Question Install Problems--Dell Optiplex 760: trying to install Nvidia K2000 GPU (card does fit, but not recognized)...

Feb 18, 2019
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Install Problems--Dell Optiplex 760: trying to install Nvidia K2000 GPU (card does fit, but not recognized)...

Yup, its a bad situation, currently the only way to even get to the device manager with the card installed is to take out the legacy AMD card that came with the Ebay purchased Dell Optiplex 760 "mini tower" is to hot-swap in the Nvidia K2000 GPU into the empty PCIe after booting to on board Intel graphics (dell mini tower has BTX form factor, but the Nvidia K2000 GPU does fit! and the fan is running!).

Then there a couple problems.

1.) Unless I "restart" windows 10 the bios will shutdown the on board graphics and use the K2000 which since it is not recognized because of the lack of drivers will give me a black screen and the only way to get back to windows 10 is to shutdown the Optiplex, remove the K2000 and then start the Optiplex and then hot-swap the K2000 back in again (and adjusting the bios is no help since there are only two initial graphic states: a.) auto switch between on board graphics and dedicated GPU (which allows the hot-swap), and b.) dedicated GPU from the start which would fry the computer at worst and at best is inherently futile).

2.) given the hot-swapped state I am able to access the windows 10 device manager and under "Other devices" a yellow, exclamation marked, triangular flag called "Video Controller" shows up (under events the time is the same as when I did the swap). Also when I select the "Driver" tab I get the following manufacturer list: Standard display types, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., and Microsoft (so obviously I am getting a Code 28), and Under "Events" it gives a very cryptic message: Device PCI \VEN_8086&DEV_2E13&SUBSYS_027F1028&REV_03\3&172e68dd&0&11 requires further installation.

3.) I have tried two NVDIA installation packages: 377.83, and 377.11, and of course they can't identify any Nvidia devices within the Optiplex. I also tried to do a windows search for an appropriate driver in the parent install directory for the Nvidia desktop application. Currently the Optiplex is kept offline, I could put it on line and allow a search to see what windows would come up with, but I think that would be a fail as well (Also regarding the weather this has the latest bios I have thoroughly researched this in the past and yes it does and that was a long time ago and obviously there is no way Dell is going to provide any additional bios upgrades so that is moot issue).

So If I could only find the driver(s) and put it on a flash driver and then make it available to the Optiplex I could know something more about the situation. And I will bring the computer online if anyone that helps deems it necessary and try to drum up my lengthy and cryptic wifi code and give that a shot as well. Also, somehow my gut tells me that "driver easy" would only make matters worse...

I am all ears
 
Feb 18, 2019
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Ok, so I've had some views but no suggestions, given the pain trade-off between not getting anywhere and dredging up the wifi code... I've managed to get microsoft online to recognize the GPU just long enough for the system to recognize the new card and switch to it prior to it being configured? I say this because now I'm back to the black screen, I've changed to the GPU and nothing and when I switch back to the on board graphics also now black. I am going to leave the computer on for a few hours to let it finish whatever it may be doing and post back when I restart it, hopefully the drivers will be installed in the mean time, somehow with out my menial assistance. All the Fans and lights are on but I'm not sure if anyone is home...tbc...
 
Feb 18, 2019
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now there is no device indication of the K2000 in the device manager, the card fan still goes, the Nvidia software still can't find it. Now just for the sake of fairness to AMD I hot swapped it into the PCIe slot, checked the device manager and again like with the K2000 no indication, then did a restart, again no indication, the system didn't give a black screen with the auto bios switch, however with a full shutdown it threw a No VGA cable message, so now I just restarted it with the VGA moved from the on board graphics to the AMD VGA and no problems. The device manager shows the AMD Radeon but not the Intel on board graphics. As a side note the DVI connector was used for the K2000, and yes I did change the setting on the monitor. Not that anyone would care because things were not showing up on the device manager to begin with. So it seems that I have taken, perhaps courtesy of or my own mal-doing, a step backwords in that hot swaps of the K2000 subsequent to updating windows 10 including an attempt to get windows to recognize the "Other Devices" video controller has resulted in that "Other Devices" property no longer being listed on the device manager. So now I have basically given it a second run through with hot swap and nothing. I suppose the most interesting aspect of this experiment is that a) a hot swapped card will not interfere with the on board graphics if the computer is restarted, however if it is fully shut down and then started it will. b) even the card that works (AMD) cannot be hot swapped even though the bios setting "automatic" for switching to on board and visa versa is automatic that only pertains to the boot state. and sadly d) nvdia's bundling of drivers is crap / microsoft's so called updating of windows 10 was a lousy step backwards. I guess that about wraps things up. Any suggestions on a graphics card upgrade to my crappy Dell Optiplex 760 mini tower (I seem to remember somewhere there was a thread on Toms Hardware of such, but I was not able to make much sense of it)?
 
Feb 18, 2019
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Addendum: also tried a 3rd party application that installs drivers, free version (etiquette?), and it did not recognize that the K2000 was in the PCIe slot.