[SOLVED] Graphics card for Lenovo ThinkCentre M55p Series Type 6488

[Porfuera]

Hi All,

I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre M55p Series Type 6488 that will not upgrade from its current Windows 10 Pro version 1803 to the current latest version 1903.

As far as I can see this failure is due to the current drivers for the onboard Intel Q965/Q963 video chipset not being Windows 10 compatible - the current drivers are WDDM 1.1 (for Windows 7) but I think they need to be WDDM 2.x . However no Windows 10 drivers exist due to the hardware being a bit old. Thanks, Intel.

Therefore I'm looking at installing a graphics card and disabling the on-board video chip so that the out-of-date drivers are ignored.

I have found a second-hand (i.e. used) OEM Lenovo AMD Radeon HD5450 512MB DDR3 PCIe-x16 (part number: 89Y6151/89Y6152/45J8136) for a cheap GB£12.49 (about US$15.00 or less) so I thought I'd give it a try. I think this is a good start because from what I've read the PSU is only rated at 225W so if this works I can look for something better at a later date and maybe upgrade the PSU if I need to.

I guess the video card just slots into the currently-empty PCIe-x16 slot (white) on the riser board.

I have a couple of questions that I need help with:

1) There is a 9-pin D-connector (not being used) occupying the expansion slot at the back of the case where the video card will go but I guess I can just unplug this from the motherboard - is this OK?

2) Is there anything I need to do to disable the Q965/Q963 video chipset (or the drivers) or will plugging in the video card do this for me? Or is there no way to do this?

Any other advice would also be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Dave8671]

Hi your onboard graphices card is a Intel GMA 3000 which is not supported in windows 10. The case is a SFF which is small form factor case. Any GPU will have to be this type to fit.

 

[Porfuera]

Hi your onboard graphices card is a Intel GMA 3000 which is not supported in windows 10. The case is a SFF which is small form factor case. Any GPU will have to be this type to fit. The GT 440 is not a SFF it would be to tall to fit. Another issue is your power supply on some of these models may not be enough power to power a gpu. The gt440 requires a 300 watt PSU.

Hi - thanks for the reply but this just seems to be restating most of what I put in my original post..

The Intel GMA 3000 appears to be the same as Intel Q965/Q963, which I already mentioned and I said that the drivers for this aren't supported on Windows 10.

I didn't mention the GT 440 at all - I was asking about the Lenovo AMD Radeon HD5450, which is a Low-Profile card for SFF PCs and I believe it is the OEM fitment for this machine.

I wanted to know if fitting the Lenovo AMD Radeon HD5450 will solve the problem with the out-of-date drivers for the Intel Q965/Q963, either by disabling the chipset and/or by allowing me to uninstall the drivers.

However, it looks like for Windows 10 the AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series products are only supported up to WDDM 1.3. I think I need WDDM 2.x for the Windows 10 version 1903 upgrade so I'll need to find a more modern Low-Profile video card.

 

[Dave8671]

Sorry this is what I get for trying to reply to two threads on a tablet oops. I will edit my first reply. I looked up your thinkcentre motherboard specs. From what I see the main power connector would be in the way for a card. With that in mind I did a search for low profile GPU's single slot. Link below. I stuck with PCIE 2.0 be slightly less bottleneck which means slows down the card. Cause your motherboard is a PCIE 1.0. Single slot due to your power connector being to close. Low profile due to every spec I read about your case states SFF.

Which ever you choose you will have to download the drivers for it. From the manufacturers website. If windows 10 does not install it for you which it could not.


Low profile cards single slot

 

[Porfuera]

Hi Dave8671 - no worries! Thanks for your interest and your efforts on this!

On my unit the PCIe x16 slot is on what I assume is a riser card on the rear left side (when looking from the front). I say 'I assume' because I'm not an expert and I'm learning from the internet as I go...

The power connector looks like it is well out of the way of any video card installation. The PSU is on the rear right-hand corner of the unit and main power connector is just right of centre.

I'm guessing that what you are assuming is the main power connector may be a 16-pin D-connector - it is probably difficult to tell if you are looking at photos. This D-connector seems to plug into some kind of socket on the motherboard and I'm assuming I can simply unplug it and remove this when/if I install a new video card.

Just for reference I'm pretty sure that the OEM video card fitment was a Lenovo AMD Radeon HD5450 512MB DDR3 PCIe-x16 (part number: 89Y6151) so anything of similar dimensions should fit. However, from what I've researched, I don't think there are suitable Win10 drivers for this particular card so fitting one of these would probably just put me back to where I am at the moment.

So I've decided to look for a PCI-e x16 graphics card with a maximum version of PCI-e v2.0 because (as you say) my motherboard is PCI-e v1.0 and I've read that anything of PCI-e v3.0 or above does not play well with PCI-e v1.0 and therefore I'm restricted to a maximum of PCI-e v2.0.

So thank you for your video card link, which will be very useful.

The next problem is that the existing PSU is quite low output - only 225W, I believe, Therefore I will either need to find a video card with a very low power consumption (I think the OEM card was 19W , although details are difficult to find) or else I will need to fit a new PSU. And I've read that any new PSU would probably have to be external because space is tight in these SFF boxes and any new PSU probably won't fit.

To be honest it would probably be best to junk the whole unit and buy something newer because six months down the line some other device will probably be unsupported and the next version of Windows won't install either. But the thing works and I hate throwing out things that work.

So thanks for the help and if you've read this far I hope I haven't bored you!

Best regards,

Porfuera.