[SOLVED] Installing an Asus GTX 1050 Ti on a DX4870-UB20P Gateway

[linklier]

Hello! So I was met with a dilemma on a graphics card to get on a stock DX4870-UB20P Gateway (300W PSU). I had a prior thread which you can read that discloses some prior information about my machine. [SOLVED] - Budget GPU & PSU upgrade for my Gateway DX4870 ? | Tom's Hardware Forum (tomshardware.com)

So I ended up having a little bit of cash and went with a 1050 Ti. I powered off, popped it in my pcie x16 slot and so far I have had these outcomes:

1st time: I made no changes to anything. Popped in the card and powered on the machine. The title of the ASUS Bios was at the top of the screen and it would just give a short beep every minute or so. It was just the title of the BIOS, no POST or anything.

2nd time: So I did some reading. I decided to check my BIOS. I popped out the battery to reset it and see what effect it had. Then I plugged in the card, turned on the power and was greeted with a gateway splash image top left corner (their typical logo) on a black screen with the options to hit del to enter into the bios or F12 to display the boot menu on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. It gives TWO long beeps then every minute or so the same short beep like in the first time. I left the PC for a minute came back and saw there was actually a POST preformed with CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR at the bottom of the POST. I could hit DEL and get TO the BIOS and change settings with no problem with everything displaying just fine. I am mixed feelings at the moment because obviously video wise the card seems to work (it's currently hooked up via DVI-D). However, I still can't seem to get into windows or even past the bios.

3rd time: This was the more successful of the bunch, however I use that term in a very loose manner. I powered up the PC and the Gateway splash as before appeared again with the same two options at the bottom. The board continues to beep short beeps ONCE every minute. However, this time believe it or it loaded into Windows. I never saw the POST it went from the splash straight into Windows. It took a long time to do so. When it finally did and I put in my user/pass it loaded as a very low res display option. I kind of expected this even if things went fantastic given the fact that windows needs updated drivers for the card and all. However, even within windows it never stopped beeping ONE short beep every minute. I tried to change a res on windows and the screen went black and stayed that way. Now, in low res there were no artifacts or anything and the video looked fine (just very low res) I had to shut it off manually.

So this is where I am at. Sadly. Heh. I looked up ASUS' specs on this card and it's a 300W requirement card with no external plug needed. The card is new, not used. The fan on the card runs fine. The card plugged in and seated fine. I am using a DVI-D single channel cord instead of a DVI-D dual channel cord, though I feel like that probably doesn't have an effect. Other than that, I am stumped. I would like to get this working on what I have if I can, but if I can't my other option was to just build minus the GPU and use the GTX 1050 Ti on whatever I built. though as you can imagine budget wise I was trying to hold off on building anything which is why I am trying to get this card to work on this old workhorse prebuilt. Ha. This is a stock gateway DX4870 with a n Acer IPIMB-AR Rev 1.02a board. I currently have 14 GB of DDR3 RAM installed and a Wifi card (which I currently have off at the moment for troubleshooting).

SIDE NOTE: My BIOS was flashed a long time ago to the latest option this board has available and is UEFI.

I appreciate any help in advanced and for reading my walls of text in story format. Thank you all kindly!

** If have to end up building something I kind of wanted to build around a Ryzen CPU.

 

[Aeacus]

I left the PC for a minute came back and saw there was actually a POST preformed with CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR at the bottom of the POST.

This indicates CMOS corruption. Causes can be several, fixes are few.

Simplest fix would be replacing CMOS battery against new one. Since your build is old, it is possible that CMOS battery has run out of juice and thus, generates the checksum error.

Here's a bit of further reading about it,
link: https://www.lifewire.com/cmos-checksum-error-what-it-is-and-how-to-fix-it-4689193

SIDE NOTE: My BIOS was flashed a long time ago to the latest option this board has available and is UEFI.

This is one of the CMOS fixes, BIOS update. But 1st get new battery, just in case.

BIOS update, as such, i'd reserve as last ditch effort to fix your issue, since if BIOS update should be interrupted for whatever reason, you'll brick your MoBo.

went with a 1050 Ti. I powered off, popped it in my pcie x16 slot and so far I have had these outcomes:

If you were to take out your GPU completely, and connect monitor directly to MoBo, does your PC boot up and work fine? Or do you still have POST issues?

 

[linklier]

Thank you for your input. A few things to start.... I only got the CMOS CHECKSUM error once and that was after I popped the battery and reset (as a troubleshooting means for the GPU.) If I pop out the card and hook up via VGA to the on board video everything works fine just as it did before I started with the new card I got. POST, no beeps, usual time to boot up and all of that.

In the prior thread when I was asking about what kind of card weeks ago I made note that a long time ago I got a card (no idea what it was) and I had similar problems. I would get error beeps spread out one short beep a minute, the pc didn't want to go through POST, etc. The card was new (I think I got it at CompUSA which tells you how long ago it was) and the fan ran (just like this one does). I was even able to get it to get INTO windows once.

So I don't know. Kind of bummed, though I think the card itself is fine and quite honestly I can pop it into something I build myself later until I decide I want a little more power in a GPU. Still, I was hoping to wet the whistle so to speak with this though it is an old old prebuild OEM pc so you know I expected things would be painful. Not sure what it could be other than power or maybe the PCIE slot is busted on the board. Power wise the 1050 ti is looking at a 300W PSU which I have covered so I don't know. As for the PCIE, I haven't had anything in that slot for years and years other than when I tried a long time ago to get a card for the pc.

