Digitrax

It's a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS Ultra. There are line drivers between the first and second PCIe slots, but the traces run to/from them on an interior PCB layer, so there's no way to tell visually.

"Yea mobo is shot Just buy a replacement board" Somerandomtechboi, you seem pretty sure about that. Are you saying you'll reimburse me if I buy a new Mobo and it turns out to be the PCIe lanes in the CPU instead?

TrigrH, you're clearly confused. If the answer to the second question is "no", then the answer to the third is also "no" and the answer to the first would then be "yes". There is no damage to the slot or PCB traces since only (<2mA) PCIe signal traces got shorted - not enough current to cause damage to slot pins or PCB traces! There is either a buffer, mux chip, or redriver buffering the CPUs PCIe signals (and isolating the CPU lanes from the physical slot) and the MoBo is at fault, or there is not, and the upper PCIe lanes of the CPU itself are dead. You can't have a "no", "no", "yes" scenario in this instance, since there would be nothing to isolate the HSOp(12), HSOn(12), and HSOp(13) signals from the lane 12 GNDs – (the pins that were briefly shorted by a foreign piece of metal falling on them) – from the CPU if there are no buffers or redrivers on the CPU's PCIe lanes. BTW, there is no way of running Slot 1 as a ×8 in BIOS, nor are any other slots able to be used for a GPU since there is no Xfire/Sli support, but the purpose of my post wasn't to find "a PCIe to use", as I could just run a ×8 card in Slot 1 (or use a ×16 card by isolating the last 8 channels with Kapton tape). It was to determine what to replace.

So, during the installation of a new (now-dead) GPU, a small piece of metal shorted across five pins on one side of the GPU's PCIe slot, killing the GPU and causing any other GPUs I try to install (except for a couple that are PCIe×8, designed for server use) to bring up the "D6" error code ("No display device found") on the MoBo's POST code display. My question: Since the PCI lanes for (the GPU) Slot 1 are sourced directly from the CPU (and not through the chipset), does the problem lie within the processor, or is there a buffer/interface chip between the CPU's PCIe lanes and Slot 1 (such that the problem lies with the MoBo)? If anyone knows, please respond. (No "guesses", please).

From you article: "I'll be frank here. I have no idea what SG or DG means..." "SG" is "Same Group" (meaning the same memory page) "DG" is "Different Group" (the same way that "DR" is "Different Rank" and "DD" is "Different DIMM") Thoroughly enjoyed your guide, though.

Could you please tell me the make and model of that case? I have the exact same one and have been trying to identify it for years. — (I'd like to buy another to have a matched pair). Thanks!