[SOLVED] Upgrading HP PSU (possible adapter or return?)

[aggressivelyaverage]

The PC: hp pavillion desktop 590-p0066
Purchased PSU: Thermaltake smart series 700w

EDIT: Motherboard and PC specs (I barely know what I'm even looking at orz)

I wrongly assumed that HP PCs would be set up like literally every other generic. They are not; their motherboards use proprietary hookups, in place of the usual 20/24 pins. Everything else about the PC is far beyond my requirements except the graphics card. I already have a compatible card, but quickly found that the existing PSU is too weak to support it. Going from recommendations online, it was determined that my requirements need ~300w, double your needs is best, and I got a good deal on this 700w. Then I hit the HP roadblock...

So...

Can someone who knows what to look for figure out what pin set up this POS needs? Or should I give up and return the PSU and grab an HP one?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am seriously at my wits end here. I am completely fatigued from hunting down adapters, finding only poorly made ones (LITERALLY hot-glued?!), second guessing if they were even the correct pin sets, and I have less than a month to return the PSU if it's unusable. I can't even test if it's DOA since I have nothing to hook it up to. (Please don't recommend the "paper clip test", I don't want to potentially damage anything.)

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

The PC: hp pavillion desktop 590-p0066
Purchased PSU: Thermaltake smart series 700w

(Also posted in the PSU forum, as this is somewhat time sensitive)
Edit: I have less than a month to return the PSU. Wasted a week looking for help on Reddit and getting no replies. The HP Support forum is also less than helpful.

I finally bought a new PSU for my PC, only to find out HP's motherboard uses proprietary pin sets instead of the generic 20/24 pins. I've run myself to exhaustion again trying to figure this out on my own, so any advice would be a massive relief here.

Can anyone figure out what pins this motherboard needs? (I've forgotten, and barely know what I'm looking at to begin with. 2 4x4 pins? A 6 or 8? I really hate HP since buying this thing.)

There are tons of adapters available online, but the ones I've looked at all look extremely poor quality... Should/can I even get an adapter for this, or should I just return it for an HP specific one?

 

[COLGeek]

Please don't start multiple threads, in multiple sections of the forum, to ask the same question. Post in a single section and use tags to expand the topic as needed. Thank you.

Have you seen this info (I assume similar to your model)?

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...ply-Upgrade-for-an-HP-590-P0033W/td-p/6987299

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

Please don't start multiple threads, in multiple sections of the forum, to ask the same question. Post in a single section and use tags to expand the topic as needed. Thank you.

Have you seen this info (I assume similar to your model)?

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskt...ply-Upgrade-for-an-HP-590-P0033W/td-p/6987299

Yes, and reading the comments there they have the same issue. HP's PSUs are way underpowered and the pins are are not compatible with anything else. Even the recommended item they were linked ended up not being compatible with the propriety sets. I'm looking for adapters, but most of them look like something hacked together in someone's garage and I'm very hesitant to trust them.

EDIT: the adapter in the YT link on that thread doesn't even have the same HP set up, aside from the 4x4's. If you watch it, the youtuber shows the adapter he bought having the same pin set, but the actual wires are in the wrong order... I'm not an electrician, so I'm not comfortable with rewiring a PC part...

 

[COLGeek]

Most adapters are, in deed, not to be trusted.

Just to confirm...is this the motherboard?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05999927

Seems you may need this PSU:

https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Pavilion-Gaming-790-0020-L04618-800/dp/B088BYWSBN

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

Most adapters are, in deed, not to be trusted.

Just to confirm...is this the motherboard?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05999927

Yep, that's it.
You can see the 4x4's at the top & bottom, and the 2x4 in the middle bottom, just to the left of the bottom 4x4. I have no idea what these are, but they are all that go to the current PSU.

Edit: I'm not 100% that the 2x4 is the main hook up, I'd have to reopen the PC to check. It was a very thin plug, which I though was a single line. (I'm posting from said PC)

 

[COLGeek]

Yep, that's it.
You can see the 4x4's at the top & bottom, and the 2x4 in the middle bottom, just to the left of the bottom 4x4. I have no idea what these are, but they are all that go to the current PSU.

There is no reliable way to adapt the TT PSU. See above for a PSU (only 400w) that may meet your needs. What GPU are you trying to power in this rig?

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

There is no reliable way to adapt the TT PSU. See above for a PSU (only 400w) that may meet your needs. What GPU are you trying to power in this rig?

Whatever it shipped with (also in that link). I'm just trying to upgrade the graphics card, but the existing PSU is not powerful enough. According to various random "check your build" sites, I'd need about 300w, but it was also recommended to aim for double your needs for best performance...

 

[COLGeek]

For the integrated video adapter, you don't need more power. If adding a video card to the system, you might need more power.

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

For the integrated video adapter, you don't need more power. If adding a video card to the system, you might need more power.

I definitely need more power. With the graphics card installed, it was unable to fully boot.

Someone on Reddit is helping me look for adapters, but they are just as puzzled about the HP pin set up. Even between HP PCs, they don't seem to use the same configuration.