 

[Aeacus]

though it is an old old prebuild OEM pc so you know I expected things would be painful.

The issue with prebuilt PCs, namely brand ones (e.g HP, Dell), is, that they can include hardware restrictions on their prebuilt PCs, especially when using proprietary hardware (e.g MoBo, PSU). Using proprietary hardware, allows them to put hardware restrictions on, whereby only (Dell, HP, etc) certified hardware (RAM, GPU etc) works with their proprietary MoBo.
I've seen it happen several times. Someone has Dell prebuilt, tries to upgrade their PC, and finds out hard way that common hardware doesn't work. Instead, they have to get Dell certified hardware.

Without hardware restrictions, GTX 1050 Ti should work on your MoBo. But since your MoBo is built by Asus, by the order and design of Gateway, there's no telling if MoBo has hardware restrictions on it or not, whereby only certified hardware works with it.

With this, i have a suspicion that this is the case with your PC as well. 🤔
Here, only the GPU that was designed and certified to work with your PC (GTX 750, as i read from your other topic), would work. And not just any GTX 750, but the very specific one certified by Gateway.

Better option is going with new CPU-MoBo-RAM combo, since that doesn't come with these caveats and gives performance boost as well.

 

[linklier]

Oh man, that's a bummer. Well, I guess building is my only option. At least I have a GPU to start with. Heh. What do you think about packages for instance cpu + fan + mobo? I saw a few on Amazon. I would like to build around AMD. I'm not looking for anything to break FPS records on ultra settings or a box setup that glows like a light show or some kind of complex cooling system.

Just something sleek, a little RGB is fine, is practical and works to be able to enjoy the beauty that most modern games can bring in detail. I have about a 1500 dollar budget well minus about 160 on the GPU and something I can build upon a little bit if I desire to add a little more push to it down the road. Oh and probably a solid state SATA HD.

I was looking at Ryzen 7s to start. It's been a long time since I did serious looking at components. It used to be AMD CPUs packed a little more bang for your buck while their GPUs were kind of rated in the back of the pack (Of course I already have a GPU now) At any rate, thanks for your feedback and don't worry about being the barer of bad news. I kind of figured it was something along those lines. I was just hoping that perhaps I was wrong.

 

[Aeacus]

What do you think about packages for instance cpu + fan + mobo? I saw a few on Amazon.

Combo deals usually save you some money, compared to when buying individual components. But it all comes down what hardware is within the combo deal and if it really is a save.

Just something sleek, a little RGB is fine, is practical and works to be able to enjoy the beauty that most modern games can bring in detail. I have about a 1500 dollar budget well minus about 160 on the GPU and something I can build upon a little bit if I desire to add a little more push to it down the road. Oh and probably a solid state SATA HD.

Take the following build as a guideline:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5700G 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor ($178.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S chromax.black 82.51 CFM CPU Cooler ($99.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE AX ATX AM4 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($77.99 @ Corsair)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($153.90 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4G OC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus 750 Gold 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.99 @ B&H)
Total: $914.80

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-02-06 21:56 EST-0500

Few words.

• Put in R7 5700G, which has iGPU in it, for redundancy, just in case your dedicated GPU should die. This way, you can hook monitor to MoBo and continue using your PC.
• CPU cooler is one of the big boys and has ample cooling performance, even when you decide to OC your CPU.
• MoBo is high-end X570 chipset with loads of features and some eyecandy. Note: MoBo needs latest BIOS to run Ryzen 5000-series CPUs. Most likely your MoBo already comes with latest BIOS.
• Put in 2x 16GB (32GB) RAM at 3200 Mhz. DDR4. 32GB is plenty for today's standards. Even 16GB is enough but more RAM hasn't hurt anyone.
• OS drive is the very same one as i have it, 970 Evo Plus 2TB. Plenty of space for OS and other stuff. (E.g my OS drive is filled only by 373GB, while i have all my Steam games on that as well).
• Since you already bought your GPU, i put that in too. But marked it as "Purchased", so it won't add to the total.
• PC case is nice with good airflow and some 5.25" external bays, if you decide utilizing them (i have). Actually, Fractal Design Focus G is smaller version of my Corsair 760T V2 Black PC case. Note: Since choosing a PC case is personal choice, feel free to switch it out.
• And lastly, PC is powered by good quality Seasonic unit. Fully-modular with 10 years of warranty. PSU is 750W and is capable of powering up to RTX 4070 Ti GPU. If you ever going with better GPU, then you'd need bigger PSU. E.g RTX 4080 needs 1000W PSU while RTX 4090 needs 1600W PSU.

All-in-all, solid build and well below budget. Personally, i would've gone with Intel CPU but that's me.

Feel free to mess around in pcpp and switch out/replace parts as you like.

 

[linklier]

Thanks a ton. You've been a really big help. Sucks about the proprietary stuff, but then everyone says building your own is the way to go for part quality and bang for your buck.

 

[Aeacus]

Thanks a ton. You've been a really big help. Sucks about the proprietary stuff, but then everyone says building your own is the way to go for part quality and bang for your buck.

Best part of DIY, besides best price to performance ratio, is that you can pick all the parts you like and need. That includes eyecandy. This way, you're not bound with what the big companies offer, in forms of prebuilt.

And if you put dedication into it, you can even build yourself really nice looking and well performing build. Like these fine numbers: 🤩

Spoiler: Pictures (click here to view)

Skylake - my main build.

Haswell - my missus'es build.

AMD - my old main build. Currently around for retro gaming (pre-2005 games).

All custom built by yours truly. Full specs with more pics in my sig.