Time for an upgrade?

So, I picked up a cheap NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 nitro+ 8GB (mostly for mining 😁), plugged it into my old motherboard that supposedly supports it, hooked up the power, fired up the PC, installed the latest drivers, and—nothing. The Device Manager actually recognizes the card, but there’s a yellow exclamation mark with the message: “macOS has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)”. 😵
I’ve tried every troubleshooting step I could find—flashing the BIOS, clean driver installs, even a full reinstall of macOS. Same result every time.
Anyway, I'm stuck with this GPU and I need some help:

1. Any recommendations on how to test the card itself? Specifically, a reliable repair shop that can run diagnostics without charging an absolute fortune?

2. If the card turns out to be fine, I'm planning an upgrade. Essentially, I'm building a new PC around a few existing parts.
Here is what I currently have:
- The GPU mentioned above
- Power supply (EVGA 650W, Bronze)
- Storage (250GB SSD + 1TB HDD)
- Monitor
- I might grab an ASRock H81 Pro BTC R2.0 motherboard, but I'm not sure if it's any good.

Here is what I still need:
- Motherboard (see above)
- Processor
- RAM
- Case
- Whatever else I'm forgetting

Besides gaming, I plan on running virtual machines, so I'll need plenty of RAM and a solid processor. My budget for these specific components is roughly $1667—lower is better, though I can stretch it slightly if it actually makes sense to spend more.
Thanks!

Did you flash the BIOS on the GPU or the motherboard? I'm thinking someone might have messed with the graphics card's BIOS, which would explain why it's acting up.

Since that card has dual BIOS, maybe try finding the physical switch on the card itself and flipping it to the other BIOS to see if things change. Just make sure the PC is powered off before you mess with it.

fadedorca66 said:Did you flash the BIOS on the GPU or the motherboard? It's highly likely someone messed with the graphics card BIOS, and now it’s acting up.

Since the card has dual bios, look for a physical toggle switch on the unit itself. Flip it to the secondary BIOS while the PC is powered down and see if the behavior changes.

That’s a good point; I didn't think of that.
I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes. Thx.

AMD Ryzen 7 1700 box ASUS Prime X370-PRO g. Skill
ASUS PRIME X370-PRO
G.Skill - Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2400MHz
Cooler Master MasterBox K500 4.974

$1.75 - Micro Center

You could probably pick a different case, but this one is $217.

fadedorca66, thanks for the tip, you nailed it. I swapped out the BIOS, got everything running, then switched back and flashed it—now both are working perfectly. Honestly, I feel a bit (okay, a lot) foolish for wasting two whole days on something that took me thirty minutes to fix once I knew what to do. 😁

crimsonstag84 said:AMD Ryzen 7 1700 BOX
ASUS PRIME X370-PRO
G.Skill - Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 2400MHz
Cooler Master MasterBox K500

$1.75 - Micro Center

You can pick up a different case, but this one is $217.

Back in 2010, I took your advice when buying a PC. It’s still running perfectly fine today (+SSD, power supply, and now a new GPU):

🙏

Man, I had just started looking into that 😁

Btw, prices for certain RAM models and capacities have dipped again. You might want to grab these two:

They're using the exact same chips, -$67.

Bradley Ramos11 said:fadedorca66, thanks for the tip, you nailed it. I swapped the BIOS, everything worked, then switched back and reflashed, and now that one works too. I feel kind of (okay, totally) stupid for wasting two days on something I fixed in half an hour. 😁

Nice 👍

Don't sweat it; without experience or someone pointing you in the right direction, this is a pretty nasty issue to tackle. You wouldn't think a GPU BIOS could act that glitchy, and honestly, most people don't even realize a card has its own BIOS. A buddy of mine ran into this once and we all spent forever trying to figure out what was going on 😁 And most troubleshooting sites just point you toward the usual stuff: drivers, reinstalling macOS, drivers, and so on...

Exactly. Uninstall the drivers, then try a deeper uninstall, then an even more thorough one that wipes half the registry. Use a specialized utility, boot into Safe Mode... Or just reinstall macOS entirely. Mess around with the BIOS settings. Basically, start from scratch. 😁
This is solid advice. Truly worth its weight in gold. 👍