HP ProDesk 600 G1 Small Form Factor - Installing new GPU

[KyleMan]

Hello, 

I have inherited a HP ProDesk 600 G1 SFF motherboard with attached CPU and RAM which as been transplanted into a larger case with upgraded 550W power supply. The system boots into windows with no errors and has been running daily for several months without issue. 

I am attempting to install a new GPU to the system. It is a PCIe card,  EVGA GeForce GTX 750 tI FTW. The card installs into the PCIe slot and is powered with external power directly from the PSU. 

I problem I'm having is that I can't get the computer to use the PCIe card in preference to the onboard VGA. It will boot into windows running and install the drivers for the Geforce card. I then turn off the PC and plug the cables into the GPU and get no picture. I have tried all three ports on the card and nothing. As soon as you plug the cable back into the onboard VGA monitor comes back on and everything boots. 

I have updated the BIOS to what appears to be the most current (2.75 June 8, 2018) and still no luck. 

When I log onto the BIOS to try and disable the VGA the options the "Integrated VGA" and "VGA Configuration" is greyed out so I can't manually disable the onboard VGA to force it to run from PCIe card. Nothing else in the BIOS is greyed out so its not a permissions thing that I can see. 

I have also tried a separate PCIe card just in case I had a damaged GPU card, but same result. 

I'm kind of at the end of my tether. Any help would be appreciated. 

Thanks 

Kyle

[Grzwacz]

Greetings Kyle,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not an HP employee.

Since no one has responded I will take a shot.

The Intel Q85 chipset supports PCIe revision 2.0. This is good. 

Your PC has a UEFI BIOS. The 750 Ti requires this. So this is also good.

You could try BIOS Security settings for global system settings. Change the following settings before installing the 750:

-Disable Secure boot. Enable Legacy boot. Save changes. Reboot the PC. You may have to enter a four digit confirmation code to complete this change.

-Load Windows.

-Uninstall the existing graphics drivers. Shut down.

Next:

-Install the 750 in the x16 slot. Reboot the PC. Now install the Nvidia drivers.

Let the forum know if this works.

Regards

[KyleMan]

Hello,

Thanks for getting back to me. I have confirmed that the current settings are:

Legacy Support: Enabled
Secure Boot: Disabled

Uninstalled Nvidia drivers and turned off the computer. Installed the 750 into the PCI slot and booted computer up.

With cable still plugged into onboard video got no picture on the screen until the windows loading screen (no HP logo, post screen or white text usually saying 'press ESC to enter setup' etc).

Windows booted, installed Nvidia drivers and powered down the computer. Swapped cables to the 750 and no picture. Swapped back to onboard and monitor turns on.

I opened up device managerto check it was installed correctly and the 750 is present but in properties it says:

'This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use (Code 12)'

I tired disabling the onboard video but that just resulted in no picture at all.

Any other ideas?

Thanks

Kyle

[Grzwacz]

Hi Kyle,

I follow the Legacy and Secure boot setting.

You then uninstalled Nvidia drivers.

Did you have a different Nvidia card installed in the MB?

You have to remove all previous graphics drivers until you are using the generic Windows graphics driver. I would also disconnect from the network so W10 does not load the onboard graphics driver before you can install the 750 driver after removing  the HP factory or W10 onboard graphics driver. W10 will also install a watered down Nvidia driver for the 750 if you are connected to the network after the PC successfully boots with the monitor connected to the 750.

You then installed the 750. Don't connect the monitor to the onboard video port after installing the 750. Connect to the 750.

The system should now boot to the 750 with generic Windows graphics drivers.

Now install the Nvidia 750 driver. Reconnect to the network.

Regards

[Grzwacz]

Hi Kyle,

I have more experience with HP consumer PCs. HP consumer PCs auto disable onboard graphics when you install a discrete graphics card. I would be surprised if HP Enterprise PCs don't also do this. 

You should drill down to the Windows provided graphics driver before you install a discrete graphics card.

Maybe you have to disable onboard graphics in the BIOS before you install the 750. This means you must immediately install the 750 before you try to boot the system after disabling onboard graphics. Otherwise you will have no video and the PC will be DOA. I don't think HP would allow this scenario to happen as it would be a support nightmare.

You must connect the monitor to the 750 after removing the onboard graphics driver.

Regards

[KyleMan]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the setting for onboard graphics is greyed out in the BIOS and so can't manually disable.

I also assumed that it would auto disable the onboard once a card is installed, but it doesn't seem to be doing it

[Grzwacz]

Hi

You're very welcome.

Wow! I have no idea what is happening here.

I have never seen  anything like this. It should not be this hard to install a discrete graphics card in a PC.

Best wishes.

Regards

[KyleMan]

I originally thought there may be some lock or something on the PCIe port that HP put on considering it doesn't default when a new GPU is installed and that the option to disable onboard VGA is greyed out in the BIOS also as seen in my previous post the card is not being given enough 'free resources'.

You never know, I could just have a faulty PCIe port as I know the card is not faulty as it has been pulled from a working setup.

Anyway, will attempt driver wipe and reinstall and port my results. Thanks again for the help.

[KyleMan]

Ok so finally managed to do as you suggested.

Logged on to windows and uninstalled all graphics drivers and installed the 750. Plugged the cable into it and..... Nothing. No picture at all unfortunately

Happy to try any other suggestions.

Thanks

Kyle

[Grzwacz]

Hi Kyle,

You're very welcome.

I am perplexed. Maybe another forum member has additional insight.

I have seen some older consumer HP PCs which would only see HP recommended graphics cards. 

HP lists approved graphics cards for your system at the specification site.

You can view the cards HP has listed for use in your system here.

Regards