Need Help with bios upgrade for HP Pavilion H8-1121

[Gartholameau]

The video card that came with this PC: AMD Radeon HD 6850 died and I tried to install an NVidia 960 card.  The card works perfectly in orther older PCs on Asus motherboards, but just gives a single long beep and 3 short beeps on this HP pc.  I can't find the link on HP site for firmware updates.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[Grzwacz]

Greetings Gartholameau,

I can't find your PC using H8-1121. So I don't know if your PC has a UEFI BIOS.

Nvidia 700 series graphics cards through 1000 series graphics cards require a UEFI BIOS.

The 960 will not work if your PC has a Legacy BIOS.

You have to enter the BIOS. Disable Secure boot and enable Legacy boot if your PC has a UEFI BIOS before you install the 960. Then save changes, exit the BIOS to restart the system, and confirm the change prior to loading the operating system.

You can now shut down. Then install the 960. The PC will now POST with the 960 installed.

Regards

[Gartholameau]

Thanks for the advice.  I will give it a try and let the forum know the result.  My PC can be found here:  https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03014584

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi Gartholameau,

Thanks for the link to your PC's specs.

Your PC  dates back to 2011 and shipped from the factory with Windows 7.

Your PC does not have the required UEFI BIOS to run an Nvidia GTX 960.

There is no BIOS update  to fix this.

Very sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Regards

[Gartholameau]

Thanks for your help.  I was trying to repurpose the 960 card from my more recent HP that I upgraded to an NVidia 1070.  Your advice has saved me wasting time blaming my lack of knowledge.  🙂  Thanks again. Gartholameau

[Grzwacz]

Hi Gartholameau,

You're very welcome.

Good to hear the 1070 works on the newer PC.

Tom