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I'm running Gigabyte Z87X-OC mb with Gigabyte R9 280X GPU's.

Am running 4 GPU's on each MB successfully under Windows 8 using 16x slots, half on powered 16x - 16x risers, half directly on the MB.

However, I am not having any luck running a GPU on the 1x slot using a 1x to 16x powered riser.  Have also tried using with and without the presence jumper.  Fans on this GPU spin up, but its not showing up in Windows Device manager or in CGMiner.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.


Will pay .025 BTC to the first person that can provide me a solution to utilize the 1x slot using my current hardware and Windows 8.

Found the solution (in case anyone else is running into the same problem).  Purchased USB Powered risers, and was able to use my 1x slot right away, no muss no fuss.  Now have 5 x 280X in each rig.

Are you sure your motherboard and chipset can handle it? Some disable pci-e slots when others are used. The fans would spin up since it gets power, but it will never be addressed by an OS due to hardware limitations of the motherboard.

But, I never got more than 4 280x cards working in windows. I went straight to linux. I use intel ivy bridge celerons though, and z77 chipsets...

Thanks for your reply, pontiacg5.  I contacted Gigabyte technical support and while they couldn't give me any specific help for this problem as they weren't familiar with the ins and outs of mining, they did seem to indicate that the 1x slot could be used concurrently with the 4 x 16x slots.  However, the mb manual makes no mention of this either way.

However to clarify, I have tried pulling out all other GPU's, and using just the 1x slot (so there would be no slot conflict) and I still can't see the GPU in that slot.  Have tried switching riser cables, trying powered and unpowered, jumpered and unjumpered, and have tried this on two different rigs. 

Anyway, any other suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

So you're already running 4 GPUs, and you want to add 5?

A few tips:

1) Are you running Windows 8 x32 or x64? Have you updated to 8.1? IIRC, 32 bit windows can't handle more than 4 GPUs.

2) Make sure your MotherBoard BIOS is up to date. The F6 BIOS for your board states "Improve PCIE-E compatibility" as a change.

3) Make sure that not only your GPU drivers are up to date, but also your chipset drivers. For you, I would recommend the 13.12 drivers, and then the latest Intel INF Utility, as well as IMEI. Both can be downloaded from Gigabyte's website for your motherboard.

4) Make sure that GPU that isn't showing up DOES show up in another slot. Aka make sure it's not a dead GPU.

5) Are you sure you shorted the right pins in the presence mod? I prefer those PCIe risers that use USB 3.0 cables, as they have a built in presence mod built in. Never have to worry about it.

6) Disable anything in the BIOS you don't need. Audio, Firewire, Secondary SATA, etc.

7) Start with only one GPU, and add the rest one at a time.

If you've done all of those, and are still having issues, than post back and we'll see.

How did you hook up the jumper?

I would recommend the guide below (Scroll to the bottom):

http://www.gobitgo.com/articles/1001/How-To-Correctly-Use-and-Install-PCI-E-Riser-Cables/

Good luck!

FWIW, when I was playing with windows 7 and 6 280x cards I could always see them in device manager, but they were flagged out with error 43 IIRC? If it's not showing up at all I'd say the jump isn't right as parat8t9 seems to be thinking as well.