Graphics card problem. Need help ASAP.

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 5, 2016

I started buying parts from my build last year coming up to mid this year. I had purchased the graphics card last and was very excited to put it together. Everything in the new build seemed to function correctly, despite my 1-2 day wait for an OS from a friend. After downloading the OS I placed the CD of the graphics card and downloaded the software (Guru I think.) that was on the CD.

Problem: Since then I've had problems with updating and getting the card to be recognized and actually work. I notice that the led to the "Windforce" is on and the three on board fans spin, but I'm not certain if this an indication that the graphics card is working. I have searched the internet in search of ways to get it recognized and had almost got it to download one time. I've switched PCI ports and tried downloading old drivers from the website, clean install, checking if the port was secure in the slot. Nothing seems to be wrong. I've watched two or three videos on youtube of walkthroughs on to see how I might get it to work, but yet again I have failed. After a while, I began to think it was the OS that was on the computer, due to the fact my friend didn't give me the key, so I had hard reset the computer and downloaded Win7 which had a preloaded key. I also looked through some of the topics on other websites including this site, but also haven't had much luck. Due to that I decided to write my own post.

My build:
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A
Graphics card: Gigabyte Geforce gtx 970
Power supply: EVGA Supernova 850
Memory: G.Skil ripjaws v series 16gb (2 x 8gb)
Processor: Intel Core I7-6700

I'm just looking for a helpful solution: Instructions; other helpful solved topics; anything.

scuzzycard · Sep 5, 2016

You're going to have to make sure the graphics card is properly seated. Then either try your GTX 970 in a different machine or try a different GPU in your machine. This will determine whether the PCI-E slot on your board is the problem or the GPU itself is no good.

panathas · Sep 5, 2016

Do what the above said. One last thing though. It may seem silly but have you connected your monitor to the GPU or motherboard? It should be connected to your GPU. The fact that the fans spin and leds light means that your GPU is working. When you say it isn't recognised properly, what do you mean exactly and where did you get that from? When you are trying to install the drivers what messages are you getting?

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 6, 2016

I'll try getting my hands on a higher PSU and trying that out. Is there one that you recommend? And the types of messages that I've gotten were from the Nvidia driver installer software, not detecting any compatible Nvidia device, and the Nvidia driver scanner not picking up any Nvidia devices. I also tried seaching it in the device management and couldn't find it, only the on board intel graphics.

panathas · Sep 6, 2016

ThePhantom1996 :

You didn't answer my question. Have you connected your monitor to the GPU or is it connected to the motherboard?
It must be connected to the GPU. Yes I know it's silly question but I've seen it happening a lot, by mistake. Sometimes people forget the obvious.

We need to know what happens when you connect your monitor to the GPU and if you are getting any signal from it, on your screen. If it is indeed connected to your GPU maybe something is happening with the BIOS. Fist update it to the latest version you can find at the ASUS website. Then restore BIOS defaults or you can try resetting the BIOS/CMOS. If this doesn't work, go to your BIOS and try to disable your onboard intel GPU. You could also try finding other options related to graphics or onboard GPU and disable or enable them accordingly.

Finally as someone else already said, you have to try your GPU in a different machine so that you can be absolutely certain that it is working. If it works then something is going on with your motherboard. I don't thing your issue is PSU related. Your current PSU seems to be fine and it should be more that enough to power your system. So I think that you should only check your PSU after you test your GPU in another system and maybe after testing your system with another GPU if you can borrow one. But you have to make sure that this GPU is a similar one with the one you have now meaning it has to have similar power draw in order to test the power deliver system of your board/PSU. Good luck.

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 6, 2016

panathas :

ThePhantom1996 :

You didn't answer my question. Have you connected your monitor to the GPU or is it connected to the motherboard?
It must be connected to the GPU. Yes I know it's silly question but I've seen it happening a lot, by mistake. Sometimes people forget the obvious.

We need to know what happens when you connect your monitor to the GPU and if you are getting any signal from it, on your screen. If it is indeed connected to your GPU maybe something is happening with the BIOS. Fist update it to the latest version you can find at the ASUS website. Then restore BIOS defaults or you can try resetting the BIOS/CMOS. If this doesn't work, go to your BIOS and try to disable your onboard intel GPU. You could also try finding other options related to graphics or onboard GPU and disable or enable them accordingly.

