 wasn't a well regarded case at the time of the build.

I'd look into a new case prospectively, perhaps even a full tower. I'll also be more picky about the fit of the expansion cards on my next build (later this year). I was hoping I could get away with a high end graphics card as my only upgrade but until I isolate the instability everything is up in the air.

 

[primetime]

You realize your in the case section of course....but none of the crashing or video issues are related to the case. It sounds like your video card is on the way out is the main problem. It has nothing to do with your case - even though your cards are not lineing up perfect with the screw holes. (its kinda rare but does happen) have you tried putting card in different slots? If none of the other slots line up any better then i wouldn't loose any sleep over it - i have worked on buddies pcs that didn't line up well either. I would try focusing all your attention tot he video card --tr under clocking the card might help. Is it possible the gpu is over heating? I suspect the solder joints are going bad --and baking it might fixes this in many cases.

have you at least checked to see if all the stand offs are the same? Like c3k mentioned...i bet you find one or 2 are different sizes...and if this is the case you can take one out and just not use it....long as you have 4 even size standoffs you can get by...in many case 6 or more are used. take some pictures of your screen when its messed up. (bad v-ram will show up as horizontal lines as an example) should help us to better see if the cards going bad anyway

For what its worth me, my dad, and friend all have same case and i have not seen any issues....could have been a rare factory screwup