If you have tried to start up your computer and it boots into Windows, only to immediately power down and ask you to connect PCIe, then you likely have a malfunctioning or misconfigured PCIe slot in your motherboard. The PCIe error is a GPU and motherboard-related error, but a lot of people don’t know how to solve it. The good news is that fixing the power down and connect PCIe problem is an easy process, which we are going to discuss in this article.
What Is the PCIe error?
If your graphics card is not turning on, or if you’re getting a Please Power Down and Connect PCIe Power Cable error message when you boot up your computer, it may be because of a loose or disconnected power cable. You can easily fix this by connecting a PCI Express power cable to the graphics card.
There can be a couple more reasons as well. Like if your GPU is not getting a sufficient amount of power according to its requirements or if you have been using your PCIe lane for a long time and it got dirty. There are some simple reasons why you are getting the error message. And you can easily solve these issues at home without any professional help.
Please Power Down and Connect The Pcie Power Cables For This Graphics Card-(Fixes)
Fix USB Ports First
There is a good chance that the USB ports on your computer are not being detected because they need to be reset. You can do it by unplugging the USB cables from your computer, waiting for about 20 seconds, then plugging them back in. If this doesn’t work, then you will need to reset them from the device manager.
Open the windows start menu, type Device Manager in the search bar, and click Device Manager when it pops up. Next, find Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Click USB Root Hub (xHCI). Finally, click Properties, go to the Power Management tab, uncheck Allow computer to turn off this device to save power, then hit OK and restart your machine.
Try Another Graphics Card
Sometimes it’s your GPU, due to which this issue is occurring. You can try changing or replacing your GPU if no other solution seems to work for you. However, keep it as your last resort. Most mid-tier and low-tier GPU uses the PCIe x16 slot, whereas the most demanding and top-of-the-line use an 8-pin or 6-pin connector.
Whichever the case might be, you should try using a different GPU to fix this issue. The first thing you need to do is remove all the cables from your old GPU. Now that you’ve removed all of your old cables, it’s time to try another graphics card. You can pick up an EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition or any other GPU, according to your preference.
Or, if you are looking for a stronger graphics card, consider EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition, which offers 2 times more performance than the GTX 970. The EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has 11GB GDDR5X RAM and 4K gaming support, as well as Nvidia Ansel. So it will be a pretty reliable option to consider.
Check the Connectors
When installing a new GPU, many people don’t know how to do it properly. Thus, end up attaching the wrong cables to the wrong connectors. This can be a major reason why the Please power down and connect PCIe error is appearing on your screen.
Thus, to avoid making this mistake, you should read the manufacturing guidelines thoroughly. You can find everything about the connectors and adapters there, which will help you make all the installments correctly without making a mistake.
Reconnect PCIe to the Motherboard
To troubleshoot this issue, you will need to run hardware diagnostic tests on the graphics card. There are a few steps that you need to complete before we can run these tests.
- First, please power down the computer and unplug all other components from the motherboard. This is important because any incompatibility between components might cause errors during the testing process.
- Disconnect all other graphics cards from your system, including those in SLI or CrossFire configurations.
- Attach one end of the PCIe cable to your graphics card.
- Attach the other end of the PCIe cable to an open slot on your motherboard. If you have more than one open slot, please choose any slot for this test.
- After completing these steps, please boot up the computer and try playing games again (or restarting whichever program was giving you issues), and this might solve your issue.
Check For Power.
Inadequate power supply to the GPU can also cause this error to occur. Thus checking the power and supplying enough power is important to the GPU. Before trying any other method, make sure that you are supplying adequate energy to the GPU. If not, try changing your power supply and solve the power issue, and chances are that the error will disappear once you fix the power supply.
Try changing the power supply
Changing the power supply can help you overcome this issue. For this, you need to make sure how much power you need. You can find it on the website of the GPU you are using or on the instruction book that you get with the device.
Reseat the GPU card
Reseating the GPU card is a pretty simple way to solve this issue. If you can’t replace the GPU, you can just try reseating it. Just remove the GPU from your system and unplug every cable from it. After that, plug the GPU again into the system. This might solve the issue. To check, switch open your PC and look for the error, if it’s not appearing, that means that the problem is gone.
Read: How to I connect Safe Life plug to a new WiFi?
Different types of PCIe cables and connectors
If you are connecting a new graphics card to your motherboard, then it will require a PCI Express (PCIe) power cable to provide power. There are many different types of PCI Express (PCIe) cables and connectors that one can use. Below, we will discuss some of the connectors that you can get in the market for your system.
6-pin Connector
The 6-pin connector is the most common time amongst all others. It can supply up to 75 watts of power to the system. Thus, if you own a low-end GPU, which has a maximum power of around 150 watts, a 6-pin connector will work perfectly for you. The 150 watts will cover in a way that the system will get 75 watts from the connector, and PCIe will supply the remaining power.
8-pin Connector
The 8-pin connector supports a power supply of up to 150 watts; thus, if you have a bit higher power for your GPU 8-pin connector is the way to go. You can find two types of 8-pin connectors in the market. Either you get a single terminal with 8 pins, or you can get two terminals in the connector; one with 6 pins and the other with 2 pins.
12-pin Connector
The 12-pin connectors are for pretty high-end GPUs, and they can support up to 500 to 600 watts. But you will need to use an adapter to use this connector as not many PSUs come with the 12-pin output slot.
What is the power capacity of a PCIe cable?
A single PCIe port from the motherboard offers a maximum power capacity of 75 watts. Whereas, a typical graphics card requires about 350W for a modest gaming system.
How many PCIe cables do I need for a 3070?
The answer is that it depends on the graphics card that you are using. If you are using a graphics card with 1,800 watts of power, you’ll need a PCI cable with at least one +12v line. Some of the Nvidia 30 series GPUs need two 8-pins PCIe connections. Meanwhile, some GPUs also require three connections. Thus, it all boils down to the GPU that you are getting and what its power requirements are.
How Much Power Does Your GPU need?
A PCI connector can only support up to 300 watts of power, so if your new graphics card has more than 300 watts of power, please make sure you have a PCIe cable. For most graphics cards, this won’t be an issue since most low-end models will come with an attached PCIe power cable, while higher-end cards will come without.
The only way to determine how much power your computer needs is by reading the maximum wattage output of each device connected through your PSU (providing it’s labeled). To find out what kind of PCIe connectors each graphics card has, please refer to their website or video instructions on how to install them.
What’s the main difference between PCI and PCI-E?
The main difference between a PCIe cable and PCI-E Cable is that a PCIe is a serial interface however the PCI is a parallel interface. Where PCIe is the old version PCI is a more updated version; thus, PCI offers a faster data rate as compared to PCIe.
Conclusion
You can solve the please power down and connect PCIe, there are a few simple methods that you can follow. It is a GPU-related error but does not need professional help, as you can solve it easily at home. Go through our guide above and learn about the easy fixes.
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