Finally as someone else already said, you have to try your GPU in a different machine so that you can be absolutely certain that it is working. If it works then something is going on with your motherboard. I don't thing your issue is PSU related. Your current PSU seems to be fine and it should be more that enough to power your system. So I think that you should only check your PSU after you test your GPU in another system and maybe after testing your system with another GPU if you can borrow one. But you have to make sure that this GPU is a similar one with the one you have now meaning it has to have similar power draw in order to test the power deliver system of your board/PSU. Good luck.

Sorry about that. I have the Motherboard plugged into the monitor and would have to use a tv for the graphics card. Ill try to do your suggestion when I reach go to my cousins house.

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 6, 2016

A friend of mine told me to go to pcpartpicker.com and to add my build to see if the parts are compatible. it shows that it should be running just fine.

panathas · Sep 6, 2016

ThePhantom1996 :

This isn't a compatibility issue. You may either have a bad GPU or a bad motherboard provided you have properly installed your GPU, connected every cable and finally properly configured your system.

Why on earth you are still connecting your monitor to the motherboard and not your GPU? You have to disconnect it from the motherboard and connect that monitor, not your TV, to your GPU. If you don't then your motherboard will keep using the onboard Intel GPU and not your GTX 970, and your card won't get recognised by your system as it is happening right now. You have to completely disable the onboard GPU and the fist step is to disconnect every monitor or TV you may have connected to your motherboard. If you need to use a monitor and a TV at the same time you have to connect them both to your GPU and not the motherboard. Otherwise you won't be able to get any graphics card to work on your system.

If that doesn't work, then you should update and configure the BIOS as I said in a previous post and if your GPU keeps failing to work properly then you may start thinking that you have a bad GPU, motherboard or finally PSU.

scuzzycard · Sep 6, 2016

+1

Both monitors should be plugged into the GPU.

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 7, 2016

panathas :

ThePhantom1996 :

This isn't a compatibility issue. You may either have a bad GPU or a bad motherboard provided you have properly installed your GPU, connected every cable and finally properly configured your system.

Why on earth you are still connecting your monitor to the motherboard and not your GPU? You have to disconnect it from the motherboard and connect that monitor, not your TV, to your GPU. If you don't then your motherboard will keep using the onboard Intel GPU and not your GTX 970, and your card won't get recognised by your system as it is happening right now. You have to completely disable the onboard GPU and the fist step is to disconnect every monitor or TV you may have connected to your motherboard. If you need to use a monitor and a TV at the same time you have to connect them both to your GPU and not the motherboard. Otherwise you won't be able to get any graphics card to work on your system.

If that doesn't work, then you should update and configure the BIOS as I said in a previous post and if your GPU keeps failing to work properly then you may start thinking that you have a bad GPU, motherboard or finally PSU.

Just gave my Graphics card to a friend this morning to test on his build, sadly it wouldnt fit but I'm giving it to another friend. I guess that will determine if it works or not. If it does, I'll try what you said.

So for my to disable the motherboards gpu, I have to go to bios while the monitor is plugged into the gpu?

panathas · Sep 7, 2016

ThePhantom1996 :

OK that way you'll eventually know if your GPU is fine.

A monitor is driven my the GPU it is plugged into. If you want to drive your monitors from your GTX 970 you have to plug them into the it. It's that simple. You don't need the motherboard connectors and the onboard Intel GPU for that. That's why you bought the GTX 970 in the first place, right?

Since you don't need the onboard GPU, you want it disabled in order for the GTX 970 to work properly and the first step is to unplug every monitor/TV cable you have still connected to your motherboard and plug them into the GTX 970. If you do that and if you have previously installed correctly your GPU and connected the required power cables, then your motherboard will usually automatically recognise your GPU and disable the onboard one. If it doesn't then you should go into your BIOS and disable it manually yourself. The vast majority of the motherboards do that automatically and the ones who don't, usually need a BIOS update or CMOS reset.

