BFG 7950 GX2 1GB - No signal

[marxus]

Ok, first off my specs:

Windows XP
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 w/newest bios F11
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2295
BFG PCI-E Nvidia 7950 GX2 1gb
2GB corsair memory DDR2 (I think 800)
Core 2 Duo E6600
700watt PSU
32" Samsung LCD monitor

Problem:
I built the PC a little over a year ago and it ran just fine up until a few months ago. All of a sudden it would turn on but couldn't load windows. Long story short after alot of screwing around with it the problem turned out to be the PSU which was a 550 Antec that must have been going bad (it was from my prior PC). I went to just a generic brand 700watt. About a week or 2 later it wouldn't display any graphics at all upon startup. I tried different monitors, tried hooking it up with component cables, HDMI, and the DVI converter to normal monitor cables. Nothing worked. I had a super cheap PCI-E card from another PC handy so I swapped that in and viola it worked again.

I wasn't playing any games on the PC at the time and didn't wanna mess with troubleshooting so I just been running like that for a month or two now. Trying to get into gaming again and thought I would figure out whats wrong with this graphics card. As expected it didn't magically start working after being out of the PC for awhile so I started searching for answers. After a few hours the only thing I could come up with was that maybe the bios on the motherboard wasn't liking it all of a sudden so I updated that to the newest available. No dice.

Any ideas? Could that failing PSU that was a problem prior have damaged the graphics card? The computer sounds likes its powering up just fine and the fans on the graphics card spin so its getting power. That or maybe the generic PSU isn't working like it should.

thanks in advance for any help, this is so frustrating.

 

[silverfrog1]

Try uninstalling your videocard and re-installing it in another machine. If it works in another machine, you likely have a motherboard issue. If it does not work, obviously you have a bad videocard.

To troubleshoot the motherboard issue, you might try installing the videocard in your second PCI-E slot. It might be that you have a dead PCI-E slot #1. If it still doesn't boot while in slot #2, don't assume it's your motherboard. Some Mobos don't boot if you have just one videocard in slot #2. If, however, it DOES boot, you know you have a bad slot #1.

I don't think your PSU is the problem, since it it were, you'd likely still boot, but upon getting into the BIOS, your motherboard would give a loud beep, indicating GPU undervoltage condition had occurred.

Final thoughts:

It's probably a bad videocard, as that's far more likely to be faulty than anything else, but follow the steps I've shown to narrow it down.

Hope that helps!