Question PC keeps restarting after installing new graphics card

[knightzillla]

I recently inherited my dad's old dell xps 8700 desktop pc (purchased around 2015 I think). I removed the gtx 745 and installed an msi gtx 1650 super aero itx card the other day. The computer immediately began to intermittently restart without warning or error messages. It seems especially prone to crashing when I have steam running (not in game). I figured it was probably that the old power supply (a dell AC460AM-00 460 psu) was inadequate for the new card, so I upgraded it to a corsair tx 750M 750 W supply. It still restarted intermittently, so I updated the motherboard BIOS to the most current version (A14) and that still hasn't solved it. I don't know what the problem could be at this point, I installed whocrashed but that hasn't picked up any crashes or errors even though it crashed at least 10 times this week. I contacted msi customer support but they were extremely unhelpful and have stopped responding to me. The only thing I can think of at this point is that the graphics card I received is just defective. I would check it in another computer but I don't have another one available. I know the PCIe 3.0 slot is working fine since it's the same one the old gtx 745 was in. Is there anything else I can try without assuming it's a defective card?

The other specs are an intel i5 4460 cpu, dell xps 8700 motherboard, 12 gb of ram and a 1 tb hdd.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Most likely it is because that board lacks support for that GPU architecture, however, it's possible that the graphics card is defective but that is a much less probable scenario.

If you are 100% certain the card is FULLY seated correctly, with the PCI slot lock engaged and the rear mounting screw installed, with no indications of trouble in the seating arrangement, then WITH the card installed I would try a hard reset of the BIOS before accepting that it is either a faulty card OR a lack of support in the BIOS firmware.

Updating the BIOS is not going to do what this will do so even if you have updated OR tried resetting via CMOS pins, this process is worth trying. It often works when a new card fails to initiate.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes, press the power button on the case for 30 seconds. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

make sure you have completely removed all previous graphics drivers, software, and settings. then reinstall latest version directly from Nvidia.
also make sure you have installed all of the latest Dell drivers and software available for this motherboard from the Dell product support page.

and what is the RAM configuration; 3x 4GB, 1x 4GB / 1x 8GB, etc?

to determine if the card is faulty;
try the card in another system and see if you encounter any issues with it.

 

[knightzillla]

make sure you have completely removed all previous graphics drivers, software, and settings. then reinstall latest version directly from Nvidia.
also make sure you have installed all of the latest Dell drivers and software available for this motherboard from the Dell product support page.

and what is the RAM configuration; 3x 4GB, 1x 4GB / 1x 8GB, etc?

to determine if the card is faulty;
try the card in another system and see if you encounter any issues with it.

Before I removed the old card I used ddu to remove all the old drivers, and the first thing I did after installing the new card was download the current driver for my specific card from the Nvidia website. I'm using windows 10 and that is up to date, and according to dell update all my drivers all also up to date. My RAM configuration is 2 x 4 GB and 2 x 2GB

 

[Darkbreeze]

Try removing the 2 x2GB memory kit, leaving only the 2 x4GB kit installed, THEN do a hard reset of the BIOS WITH the graphics card installed, and see if it will still intermittently restart. If it does, then you either have a PSU or graphics card issue. It is doubtful that it is a board issue ALTHOUGH that card likely ACTUALLY pulls more power from the PCI slot than your GT 745 does so there still remains a slim chance that it could be board related and that the older card is simply not stressing the board enough for it to show.

Apologies for the earlier post regarding lack of BIOS support. I completely missed the provided information about it being an INTERMITTENT issue, meaning the card works but randomly the system restarts itself.

Random restarts like that are generally either power supply, motherboard or memory related, however it COULD also be a Windows or driver issue as well.

What Windows version are you running and do you have any idea when the last time was that a clean install of the operating system was done? And by clean install, I do not mean an upgrade, spring or fall major update, refresh or reset or restoring a factory image.

 

[knightzillla]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys, I think I managed to fix the issue since my pc hasn't crashed and restarted in a few days since I changed some of the power settings. I found a thread with a similar question here:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/random-restarts-with-nvidia-gtx-1650.3585231/

It seems to be a somewhat common issue with the Dell XPS 8700, so in case anyone else has the same issue here are the steps I took that seemed to have solved the problem (in windows 10):

1. Go to power and sleep settings - additional power settings - show additional plans - select high performance as the preferred plan.
2. Once the high performance plan is selected, click on change plan settings - change advanced power settings - PCI express - Link State Power Management - Change setting to off.
3. Open Nvidia control panel, navigate to manage 3D settings and change power management mode to prefer maximum performance. (For a Nvidia gpu, there's probably a similar app/ setting for AMD cards but I'm not sure what it would be)

This seems to have stopped my computer crashing and restarting randomly, so hopefully this will help someone else from having the same problem.

 

[ipgreen]

Thank you so much, I also am now using my Dad's old XPS 8700 (with an i7 processor) as an extra computer, just upgraded with the msi gtx 1650 super aero itx card as well and have been having the exact same problem. Your solution appears to have worked, really appreciate it!

 

[jfk428]

Thanks a lot for the responses guys, I think I managed to fix the issue since my pc hasn't crashed and restarted in a few days since I changed some of the power settings. I found a thread with a similar question here:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/random-restarts-with-nvidia-gtx-1650.3585231/

It seems to be a somewhat common issue with the Dell XPS 8700, so in case anyone else has the same issue here are the steps I took that seemed to have solved the problem (in windows 10):

1. Go to power and sleep settings - additional power settings - show additional plans - select high performance as the preferred plan.
2. Once the high performance plan is selected, click on change plan settings - change advanced power settings - PCI express - Link State Power Management - Change setting to off.
3. Open Nvidia control panel, navigate to manage 3D settings and change power management mode to prefer maximum performance. (For a Nvidia gpu, there's probably a similar app/ setting for AMD cards but I'm not sure what it would be)

This seems to have stopped my computer crashing and restarting randomly, so hopefully this will help someone else from having the same problem.

thank you very much.

We did the BIOS reset and fresh drivers but was still intermittent. This seems to have stopped the rebooting.

I think the root cause is the MB power sagging, we are just telling the system to ignore it. I initially installed a new 500w PSU and it was worse. Then installed a AG-750M and it was less intermittent.

DELL8700, i7, 16GB ram, EVO-500 SSD, front fan add, 1650 super OC xlr8, AG-750m. 60fps all day...