 

[COLGeek]

What graphics card are you trying to use?

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

What graphics card are you trying to use?

A fairly old one, from my older (dead) PC. It 's better than what this one shipped with and worked fantastic in the old PC. It also fits in the case fine, but draws too much power apparently.

The original box is long gone, but the card itself says HD 657X CL CLFX2.1 2GB PCI-E (Radeon). Not the exact model, but this is the closest I could find: https://www.newegg.com/xfx-radeon-hd-6570-hd-657x-cnf2/p/N82E16814150580

 

[ChumP]

A fairly old one, from my older (dead) PC. It 's better than what this one shipped with and worked fantastic in the old PC. It also fits in the case fine, but draws too much power apparently.

The original box is long gone, but the card itself says HD 657X CL CLFX2.1 2GB PCI-E (Radeon). Not the exact model, but this is the closest I could find: https://www.newegg.com/xfx-radeon-hd-6570-hd-657x-cnf2/p/N82E16814150580

As per your HP specifications, you actually have a 310W 80+ Gold PSU. The HD6570 is a 60W TDP card... I really doubt the PSU being the problem here.

It might actually be a problem related to Secure Boot. You might need to switch to Legacy mode and disable Secure Boot to get the card working. That is because the HD 6570 is an older card that only has Legacy BIOS support and you're running in UEFI.

Here's how from HP documentation: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04784866

You'll need to go to the desktop section and DISABLE Secure boot + Enable Legacy. Follow the guide there (obviously you'll need to run on your integrated graphics to make these changes... swap to the dedicated after doing them).

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

As per your HP specifications, you actually have a 310W 80+ Gold PSU. The HD6570 is a 60W TDP card... I really doubt the PSU being the problem here.

It might actually be a problem related to Secure Boot. You might need to switch to Legacy mode and disable Secure Boot to get the card working. That is because the HD 6570 is an older card that only has Legacy BIOS support and you're running in UEFI.

Here's how from HP documentation: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04784866

You'll need to go to the desktop section and DISABLE Secure boot + Enable Legacy. Follow the guide there (obviously you'll need to run on your integrated graphics to make these changes... swap to the dedicated after doing them).

Thank you so much for the help so far!

I have stuff rendering in the background right now, so I'll give that a shot tomorrow morning and update here with the results!

 

[aggressivelyaverage]

You might need to switch to Legacy mode and disable Secure Boot to get the card working.

It worked! Card is installed and everything is running normally.
I'm going to keep the PSU around for future (non-HP!) builds, seeing how it's overkill for what I work with.

Should I re-enable Secure Boot, or do you think it might disable the card again? I've already installed its drivers & software, so it should be good.

Thank you again for all the help, I'm soooo relieved to have this set up properly again!

 

[ChumP]

Nope, leave it disabled.
Glad it worked fine.
About the PSU... Thermaltake smart series models are actually really low quality models. I'll advise against using it unless it's a lower end/older system.
You'll be better off returning that PSU (if you can) and getting a higher quality model when needed. Ask here for recommendations then... just giving my two cents.

Don't forget to mark this as solved by awarding the best answer: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/how-to-award-best-answers-mark-question-as-solved.3450478/

 

[JMF50]

Just a quick comment I would like top add here. 2 Christmas' ago I bought a HP 8200 Elite to use for the base for my upgrades. I had learned about this and had been keeping the previous PC current until it died. Actually, for an Acer it was a great PC. As I work on my friends PC's I noticed how common everything was from unit and brand to the next. My wife's HP was faster than mine so I went with HP. That's when I learned about "SFF"! Then last year or the very next I bought a PC Pavilion. I researched and compared until my eyes bled so as not to make the same mistake again. So just exactly what is a "mini desktop"? Why isn't it clearly stated on the descriptions? (Amazon, Best Buy etc.) Refurb no problem! But up until just recently you couldn't upgrade the PSU without first refinancing house, they only have 1-PCIe X 16 expansion slot(the other x1) I had to cut off 5/8" of my RX-580 8 GB Dual fan and still had to jam it to get it in, the CPU installed "is the upgrade" and the RAM I upgraded to I'm not sure made any difference. Plus I added SSD 500G Crucial and a SSD NVM 500GB (or whatever its called) and the jury is still out on that. Last attempt and fail was when I tried to upgrade my GPU again to a GTX-1650 Super and the MB cannot handle it nor is it on that GPU's whitelist for compatibility. So what did I learn in the last 2 years? If you are gaming and want a better rig do not purchase anything off the shelf. The shopping list for these is cheap. Anything you purchase and put together yourself is infinitely better than store bought. The bad thing is I wanted to make something better and faster since I knew how to now but instead only learned how much these name brands suck and hold you back (to include Dell...). You waste time, money and lose your patients. It's not fun and it's not worth it. Build your own! PS-I will follow this up the very first time I fire up my new self built rig and I'll bet you my story is about a better experience all the way around. JMF50! -12/5/2020-