If your GPU is indeed working in your friends PC and if you do follow all the steps that I mentioned in all my posts, your GPU will eventually work and you should be fine. Good luck and good gaming then.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you should uninstall the Intel GPU drivers from your windows before installing the NVIDIA drivers in order to avoid weird issues later such as blue screens, crashes, etc.

ThePhantom1996 · Sep 27, 2016

panathas :

ThePhantom1996 :

OK that way you'll eventually know if your GPU is fine.

A monitor is driven my the GPU it is plugged into. If you want to drive your monitors from your GTX 970 you have to plug them into the it. It's that simple. You don't need the motherboard connectors and the onboard Intel GPU for that. That's why you bought the GTX 970 in the first place, right?

Since you don't need the onboard GPU, you want it disabled in order for the GTX 970 to work properly and the first step is to unplug every monitor/TV cable you have still connected to your motherboard and plug them into the GTX 970. If you do that and if you have previously installed correctly your GPU and connected the required power cables, then your motherboard will usually automatically recognise your GPU and disable the onboard one. If it doesn't then you should go into your BIOS and disable it manually yourself. The vast majority of the motherboards do that automatically and the ones who don't, usually need a BIOS update or CMOS reset.

If your GPU is indeed working in your friends PC and if you do follow all the steps that I mentioned in all my posts, your GPU will eventually work and you should be fine. Good luck and good gaming then.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you should uninstall the Intel GPU drivers from your windows before installing the NVIDIA drivers in order to avoid weird issues later such as blue screens, crashes, etc.

I did what you said, unplugging everything from my Mobo, and only connecting to the GPU. The monitor goes into sleeping mode after the DVI is plugged in, but doesnt show a picture, even when I turn the PC on.

panathas · Sep 27, 2016

Are you using one or two monitors. Choose another connector, vga, displayport or HDMI or try another cable. Have you tested your GPU on another PC in order to make sure you don't have a bad card? Have you updated your motherboard's BIOS? You can update it by using the on-board Intel GPU. Have you cleared the CMOS?

ThePhantom1996 · Oct 4, 2016

panathas :

I'm only using one monitor and have switched to a different monitor at school. My friend said that he tried to force boot it. I got the GPU back and connected a DVI cord to the mobo. When i boot the pc up, the monitor goes dark but then changes to "screen saving mode". I even tried disabling the integrated graphics on my mobo and had everything connected to only the graphics card, but just got the same thing as before.

panathas · Oct 4, 2016

Wait, you said: "I got the GPU back and connected a DVI cord to the mobo". Why did you connect the cord to the mobo? You should plug the cord only into the GPU. If you do connect correctly the GPU to the monitor and you can't get any signal, then it is possible that you card is defective and you should RMA it. But before you do that, you should consider first updating you motherboard's BIOS, just in case this is a compatibility issue. You must use the onboard GPU in order to update the BIOS. Be extremely careful though with the whole process and read first your motherboard's manual.

ThePhantom1996 · Oct 5, 2016

panathas :

I connected to the Mobo after booting the pc from the GPU only a few times, but those attempts failed. Today at school, we used a different GPU on the Mobo, but the same issue with it not being detected and not being able to boot from the GPU. It may be that the mobo has a defective port, so I'm going to buy a new one, then try it out. I'll keep you posted.

panathas · Oct 5, 2016

ThePhantom1996 :

If you board is defective you should RMA it but before you do that you should first update the BIOS, as I already told you. Maybe what you are facing is a BIOS bug. Also try plugging the GPU on another PCIe slot and see what happens. Your board could have a bad PCIe slot. Finally make sure that your GPU is able to work properly on another system. I have a feeling that you are doing something wrong or you are forgetting something during the GPU installation procedure. Have you connected the proper power cables from the power supply to the GPU? You know that you have to connect the GPU to the power supply right? Sorry if I am forgetting something or repeating some things again and again but this thread is getting old.

Graphics card problem. Need help ASAP.

Commendable

Honorable

Splendid

Commendable

Splendid

Commendable

Commendable

Splendid

Honorable

Commendable

Splendid

Commendable

Splendid

Commendable

Splendid

Commendable

Splendid

Share this page