Maximus VIII Hero PCI-E 16x broken?

jj9987 · June 13, 2016

So I got this ASUS Maximus VIII Hero motherboard with i7-6700k in it. The motherboard was bought used, but from a local reputable seller. I went in the BIOS to configure it and then prepare for Windows install (no OS is installed so no driver issue here). I also threw in my 980Ti in the top 16x slot, but BIOS Graphics Information shows "No VGA Card" in that slot. When I slide the card into the 2nd 16x slot (with 8x electrical), it does detect it as NVIDIA GPU. The lights as well as fans turn on as normal in both slots. Power plugs were attached properly in all cases.

Now, I have tried to reflash BIOS, reset CMOS (via button as well as battery), tried different RAM, different power supplies. The GPU is working and functional, just tested it in another system as well and works fine there.

However, when I took out the CPU, I noticed a few bent pins in the socket. While I tried to carefully bend them back (broke none), some were not perfectly aligned as well as others.

My question here is, which is the most likely cause? Slightly bent pins in the socket or is the actual PCI Express slot damaged? Or do you have any other ideas what I could try?