GPU is not displaying on monitor, think it's power related.

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OverlordGhs

Commendable
Oct 13, 2016
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I recently built my first computer and I'm having issues getting my EVGA GTX 970 to work. I think it may be related to my PSU, even though it says the card requires 500W and I have a decent brand PSU with good reviews. My only worries is it came with two 6 pins, but not a 6 + 2 and a 6, and my GPU has a slot for 6 and 8. It came with adapters so I turned the two 6s into an 8 pin and then put two molex cables into the other adapter to make a 6 pin, and plugged both of those in.

I made sure it was two seperate molex cables and I tried unplugging things like hard drives and my fan controller just to see if that changed anything, to no avail. Just to be clear I'll go over everything I've tried so far:

Reseating the GPU (I can't switch PCIe slots because it is the only one on the board, its a micro),
Switching molexes around that go into the adapter,
Setting PCIe in the BIOS as well as disabling on board graphics,
A CMOS reset,
Playing around with UEFI vs Legacy boot for the PCIe.

I've tried installing drivers but there was an error saying no hardware was detected. What I haven't tried: using a VGA cable (when I go into windows with integrated graphics the GPU doesn't even show up in device manager or in HWMonitor),

Plugging the GPU into another computer (trying that today at a PC support place, I don't have any fellow PC friends),
Using a stronger PSU (might be a fix, but I'd be bummed out cause this was a decently spendy PSU and I thought it would be compatible).

My parts list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/WVXjGf

Should mention that PC part picker finds no incompatibilities but I don't know. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: Just messing around with it I tried just two 6 pins (no way would I actually run anything like this, was just testing) and it actually displayed to the monitor, but it told me to plug in the power cables then reboot but this time the fans were actually spinning fast, while before they would just spin very weakly every couple seconds (is that normal btw?).

Then I tried the molex to 6 pin adapter with just a 6 pin in the 8 pin slot and it did the same thing, but it actually displayed. THEN I tried to put both the 6 pins back into the 8 pin adapter and plugged that in and no display. Wouldn't two cables in one adapter make it have MORE power, not less? Or does this mean that it is actually getting enough power there is just a BIOS setting holding it back? I'm literally lost.

[Edits: created more paragraphs & spacing for easier reading - - moderator]
 
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Yah, I only have one RAM stick anyways.
Also, yah I know. I had another one ripped from an old dell but disk usage was at 100 and it was incredibly slow, so I had to use this one. I plan on upgrading to an SSD eventually.
The BIOS is the latest version.

Well the wattage is low but it is 80 plus certified with 500W continuous power, and the only problem I can see is possibly the rails not providing enough power. I plan on bringing it in to a PC support place and seeing if he can put my graphic card in one of their comps and see if it yields any different results, just to rule out a faulty GPU. Would be bummed out if I had to buy a better PSU because everything I've looked into says it shouldn't be an issue but it would make sense.
 
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It's because the one I have is SSC (so basically it comes overclocked stock, as far as i can understand which is probably part of the problem)
I was wondering about that too but if I only use one 6 pin in the adapter it complains about not having the power cables plugged in so...

 
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Yah, I might do that but I don't want to get an expensive power supply yet until I'm absolutely sure that's the issue cause it should at least work to display to the monitor.

 
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Yep, the fans spin every couple seconds. Haven't been able to put them under stress to make them spin faster and see if they work properly but it seems like they're working how they're supposed to. Also if I unplug one of the power cables it will run the fans at maximum capacity and tell me to plug the power cables in so the fans work.

 
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Just brought it into a PC guy, he basically told me I need a higher wattage PSU which I kind of already knew but the problem is the actual manufacturers themselves say my PSU should be sufficient so it's almost false advertising if my PSU isn't enough. He also told me some other crap like I need a motherboard that supports 8 pin ATX into the motherboard but I know for a fact that you only need that if you're running a really powerful CPU which I know I'm not. Do you think the 8 pin thing he suggested could be part of it? I hope not because that means I would need a whole new motherboard and a whole new PSU (he said I needed one that was like 800W even though the manufacturer suggests 500W and up (http://www.evga.com/products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=e62b059f-ead9-4f90-a4d1-49c3df7ed0b1).

I don't mind selling the PSU I have now and trying to get a higher wattage one but I'm thinking something else might be the problem. Either that or someone needs to have a long talk with those manufacturers. That PSU is continuous 500W so that means it doesn't peak at 500, it's always running at 500.

I don't have any other GPU to test it on but both of the 6 pins seem ok (I think) although that's a good suggestion. I bought the PSU used but only a little bit used (according to the seller anyways) so I hope it's not a faulty cable (actually I kind of hope it is cause then I can return it and put the money towards a higher wattage one just to be on the safe side)
 
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Ok unless your running 3 gtx 970s in sli (which your not if you only have 1pci-e slot) then 800w is way over what you need. That card should have max 250w under load and a normal CPU should take around 75w. That 500 watt that you have should be perfect for your pc. When talking about the motherboard 8 and 4 pin stuff that's just the amount of power for the CPU (it's a separate power line near to the CPU on the mobo). As long as you have a CPU that is perfectly fine with that boards chipset (it would work other wise) then the power on your mobo for the CPU should either be a 4 pin connector or an 8 pin. Which ever it is, as long as your PSU has the correct connectors the CPU power should be fine. About the PSU running at constant 500w that sounds weird to me. I've never heard that before and a trusted company like evga wouldn't be so stupid as to do that. The components ask for more power and the PSU should give. If it was putting out all 500watts into your system there would be nothing left working.
 
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It's in the PC part picker, but it's just an intel i5-6400 and he told me I needed to get a 8 pin atx compatible mobo but if that was the issue I wouldn't even be able to run the computer. It boots up and runs just fine, I could even play games using the intel graphics if I wanted to. Only problem is that the GPU is neither detected during post nor in device manager, or even by the manufacturer's own device driver installation program.

 
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When you boot it up with the onboard graphics, go to the bios and see weather the bios is picking up the gpu
 
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The BIOS is kind of basic, the only option I have regarding to graphics is to switch from IGFX to PCIE Slot 1 (which I've done) not sure if this means it's being detected, but there's nowhere else to know if it's being detected. My guess is it's not. Faulty PCIE slot could also be the culprit though, in a few days I'm gonna have some guy who teaches computer hardware at a nearby college take a look and see what he thinks. If it's a PSU option I'm going to be pissed because I only bought the PSU based on what the website itself said.
 
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