Black screen when installing a new GPU -- please help!

Hi all. I tried installing my new GPU today (GTX 1660 Ti), but when I boot up the PC I only get a black screen once I get past the motherboard boot-up screen. (Also, this particular screen seems to remain onscreen much longer than it did with my previous card. It was almost instant with the other card. Now it hangs around for maybe 20-30 seconds.)

I put my old card back in and uninstalled the old drivers, both through Control Panel and then using DDU. That still didn't work and I'm still getting the black screen once I get past the long boot-up screen.

If it matters, the light on my monitor is orange instead of blue. Blue means it's on and is receiving a signal. Orange means on but no signal.

Please help!

Edit: For what it's worth, the card is installed properly as far as I know. Firmly in the slot, 8-pin connector...that's about it. My previous card had two 6-pin connectors, so I used one of them with the 2-pin extension. The other isn't used.

Edit 2: I've also tried going into the BIOS screen during startup to see if the motherboard is listed as the primary display, but even though the boot up screen remains onscreen for so long (and tells me to press Del for BIOS), pressing the key (once, repeatedly, holding it down) doesn't do anything.

Edit 3: I've also noticed that I'm not hearing the usual Windows startup sounds. I figured I was still booting into Windows but just not seeing it, yet I don't hear the usual noises. Not sure what that means. I have everything plugged in just as it used to be.

Edit 4: OK, well, regarding that last edit...I've been sitting here for a bit wondering what to do, and suddenly I heard the Windows boot up sound. I don't know why it took so long, but it sounded like Windows did boot up, I just can't see it. But it didn't do that before.

There are three other things I can think of to try:

1. Check the BIOS order to see if the PCI slot is above the motherboard. But wouldn't it already have to be if the old card still works properly? Or is the new card something different? I guess it's still worth checking, but I think I need to put the old card back in to get to the BIOS -- or to do any of this, really.

Also, would plugging the HDMI cable into the motherboard HDMI port make something appear on the screen? Because that didn't work either.

2. Go into Device Manager and disable the integrated graphics.

3. Install the drivers for the new card before I install the new card? Not sure if this would even work.

Were you able to see the screen using the other video card? If so, you might want to try going into bios and change video output to Auto. Or you may even want to reset bios to defaults but make sure you change Sata operation back to AHCI if that isn't default. Are you overclocking at all?

johnb35 said:

Were you able to see the screen using the other video card? If so, you might want to try going into bios and change video output to Auto. Or you may even want to reset bios to defaults but make sure you change Sata operation back to AHCI if that isn't default. Are you overclocking at all?

Click to expand...

With the old card, it works normally. It boots up fast and goes into Windows normally.

With the new card, I still see the boot up screen, but it remains onscreen a lot longer than normal, and from there the screen goes black.

But even with the boot up screen, pressing Del to enter BIOS does nothing. Maybe it will work with the old card, but what if putting in the new card resets the BIOS again? But since the display works normally with the old card, wouldn't that mean the BIOS priority is already set correctly?

The new card is factory overclocked, but I'm not doing anything more to it.

You can try the clr cmos jumper as well. There is nothing standard about pc's. I've had to reset cmos just because of using a different video card. Can you boot to safe mode? It could be screen resolution for some reason is set too high. But usually when the screen goes black at windows login, that means its a driver issue.

But I'm just bringing up different things to try.

I'm not sure how to do the jumper thing. I also don't know how to boot into safe mode since I have nothing on the screen to see.

The last thing I did was uninstall the Nvidia drivers, then use the DDU program in safe mode to completely remove any remnants of Nvidia drivers.

So currently there are no drivers installed, other than (I assume) something basic to let me see what I'm doing, even though I can't even see that.

Do I need to install the new drivers before I put in the card? I've never done it that way before.

I feel like it's a driver issue too, but I don't know what the issue is at this point.

So I removed the card again and am using just the onboard graphics. Doing this, I am able to access the BIOS. I don't understand why I can't access it when the card is installed.

