Bought a 750ti. First upgrade and it's all going wrong

[Cordarin86]

Ok so basically I have am old white box. Hp pavilion p6735a no upgrades previously. It's been going well for me and I'm only just starting to desire more power. So I speak to a friend and he says up the ram PSu and gpu and you're good. 8 buy an Asus gtx 750 Ti oc edition and wait.

Reddit tells me a PSu isn't need so awesome I take that off the list.

Gpu arrives and I install it as per instructions. But when I put it in I find I don't have the 6 pin connector. I buy the adapter but it doesn't get me past bios splash screen and I got beeps every 20 secs or so.

This is where it gets bad. I buy a new PSU under instructions from friend and reddit. It arrives it doesn't work. I look up my problem and get directed here and see some others having the same issue.

I unplug the 6 pin power cable and integrated graphics kicks in and I can load through fine. But windows says the gpu can get enough resources and code 12. If I plus the 6 pin aux power cord in it hangs on the bios splash screen and beeps. I updated the bios and got no change.

So I'm turning to you guys as you seem more experts than ever where else. Have I just wanted $300? The last I heard was from reddit saying it may be the motherboard rejecting it because it's pci 3.0 and the mother board is only 2.0.

Is there any possibly way to get this damn thing to work? Or am I never going to attempt upgrades again after this horrific first attempt?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

The version of PCI-E is irrelevant...a PCI-E 3.0 GPU will work fine on a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard. You definitely need that new PSU as your old one (if the specs on the HP website are correct) is only 250w. The GPU requires a six pin PCI-E connector from your new PSU as it draws <> 150w of power in addition to what the PCI-E slot on the motherboard provides (which is >75w according to the PCI-E specification)

The motherboard beeping is basically telling you that there is not enough power to drive the GPU, however the fact that you are actually getting the BIOS splash screen is enough to tell you that the card is operational at a very basic level.

What brand and wattage is your new PSU and can you get a replacement as it sounds to me like you have a faulty PSU. Ideally you should be looking at a PSU of at least 400w (250 of your old PSU + 150 for your new GPU).

 

[Cordarin86]

The version of PCI-E is irrelevant...a PCI-E 3.0 GPU will work fine on a PCI-E 2.0 motherboard. You definitely need that new PSU as your old one (if the specs on the HP website are correct) is only 250w. The GPU requires a six pin PCI-E connector from your new PSU as it draws <> 150w of power in addition to what the PCI-E slot on the motherboard provides (which is >75w according to the PCI-E specification)

The motherboard beeping is basically telling you that there is not enough power to drive the GPU, however the fact that you are actually getting the BIOS splash screen is enough to tell you that the card is operational at a very basic level.

What brand and wattage is your new PSU and can you get a replacement as it sounds to me like you have a faulty PSU. Ideally you should be looking at a PSU of at least 400w (250 of your old PSU + 150 for your new GPU).

I got an evga 500w PSU from pc case gear. I figured if I doubled it I couldn't go wrong.

This is what I was feeling. But the LED goes green when I plug in the 6pin pci. Would that not indicate it has enough power? The PSu seems to be holding up perfectly now that I have my old gpu in there.

 

[Sinistercr0c]

OK so you've picked a good 500w PSU, that's a promising start. I'm making some assumptions based on what you've posted, so bare with me.

I'm assuming that, as the new GPU was still plugged into your motherboard when you unplugged the 6 pin power connector, that's the reason you got the 'error code 12'....basically you were on your integrated GPU and the system recognised the new GPU and the fact that it had no additional power to it, correct?

I've looked on the HP website and there is only one revision of BIOS for the p6735a- v7.15A...I assume this is what you have upgraded to?

Stupid question - Can you plug the 6 pin connector back in, confirm that the monitor is plugged into your new GPU and boot into BIOS? If so, can you also confirm that there is an option in BIOS to have the PCI-E as your first display device?

 

[Cordarin86]

OK so you've picked a good 500w PSU, that's a promising start. I'm making some assumptions based on what you've posted, so bare with me.

I'm assuming that, as the new GPU was still plugged into your motherboard when you unplugged the 6 pin power connector, that's the reason you got the 'error code 12'....basically you were on your integrated GPU and the system recognised the new GPU and the fact that it had no additional power to it, correct?

I've looked on the HP website and there is only one revision of BIOS for the p6735a- v7.15A...I assume this is what you have upgraded to?

Stupid question - Can you plug the 6 pin connector back in, confirm that the monitor is plugged into your new GPU and boot into BIOS? If so, can you also confirm that there is an option in BIOS to have the PCI-E as your first display device?

