Only able to connect two PCIe devices on Z800

[Calidan]

Hello, I have an HP Z800 that I use as a gaming/work PC. I’m currently running dual Xeon 5650 CPUs, 32gb RAM, a Nvidia GTX 1060 6gb GPU, Windows 10 64bit and I use a Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSD as my boot drive via PCIe adaptor. It has worked fine in this configuration for a couple of years now with no problems. 

I recently bought an Elgato 4K60 Pro capture card that installs via PCIe, but when I try to boot I’ll get to the windows logo and my computer will lock up. I’ve tried every slot combination I can think of and still no luck. 

Does anyone know what the issue could be? I’ve racked my brain trying to figure this out as I’d really like to use this pc as a streaming PC. Thanks in advance for any help.

[DGroves]

please read the HP z800 "service manual" 

windows 10 contains all necessary drivers for the z800 hardware,  so no issue there

same for the 950 pro ssd

what you do need to check is the bios configuration

i recommend that you do not use the onboard LSI sas/sata ports and DISABLE THIS DEVICE IN THE BIOS, note that disabling the device is not the same as disabling the lsi boot rom disabling the device removes it from the installed OS completely

leaving only the Intel "SCU" 3 GBps ports and the two SATA 6GBps ports active

i also recommend you disable the onboard nic(s) boot rom

last, the SDD adapter should be placed in the slot ABOVE the video card and the capture card should be placed in a pci x4 or x8 slot

if still having issues try removing the ssd card, leaving just the capture card and see if it displays a no boot device error if so the two devices may not be compatible

[Calidan]

Hello, thanks for the advice and sorry for the late reply. I tried all of your recommendations and unfortunately none of them worked. I still get the same freezing on windows startup. I removed the NVMe SSD that was installed via PCIe adaptor and installed a regular 2.5 SSD via the sata cable and did a fresh install of Windows and yet the PC still freezes on startup if the capture card is installed. I’ve tried multiple variations of PCIe slots and I know it’s not the capture card because I actually swapped my card into my sons pc and it worked fine in his pc but his capture card is doing the same thing in my pc that mine was doing. So at this point I’m at a loss as to what to try next. Thanks for the help though I appreciate it.

[DGroves]

actually YOU HAVE CONFIRMED IT"S THE CAPTURE CARD................................

since the card works in another PC but not the z800 and the z800 works normally without the card, that's a sure sign that the z800 and the capture card don't play nice together

either replace the card with another make or replace the z800 your choice..........................

[Calidan]

So I tried booting into Linux and it also froze on startup. In your original response when you said:

”

i recommend that you do not use the onboard LSI sas/sata ports and DISABLE THIS DEVICE IN THE BIOS, note that disabling the device is not the same as disabling the lsi boot rom disabling the device removes it from the installed OS completely

leaving only the Intel "SCU" 3 GBps ports and the two SATA 6GBps ports active”

Do you mean to make the SAS Controller and SATA 0-5 hidden under Device Security in the BIOS? Or were you referring to another setting?

[DGroves]

yes, hiding the lsi device prevents the bios and the Os from seeing the LSI controller

disabling only the LSI boot rom, prevents booting from the lsi ports but allows windows to still see the LSI ports once it loads

there is no speed difference between the LSI/SATA ports on the z800, the LSI driver is universal, and well understood across various OS's/Hardware and that's why some high end software apps specify its use, but on home/small office usage the intel SCU/SATA ports are recommended

if you need fast Mech HDD storage, disable the onboard LSI and install a Adaptec raid/jbod sata 6GBps card or a high end LSI 6GBps Raid only card