The Lenovo ThinkStation isn't compatible with the GTX 1650 graphics card.
The Lenovo ThinkStation isn't compatible with the GTX 1650 graphics card.
Hello everyone. I own two nearly identical Lenovo thinkstations. One serves as my NAS, but a while back I attempted to upgrade to Windows 11 using the original SSD that came with the system. The update went smoothly until after a shutdown and SSD replacement—then everything failed. Now it only displays a black screen. After some troubleshooting, I found two RAM slots were faulty. I removed those DIMMs and the machine started working, showing the LENOVO logo and freezing. I cleaned the CPU socket, RAM slots, and PCI EXPRESS port with an electrical cleaner, but it still didn’t power up or have CMOS. Recently, I cleaned the CPU socket, RAM slots, and PCIe port thoroughly, and now the RAM slots are functional. The graphics card remains unresponsive, though. If I swap in a different graphics card, the system boots normally. A random office-grade card also works when installed on the dead machine. I’m struggling to figure out how to get the graphics card operational. Any suggestions from the community would be appreciated?
It always freezes when using all three ports. I've also attempted to replace the power supply with the same outcome.
Have you verified the BIOS version? This problem initially affected certain older devices when they tried to run the GTX 1650 at its debut. The cause wasn’t clear—likely related to feature support—but many older units required a BIOS upgrade to properly identify and operate the card.
The bios is completely refreshed and everything functioned smoothly before the update. It happened after a windows update, causing issues and freezing at the "press enter to something startup" screen in the lengthen image. I just tried another random AMD card that requires extra power; it doesn’t boot. However, a card without auxiliary power works perfectly. I checked the power delivery to the PCIe card and it reads 12 volts. It seems there’s nothing obvious wrong.
You're interpreting the situation correctly. A GPU that works with power delivered directly to its PCIe slot provides video output, while the 1650 card needs a proper PSU connection. It seems your test focused on the power cable from the PSU, and the Windows update might have caused the issue unless a driver problem existed. Booting into Linux could help distinguish between a software or hardware fault.
You've already checked the power supply and tested different setups, but the issue persists. It might be a hardware fault. I'll keep trying to boot into Linux and will focus on troubleshooting further. You're planning to install Windows 7 and update the BIOS—good approach to rule out software conflicts.
I attempted to set up Windows 8.1 without a 7 installation and performed a BIOS update. Everything proceeded normally until after the update, when I powered off the system, replaced the graphics card with the GTX 1650, and the issue persisted. Now I only see this error message and it won’t proceed further.
I don't understand exactly what changed. But here we are. My system is now running with the GTX 1650 chip... The process went like this: I cleaned the PCIe slot and replaced the card, also cleaned the CPU socket and applied fresh thermal paste to the cooler. Then I installed Windows 8.1 to update the BIOS (only UEFI support). That didn't work. Next, I tried Windows 7 in CSM mode, updated everything, and flashed the BIOS successfully. But the card still wouldn't connect. I attempted to flash the BIOS from the boot menu, but I couldn't solve it. I then tried recovering the BIOS using the jumper settings on the motherboard. That only produced two short beep sounds, which was a failure. After reconfiguring the CMOS jumpers to the standard setting, the BIOS displayed an error message. I opened the configuration, saved it, restarted, and everything worked fine. After shutting down and switching to the GTX card, it booted up correctly. So after all the adjustments over the past two to three weeks, it seems to be functioning again.