Pavilion 690 Desktop - Dedicated Graphics Card not Recognised

[nh482]

Hi, I've bought a used HP Pavilion 690 Gaming Desktop (https://support.hp.com/hr-en/document/c06145404) but I can only get video out of the onboard graphics card, not the dedicated GTX 1060 6GB.

When I open the device manager the GTX 1060 is not listed at all and if I try to install the NVIDIA drivers that fails as it cannot find the hardware. All other drivers are installed and up to date.

From reading the documentation I can find my understanding is that if the motherboard detects a dedicated GPU then it should disable the onboard GPU. 

Things I've tried so far:

• Removing the CMOS battery - BIOS resets but still doesn't detect dedicated GPU.
• The GTX 1060 (HP branded, so I'm assuming it was in the PC when new) works just fine in another computer
• After thinking the motherboard might be at fault I found another 690 Lincs motherboard (It's an i5-8400 CPU) but this had the same problem

Is there something else I need to do to get it to recognise the dedicated GPU?

Thanks!

[Prométhée]

hi

Very curious, if you say it works well with another computer
For the second motherboard, not conclusive, we cannot be certain that 100% in good condition..
So you have connected the card to another computer so I assume you have checked and connected the pci cable
External power cable: One 2x3 (6 pin)

If the graphics card is not detected at all, it may be a power supply problem..
is the power supply the original one?Internal 310 W PSU

• 310 W SFF (Gold) Full range 115V/230V
• 90% efficiency

Can you try another graphics card ?
it is possible that this computer is sold, precisely because there was a problem!

Everything listed here is in place?

https://support.hp.com/hr-en/document/c06145404

[nh482]

Yes, the 6 pin power cable is plugged in and the power supply appears to be original: 310W Gold. The rest of the PC seems to be original too. I don't have another graphics card to test with at the moment.

[nh482 · Accepted solution]

Ok, I've just put the GTX 1060 back into the HP and this time it has actually detected it and I can install the NVIDIA drivers. I'm not sure why it didn't detect it before but it seems to be working ok now... 

[Prométhée]

Possibly incorrectly plugged in, otherwise it will remain a mystery

[nh482]

I don't think that's true actually, the card was plugged in to the motherboard correctly. I think the motherboard doesn't actually detect whether a dedicated GPU is present, but whether a display cable is plugged in to the onboard GPU or not.

After getting the dedicated GPU working and installing the drivers I rebooted the PC with cables connected to both the internal GPU and the dedicated GPU - the system reverted to only putting a signal out to the onboard GPU.

I reset the CMOS again and then powered up the system, making sure to only have a cable connected to the dedicated GPU. It took longer than I had expected (30-60 seconds) for an image to show, but it did come back.

[Prométhée]

hi

"I think the motherboard doesn't actually detect whether a dedicated GPU is present, but whether a display cable is plugged in to the onboard GPU or not."

given that this is the original configuration, you actually had a curious problem..
But no, it doesn't have to be exactly that
When you buy a computer, you install it, the screen is connected to the graphics card, it starts without problem
This has been the case with all my hp computers so far!
I also replaced, or installed a new graphics card, and restarted with the screen directly connected to the graphics card!