HELP first start no video

have you tried another video card, to see if the 8800gts is defective or not?

There is an extra power plug on the new cards. Some older PSUs don't supply the needed plug

I took a 7600GT out of my 10 year olds system and ang up and running now I have to get a replacment for the big card

This was a new build with a 700 watt SLI power supply Thermaltake Toughpower and it was plug to the card with one of the PCI 12V legs

Did the GPU fan come on?

Yes the fan was spinning fastshooting air out the back of the case

Did you have a chance to set the video rates? Loaded newest drivers? Do you have onboard graphics?

I could not do anything with the 8800 card the screen just stayed in stand by no single at all I don't know what onboard is

Are their any tests I should do before returning the 8800 card to Newegg

You could try the nVidia forums, maybe something there would catch your eye. Also in all the switching around did you clean off all the drivers? Just throwing out Ideas, I think you are advanced enough to know all the simple things but I never know all the answers either.