Pci-e locks (rant, Asus!)

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Keljian

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
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So it happened today.

When pulling a Vega out of my prime x370 pro mobo, because the pci-e lock wouldn't disengage without excessive force, I slipped and smashed up my 512gig Samsung 950 pro.

Tore off the lock too. Tempted to do the same with the others on the board on purpose.

I'm all for the idea of locks, makes sense, but make them less risky to disengage!
/Rant
 
Sorry to hear that, OP! That really blows. I also feel like that lock's value is dubious.
 
I usually use a pair of chopsticks, but yeah ruler sounds like a much better idea lol.
 
Plastic would have bent and broken under the pressure I had to use. It really was obscene. And a pencil would have done the same to the board (even with the eraser - those nvme sticks are thin!)
 
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Yeah I've done this at least once and almost done it many more times- it's especially problematic with full-size GPUs.

And I get why we have them: the spec is designed for the system to reasonably survive shipping with a full-size PCIe card installed, and that little plastic tab provides a whole lot of insurance for not much cost.

Not really going to affect a system that is already in an end-user's hands, unless of course they move the system often :).
 
Keljian said:
Plastic would have bent and broken under the pressure I had to use. It really was obscene.
Click to expand...

This gives me the impression that there may have been some other stressor on the GPU; the retainers, whatever the design, really shouldn't require much pressure. Just an impression, though, as it absolutely could have just been poorly designed/implemented ;).
 
They do serve a purpose, besides transport, many times the case is slightly bent, or just not perfect, without the lock tab the card can come out of the slot and cause instability when screwed in.

I'm not sure why OP had to use that much force. Was it still screwed in?
 
Keljian said:
So it happened today.

When pulling a Vega out of my prime x370 pro mobo, because the pci-e lock wouldn't disengage without excessive force, I slipped and smashed up my 512gig Samsung 950 pro.

Tore off the lock too.
Click to expand...

The only object that deserves to be ranted at is yourself. We've all been there, Suck it up and deal with it.
 
may i suggest

Finglonger_preview_featured.jpg


the finglonger?
 
Dougie said:
I'm not sure why OP had to use that much force. Was it still screwed in?
Click to expand...

I'm unsure as to why also - card was not screwed in.. (first thing I checked!). https://www.asus.com/au/Motherboards/PRIME-X370-PRO/ is the motherboard, the locks are shown on that page.

Getting Nvidia cards in and out of the board has been substantially easier than the Vega cards. That said, other boards i've had the exact same vega cards in have not had issues.

I've been building computers for about 30 years.. I'm not a newb when it comes to this stuff. Only thing I can put it down to is a manufacturing fault with the particular unit I have, or a problem with the locks specifically with vega cards.
 
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The locks on my old ass MSI X58 are also funky. It is my belief (can't see it, too old), that even though you have the lock depressed, if you try to slide it up at an angle, that the tabs on the card are still grabbing the edge of the retracted lock.

They need to be pulled straight up or the back pulled up some first.

I learned the pencil trick after trying to get my paw down between my giant air cooler with 2 fans and the permanent full length drive cage that runs down behind the PCIe slots. Not sure who they thought would be able to unlock those bad boys, except maybe the child laborers who assembled them. /s
 
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