Hey everyone, so my dad, who's been building PCs for ages, recently upgraded his graphics card and gave me his old one since it's way better than mine. I installed it today, and everything booted up fine. However, after shutting it down to take the old card to the tech shop, I came back a few hours later to play some games. I noticed the power button light was still on, and now when I try to power on the PC, it leads me to a black screen with just the blue Windows loading cursor. It will only boot into safe mode or a special Gigabyte safe mode setup, which I haven't tinkered with since I'm pretty green at this.
I went from an Nvidia GTX 970 to an RTX 2070, and I suspect there might be an issue with the Nvidia drivers since I've only ever had the 970 and now I'm worried they're conflicting with the new card. I can't seem to uninstall the old drivers in safe mode, and I'm stuck on how to reinstall them properly. Any tips on how to troubleshoot this would be massively appreciated, especially since it's late and I can't reach out to my dad for help without waking my girlfriend in the next room!
2 Answers
First off, make sure your power supply (PSU) is adequate for the RTX 2070. The new card might require more power than your old 970, so check your PSU's wattage. You can usually find this information by looking at the labels on the PSU itself, but if you're in safe mode, that info might not be visible. If it’s an older system, it’s definitely worth considering an upgrade to your PSU to avoid any issues with power delivery.
You might need to remove and reinstall your video drivers. Use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) while in safe mode—this tool helps you properly uninstall graphics drivers without any leftover files that could cause conflicts. After you uninstall, reinstall the latest drivers for the RTX 2070 from the Nvidia website. That should help things get back on track.
Good idea! DDU has saved me a headache in the past. Just follow the steps carefully, and it should work out.
Yeah, definitely look into your power supply! If it’s underpowered, that could explain the problems you’re having. If the tech shop built your rig, you could also check with them about what PSU you have.