What is the Problem

 My graphics card does not work in the PCIe 16x slot.


System Components

 COOLER MASTER Storm Enforcer SGC-1000-KWN1 Black SECC / ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

 GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard (Model:GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3)

 EVGA 02G-P3-1568-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (Model:02G-P3-1568-KR)

 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS600-PCARE3-US 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply (Model:RS600-PCARE3-US)
 
 Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K (Model:BX80623I52500K)

 G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL (Model:F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL)

 Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (Model:ST500DM002) 

 Windows 7 64-bit Home Edition OEM

Description

My 12 year old son and I decided to build our first computer for Christmas.
After several problems (all user related ;-)), we got our system up an running
with exception of the video card when it is placed in the PCIe 16x slot. If I boot
the system with the video card in the 16x slot, the monitor is black.
Here is a list of things I’ve done to diagnose and fix the problem.

  . Boot the system with the video card.
      The video monitor is black, but the system appears to post (i.e. I get the post beep.).


  . Removed the mother board to make sure it wasn’t short circuiting (i.e. no extra standoffs).
    No change.

  . Made sure all the power wires are connected securely (reconnect and reboot a couple of times to make sure).
    No change.

  . Disconnect the hard drive so  the system will POST but not start up Windows.
      I wanted to take Windows and any of its drivers out of the testing.

  . In BIOS setup, set “Load Optimized Defaults”, set “Init Display First” to PCIe 16x, save, exit, and reboot.
    No change.

  . Boot the system without the video card installed (i.e. use the mother board’s built in video).
      This works just fine. No problems with the video.

  . Go into the BIOS setup and check the system health.
      All looks good. The system recognizes the memory (8 Gig), etc.


Re-install the video card (do this a couple of times to make sure it is seated correctly).
No Change.

  . Shut the system down. clear the CMOS using the jumper on the mother board.
    Restart the system. Do the clear and restart a couple of times. No change.

  . Even though the BIOS setup recognizes the memory, try booting with just one stick.
     Try a couple of times with each stick. No change.

  . Try installing the video card in the PCIe 8x slot.
     IT WORKS! So, it must be a problem with the PCIe 16x slot, right? Keep reading....

  . Try another video card (a ATI 6450 from another machine) in the 16x slot.
     It WORKS! So, looks like the 16x slot works. So maybe it is the video card problem
     when it is in a 16x slot? Read on....

  . Try putting the new video card in an older computer (a DELL which had the ATI 6450 from above).
    The old system has a 16x slot on the mother board.
    IT WORKS! So, the video card is ok?

  . Maybe it is a power supply problem to the video card. Try the new power supply on the old DELL system
    with the new video card.
    IT WORKS! So, not a power supply problem.


Summary.

Looks like the 16x slot works with the ATI 6450 card, but not with the new video card.
The new video card seems to work fine in another mother board’s 16x slot, and works
fine in the new mother board in the 8x slot.

Conclusion.

  I don’t know? It seem like both the video card an mother board work, but not in the 16x slot.

What else to do?

  I could try re-flashing the BIOS. That is a bit scary, but maybe I should do it?

It is not clear whether you are starting up with the monitor attached to the onboard video or the new video card. I do believe you need to start up with the video card installed but connect to the onboard video first. Load the nvidia drivers and restart. After restart you likely would need to go into the device manager and disable the onboard video. After disabling the onboard, shut down and change the monitor connector to the new card and start up. this should fix it. The onboard video doesn't play well with others. You have to force it off. Had to deal with it on a Dell.
 
Good luck

Sorry I was not clear enough. When I say it is not working, I'm plugging in the monitor to the
new video card.
 
The Evga GTX 560 Ti driver installer gives an error saying I do not have the correct hardware.
It appears to not recognize the video card when it is in the 16x slot. The new video card
works find in the 8x slot. Perhaps I could put it in the 8x slot, install the drivers, put it in
the 16x slot. Would that work?
 
 

Like I stated, i believe you need to disable the on board video or you will continue to have problems. Plug in to the onboard video in order to do this. You nust have the video card installed, but do not plug monitor into yet.