[SOLVED] New GTX 1660 still requires the old card to be present

[CompSciGuyIT]

Looking for some advice on installing a new graphics card. I recently purchased a new GeForce GTX-1660, as an upgrade from my GTX-670. Because my motherboard, a GA-X79-UP4, doesn't have integrated graphics I had to keep the old card plugged in to install the new drivers. Simply switching out the cards did not work. I have a 1000W power supply which is more than enough for the new card, so power isn't the issue.

Whenever I boot up using the new card, it shows the splash screen where you enter bios for an extended period of time, but it ignores any input preventing me from entering bios. It then goes black for a while, produces the splash screen one more time with weird ASCII-like stuff up top, and goes black again until I switch off.

I spent most of the day trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong and, while I finally have it working, the old gpu still has to be plugged in! If I so much as even pull the power cables from it, the new gpu reverts back to it's old behaviour.
I've tried uninstalling the old card using the device manager, the new gpu doesn't work.
I've tried entering the bios (only possible through the old card) and setting Init Display First to PCIe Slot 3 where the new card now lives, the new gpu doesn't work.
I've even tried switching the cards so the new one can at least be in Slot 1, the new gpu doesn't like that either.

I'm not really sure what to do at this point, so I thought I'd reach out.
What am I doing wrong?

 

[greigm78]

You shouldn't need to do this, even with no iGPU it should revert to basic display driver in windows.

Have you tried using DDU to uninstall the old driver completely with the old card in situ, shut down your machine and THEN install the new card?
It should boot using the basic display driver and then you can install the new nVidia driver.

Also, is your 1000W PSU a good quality unit? As I learned (from the good people on this forum) not all Watts are created and distributed equally. Some cheaper high Waattage units give terrible power quality and distribution. Which can lead to problems.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

You shouldn't need to do this, even with no iGPU it should revert to basic display driver in windows.

That's what I would have thought, but it doesn't seem to work for the new card. When I uninstalled the GTX-670 nothing had changed for the GTX-1660. Plugging the GTX-670 back in it used the basic display drivers.

Have you tried using DDU to uninstall the old driver completely with the old card in situ, shut down your machine and THEN install the new card?
It should boot using the basic display driver and then you can install the new nVidia driver.

I haven't tried uninstalling using DDU. I can't say I'm familiar with it.
I'll take a look tomorrow and let you know of my findings.

Also, is your 1000W PSU a good quality unit? As I learned (from the good people on this forum) not all Watts are created and distributed equally. Some cheaper high Waattage units give terrible power quality and distribution. Which can lead to problems.

The PSU is decent quality. It's a Silver Stone ST1000-G Evolution. I didn't want to skimp on the PSU.

 

[greigm78]

That's what I would have thought, but it doesn't seem to work for the new card. When I uninstalled the GTX-670 nothing had changed for the GTX-1660. Plugging the GTX-670 back in it used the basic display drivers.

I haven't tried uninstalling using DDU. I can't say I'm familiar with it.
I'll take a look tomorrow and let you know of my findings.

The PSU is decent quality. It's a Silver Stone ST1000-G Evolution. I didn't want to skimp on the PSU.

Search for DDU driver unistaller. You boot into safe mode and it removes the drivers fully, leaves nothing behind, and then shuts the system down for you to remove the old GPU and install the new one.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

Search for DDU driver unistaller. You boot into safe mode and it removes the drivers fully, leaves nothing behind, and then shuts the system down for you to remove the old GPU and install the new one.

I did just that and got the same results unfortunately. DDU got rid of all the drivers, but the new card still doesn't want to play nice.
I have to put the old card back in, just so I can log in and install the new drivers. Once that's done, I can swap the HDMI cable to the new card, but the old one must remain in place and be receiving power or the new card refuses to work.
A friend of mine told me that it could be a dud GPU, which I think could also be the case.
Any other suggestions?

 

[greigm78]

If you have one working and one not working and DDU didn't solve it then I would agree the GPU might not be quite right. Can you RMA it?

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

If you have one working and one not working and DDU didn't solve it then I would agree the GPU might not be quite right. Can you RMA it?

I'm pretty sure I can in this situation. I'll take it back and speak with them about it. Thanks for your help.

 

[greigm78]

I'm pretty sure I can in this situation. I'll take it back and speak with them about it. Thanks for your help.

Just out of curiosity, and a long shot, but have you tried clearing CMOS settings.
Might as well try it. Only other thing I would suggest is trying a clean install of Windows. Last time I did that, I just installed it on a spare SSD to see if it would solve the problem I was having.

Both possibly worth a try if you are going to take the card back.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

Just out of curiosity, and a long shot, but have you tried clearing CMOS settings.
Might as well try it. Only other thing I would suggest is trying a clean install of Windows. Last time I did that, I just installed it on a spare SSD to see if it would solve the problem I was having.

I haven't tried clearing the CMOS settings actually. I might give that a go first.
If I can find a hard drive that isn't being used for anything important, I'll try a fresh Windows install and see what happens.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

The CMOS reset didn't change anything unfortunately, and decided against doing a fresh Windows install as I couldn't find a spare drive. I took it back to the retailer and they tested it on site.
The discovered no problems! Maybe I should have done that fresh install..
At this point the guy at the store suggested to send it to the manufacturer. The only other option was to bring it back home with me to find a way to get that fresh install of Windows done, and hope that it solved all of my problems.
I decided to have it sent away, and given that it's getting close to Christmas, it could be some time before I get it back again. I doubt they'll find anything wrong with it, considering the retailer had no problems, but they might re-solder some stuff and fine tune it a bit which might make a difference.
When I get it back I'll see how it goes and update this thread with my findings.

 

[greigm78]

Good luck man. It could just be a stupid windows thing and a reinstall helps in the worst case you just fresh install your current HDD.
Hope it goes well.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

Good luck man. It could just be a stupid windows thing and a reinstall helps in the worst case you just fresh install your current HDD.
Hope it goes well.

Thanks mate. I did learn about DDU which is a nice little tool.
Cheers for your input.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

Well, got the card back about a week ago. The manufacturer found that the card was fine.
I did the reinstall of Windows using their recommended tool https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10startfresh , but I still have the exact same issue.
I'm beginning to think it might be a compatibility issue with my motherboard (a Gigabyte X79-UP4), but I didn't think those kind of things issues occurred these days. I haven't tried doing a clean install with a fresh hard drive, but for now it looks like I'm stuck with using the 2 cards.

 

[lynx1021]

Your GTX-1660 card probably requires a UEFI BIOS and your motherboard may be set to Legacy or you need to turn off secure boot if the UEFI is on.Gigabyte says it is a combo BIOS so it is probably set to legacy. The only thing if it is legacy and you switch to UEFI you may have to reinstall your OS to be able to boot in UEFI.
There are a lot of posts on the internet about newer cards not working on Legacy bios. I was able to find several used XFX RX 460's with dual bios.

 

[CompSciGuyIT]

Your GTX-1660 card probably requires a UEFI BIOS and your motherboard may be set to Legacy or you need to turn off secure boot if the UEFI is on.Gigabyte says it is a combo BIOS so it is probably set to legacy. The only thing if it is legacy and you switch to UEFI you may have to reinstall your OS to be able to boot in UEFI.
There are a lot of posts on the internet about newer cards not working on Legacy bios. I was able to find several used XFX RX 460's with dual bios.

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into this more.