Yeah I upgraded to 7.15 it made no difference. Sadly if I boot up with the 6 pin in I get the splash screen and nothing else. I have to disconnect the 6 pin and run on integrated just to get into bios itself.

 

[TommyFamzy]

OK so you've picked a good 500w PSU, that's a promising start. I'm making some assumptions based on what you've posted, so bare with me.

I'm assuming that, as the new GPU was still plugged into your motherboard when you unplugged the 6 pin power connector, that's the reason you got the 'error code 12'....basically you were on your integrated GPU and the system recognised the new GPU and the fact that it had no additional power to it, correct?

I've looked on the HP website and there is only one revision of BIOS for the p6735a- v7.15A...I assume this is what you have upgraded to?

Stupid question - Can you plug the 6 pin connector back in, confirm that the monitor is plugged into your new GPU and boot into BIOS? If so, can you also confirm that there is an option in BIOS to have the PCI-E as your first display device?

Yeah I upgraded to 7.15 it made no difference. Sadly if I boot up with the 6 pin in I get the splash screen and nothing else. I have to disconnect the 6 pin and run on integrated just to get into bios itself.

Maybe its time to consider changing your motherboard (will need to change cpu also) but first you could try to rma your card and see how a new one goes?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

Once in BIOS on your integrated GPU, what options are available re. alternate display devices? I'm thinking if can you force it to boot from your integrated GPU whilst keeping your new GPU powered it should boot into windows and then the OS should recognise the new card and allow you to install the Nvidia drivers .

another dumb question:

Was there only the integrated GPU in the system prior to installing the new GPU? You mention 'The PSu seems to be holding up perfectly now that I have my old gpu in there' are you referring to the integrated GPU or a previous discreet card?

 

[Cordarin86]

Crap I hit the wrong button. This isn't solved yet guys, any idea how I take that back?

It had an independent and hd 6750 gpu in it. Could it be driver traces hanging around from the old gpu?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

Did you remove the driver stack prior to un-installing the card? If not I would re-install your old card, do a full driver removal using the utility here:

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx

Then install you new card and boot into windows. From there you should be able to install the Nvidia driver stack.

 

[Cordarin86]

Ok some progress. I did as you said. Uninstalled all previous drivers using the ddu tool recommended in these forums. The pc now boots with the new gpu installed. However all I get is a black screen with solid underscore. With the device manager telling me there is not enough free resources what resources could it be meaning?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

Can you confirm the exact message...is it this:

Code 12: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use

 

[Cordarin86]

Yep. That exact msg. Says to turn off other devices to free up resources.

 

[Sinistercr0c]

Simple answer is to go into BIOS and disable any hardware elements you do not use. The issue is as follows:

Two devices have been assigned the same input/output (I/O) ports, the same interrupt, or the same Direct Memory Access channel. The assignment was made by either the basic input/output system (BIOS), the operating system, or a combination of the two.

So for example you could disable onboard HD audio or your Ethernet port if not used. If possible you could try to disable your onboard GPU also.

 

[Cordarin86]

Ok that kind of feels right in regards to the problems I'm getting. I can't seem to disable hardware in the bios though.

Is there another way I can do it? Also I have drovers for Intel hd graphics. I'm assuming they're for integrated. Should I remove those also? Or will that lose me integrated graphics giving me jo display at all?

 

[Sinistercr0c]

That's the risk...if you disable your Integrated Graphics driver (IGP)...you lose the ability to diagnose problems should your discreet card fail as you've no way to see the screen. You should have options to disable/enable most (or at least some) hardware elements on your motherboard, you just need to find them.

Most BIOS's have an advanced tab which lists 'onboard devices'. For example you should be able highlight your Realtek RTL8111E network port and then hit enter which will give you an enable/disable option. Looking at the motherboard spec. on the HP website you have only two hardware elements you could disable - your Ethernet port and your HD audio codec.

Have a look through all your BIOS options and see if you can the two hardware elements I mentioned. Remember you can always ESC out of BIOS without saving anything so you've no need to worry about making irreversible changes.

 

[Cordarin86]

Sadly I couldn't find any setting and in my frustration went to bed.

I have a friend coming over in the new year to try and figure it our for me. I myself have given up. The dealer also won't replace or refund me for the card.

So I guess I'm just stuck with a useless card unless my friend can get it working. I might just slowly build up other components for a whole new build but after this experience I'm very wary about trying to build again.