Anyway, the display priority is already set to Auto. What else do I need to check in here? Not sure what a lot of these options are.

::sigh:: Here's a summary of what I've done so far:

I have tried both the old card (GTX 670) and the onboard graphics, and in both cases I am able to enter BIOS on the boot screen. Further, the bootup screen only lasts about two seconds and then it continues into loading Windows normally.

When I try the new card (GTX 1660 Ti), it will show the boot screen, but pressing the keys to load BIOS/setup/etc. does nothing. It remains on the boot screen for quite a while, maybe 20-30 seconds, and then the screen goes black. After a few more seconds the monitor stops receiving a signal. And while the computer still seems to be running, it doesn't seem to be continuing to load into Windows, because I do not hear the usual startup sounds of Windows opening up (like the ocean when I have an ocean theme, etc.). There is just no noise. And pressing the power button immediately shuts down the computer. Usually, you have to hold it down for about 4 seconds to force a shutdown, so there seems to be something different happening during bootup when the new card is installed.

I tried resetting the BIOS settings, and I also set the display priority to PCI. That didn't work. All Nvidia drivers are uninstalled (except there is still a listing for PhysX in my control panel, but when I try to uninstall it, it says module not found. There are still some Nvidia folders left over...not sure if that matters.) The only driver I seem to have is the basic VGA display adapter.

I don't know what else to do. I'm hoping that the above behavior might help someone realize what is going on. It doesn't seem to be an issue with any other hardware, such as the monitor or cables, because they all work fine with the other card and onboard graphics. I tried using the other 6+2 pin connector, just in case that was an issue, and I removed all the rubber covers that were in the cards DisplayPort slots, even though I won't be using those slots. Nothing has worked.

I really hope someone can figure this out! I'm lost here.

Could it be a bad card?

AlienMenace said:

Could it be a bad card?

Click to expand...

Amazon is sending me another one and it should arrive Wednesday. At this point, I really hope it's the card! Maybe the new one will just work immediately.

I just tried another 1660 Ti and it's the same issue. I don't know what to do.......

johnb35 said:

You can try the clr cmos jumper as well

Click to expand...

JohnJSal said:

I'm not sure how to do the jumper thing.

Click to expand...

Were you able to reset the BIOS and try that way?

Yes, try resetting the cmos using the jumper or you can try removing the cmos battery for about 10 minutes after unplugging power from power supply and pressing power button for 10 seconds.

I haven't tried the jumper thing. I'm not sure how to do that, or how to remove the battery. My next step was going to be updating the BIOS. Should I try this first?

Either way its fairly simple. The cmos batter is only held in by a little metal clip, push out on it and the battery should pop up a little to where you can grab it. Page 28 of the manual will tell you how to use the jumper to reset cmos.

johnb35 said:

Either way its fairly simple. The cmos batter is only held in by a little metal clip, push out on it and the battery should pop up a little to where you can grab it. Page 28 of the manual will tell you how to use the jumper to reset cmos.

Click to expand...

It looks like my motherboard also has a CMOS reset switch. Can I just press that instead of the other methods? They worry me. I assume I just press the button once? Don't need to hold it down or anything? The manual doesn't specify.

Or should I try updating the BIOS instead?

I just keep having to carry my PC out of my room and onto a hardwood floor (I don't want to mess with it open on the carpet), and it's getting pretty tiring. I'm trying to figure out which method to try next that will cut down on how many times I have to keep doing this.

Quick question before I try this: was going into the BIOS and resetting the options to factory default not the same thing as resetting the CMOS in these other ways?

You can use the button to reset cmos, didn't know this board had one.

Ok, resetting CMOS didn't work. Last resort seems to be upgrading the BIOS, so I guess I'll try that now.

I'm actually a little hopeful about this, since I can't seem to access the BIOS with the new card, and Windows won't load past the POST screen, so maybe that's an indication that the card isn't communicating with the motherboard. Maybe this will finally fix it.

Oh my god, the BIOS update worked!!!

Thank you guys for all the help and suggestions! You kept me moderately sane through this process!