Problems Installing New Video Card

[dsbrophy]

I own an HP Pavilion Elite h8-1260t, which I purchased in March of 2012. It's running Windows 7 (I tried 10 and went back to 7.) It's technically no longer under warranty, but hopefully someone can help me out here.

I just bought a EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC. After reading many reviews and random forum threads with people successfully installing this GPU into older, seemingly less sophisticated machines, I figured I would have no issues with my computer.

When I install the card, the computer powers on, enters the initial HP splash screen, then there is one long audible beep. Shortly thereafter there is another long beep immediately followed by three short beeps in rapid succession. At this point everything locks up, I can't access System Settings or do anything else—I just have to press the power button to shut off the machine and start over.

I have read virtually every single forum thread I could find on this subject and am still unable to solve my issue. I followed instructions on installing a new graphics card exactly. I uninstalled all of the existing AMD Radeon drivers, and even disabled the on-board graphics. I tried this both manually, and again after using "Display Driver Uninstaller" which was made for this very purpose. Still nothing.

Most of the threads I come across on this matter are focused on accessing BIOS and disabling secure boot, and enabling legacy boot. However, when I get into my system setting upon startup, these options are not available on my system. There is no "BIOS Settings" option. There is no "Secure Boot Configuration", nothing about legacy boot... nothing. The only mention of the word "BIOS" is a list of days to enable/disable.

Other Things I've tried:

- Updated BIOS with most recent available update on product support page

- CMOS flush-- powered down computer, removed little battery

- Booted into safe mode, ran Display Driver Uninstaller, shut down, installed new card... same problem

I see essentially 3 potential solutions to my problem:

1) This graphics card is not compatible with my PC/motherboard, period. Time for a new computer. If someone can answer this definitively I will be as happy as if I can get it to work. I just hate this "what if??" period.

2) I need to upgrade my power supply. Over the years I've upgraded to an SSD, 16 GB Ram, added an additional PCI USB 3.0 card, and have 2 internal Sata HDD. As I mentioned, the system seems to power on just fine with the new video card. Is it possible to get past this point, but for the issue to still come down to the power supply? How would I know this?

3) There is some other way to access "Advanced BIOS" or something so I can make changes to secure boot/legacy boot settings. 

Please help a brotha out!!!  Thank you. 

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi dsbrophy,

The BIOS on your h8-1260t is a Legacy BIOS which cannot be updated to UEFI BIOS. The 1050ti needs a UEFI BIOS.

Grzy

[dsbrophy]

Thank you, and you were/are correct. Had to return the card 

I looked up the HP IPISB-CH2 Motherboard on pc-specs.com and it says the Radeon RX 460 Sapphire Nitro 4GB DDR5 would work. I ordered the Gigabyte Radeon Rx 460 Windforce OC 4GB GDDR5, thinking it was more or less the same, and it still doesn't work. Losing my mind here...

I am not ready to do a full-on system upgrade. Can you perhaps recommend a decent video card upgrade that would work with my MB/BIOS, that is still a decent performance upgrade, in the ~4GB DDR5 realm? Thanks again.

[Grzwacz]

Hi dsbrophy

You are welcome.

That is a tough one.

It seems Sapphire is the only OEM making graphics cards with the UEFI/Legacy BIOS switch.

The R9 Fury X sports 4GB but it is water cooled. It supports a Legacy BIOS. I don't see any reference to the required power supply. Sapphire has some dual BIOS cards but they don't scale up to 4 GB.

You can look at other options Sapphire has. Most of the UEFI/Legacy BIOS cards don't include the amount of RAM you want. The (X) series cards seem to have Dual BIOS options.

Nvidia has almost no Legacy cards available. MSI is the only one I have seen . It is a GTX 750TI.

Grzy

[Grzwacz]

Hi dsbrophy

Missed the fact that the last link for MSI also has some Legacy AMD cards with 4 GB of RAM.

Scroll down the page to see the options.

Grzy

[dsbrophy]

One final update—

I bought a used Sapphire Radeon NITRO R9 380X 4GB for about $170, and it works flawlessly! Interestingly, it didn't have the UEFI/Legacy switch on it like I thought it would, but it fired right up in my PC without issue! So happy. Thanks, @Grzwacz for the help!