Installing Nvidia GPU on system with onboard AMD Radeon graphics

[MikeFL]

Dear Forum Members:

System is an off-the-shelf HP Pavilion p6-2107c from Sam's with onboard AMD Radeon HD 6530D Graphics. I have 3 of these systems.

On one of these systems the onboard graphics died, so I bought a EVGA Geforce GT730.

When I install the new GPU in the system with the dead onboard GPU, all I get is black screens (connecting 2x DVI to 2x 24" monitors at a workstation).

So I took the GPU out of the unit with the bad onboard GPU and installed it in a working unit. Same black screen problem. Removed the new GPU and started the system back up. Attempted to download the Nvidia drivers for the new GPU and installation fails because it can not detect the new GPU (because it's not installed).

So I'm at a point where I can't install the new GPU. If I do, I get black screens and no opportunity to install drivers. If I try to install drivers before installing the GPU, driver installation fails because there is no GPU present.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thank you.

 

[Johan45]

You need to set the graphics option from on board to PCIe in BIOS more than likely. This might be an issue with the broken 6530D as you can't see BIOS either way. Some boards would default to onbard graphics when setting default in BIOS. You can try to do it blindly. You have the same board so just try to mimick the steps to get into that section of BIOS and make the necessary change. You might get luck and the board will default to auto but I have my doubts. It's possible being an HP that you may not have the option in BIOS at all.

 

[MikeFL]

Thanks very much. I'll give this suggestion a try.

 

[trents]

Try reseting the bios to default with the CMOS jumper or pull the battery if it doesn't have jumpers. If the bios was configured so that the onboard gaphics only are being initialed and the onboard graphics are shot then that would produce the dilemma you are experiencing.

Your problem is not being able install the Nvidia drivers since they don't even load until Windows starts. If you aren't getting any video during post up that is not a driver issue.

Are you sure the GT 730 itself is working properly? Maybe the card is bad. After all, it ain't working on the other computer either. You need to confirm that the video card is good.

 

[don256us]

Ditto and ditto.

 

[trents]

Another thing you need to try is making sure the proper video input on the monitor is selected. If when you installed the GT 730 you switched over to a different kind of video cable (e.g., from VGA to DVI or DVi to HDMI) then the monitor may not be auto detecting the change as you expect. You may need to do that with the buttons on the display.