Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Computer Restarting Randomly

Apr 16, 2020 4:57PM PDT

Hello,
I recently went to upgrade my graphics card in my pc, and since then have been down this rabbit hole of problems. So to start, here is the list of my pc components
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K Haswell Socket 1150 LGA

Motherboard: LENOVO
Model SHARKBAY (SOCKET 0) 31900003 STD Intel Haswell

RAM: DDR3 1600 MHz DIMM 16GB (2x8gb)

PSU: Evga Supernova 650 G5 80 plus gold

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1650 Super 4GB

Misc: SATA 2TB Hard Drive, DVD optical drive, razer keyboard/mouse, turtlebeach headphones, 2x24" led monitors

Like i said i recently changed my GPU from a GTX 650 (really old) to the GTX 1650 Super. The first one i bought was a Zotac 1650 super and it caused my computer to restart randomly when i had it installed. After a lot of time troubleshooting with zotac themselves, they told me the card is defective because the restarts would only happen when i was on the 1650 super card and not my old 650 card.

Also, i replaced my PSU to a brand new one even though my other one is also 650W and seems in good condition, just to rule out the power supply. Anyways, i got another zotac replacement, same card, and the second one behaved the same way so they told me it might be the batch or something defective. So i ordered this gigabyte GPU im now using. I installed it yesterday in the recommnded way (DDU, safe mode, install new drivers, etc...).

The rest of the day after it was working perfectly and i thought i was in the clear. Then i turned off my computer, and when i turned it back on today, it worked for a few hours before having a restart. I didnt want to relive the restart loops from the last cards, so i went straight to safe mode, DDU the drivers, and disabled the card so im not on the intel graphics that comes with the computer.

With both zotac and nvidia i went through almost every troubleshooting, including PSU like i said, RAM testing and swapping, obviously changed the GPU, and driver wipes and installs, so i lost to what the problem might be. Could it be the motherboard isnt compatible? or the cpu. But then why does the old 650 card work perfectly and the new ones have some problem? And how come for the most part the restarts begin after having turned off the computer once after fresh installing the drivers (aka clean driver install, shutdown, startup, then problem starts).

Its very strange and i want to be able to upgrade my graphics card because the old one really sucks. Please help, thanks so much

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Well, there's the other issue.
Apr 16, 2020 7:20PM PDT

The 1650 DEMANDS the UEFI BIOS and the old card did not. Any flaw and you see problems like this.

Try the GTX 1060 next.

I would think of other things but the machine and story have me point at UEFI issues. Is the BIOS their latest?

- Collapse -
BIOS
Apr 17, 2020 2:00AM PDT

So my computer says it is on the UEFI bios, but in terms of the version, it just gives me a version number (IIKT15AUS) and a date of release (7/13/2013). I cant seem to find a way to update lenovo UEFI BIOS on their own website or elsewhere online.