graphics card help

Hello.

I just managed to get myself a geforce 7900gtx for £40. however, when i put it in my computer, nothing happens. the system powers on, and the fan spins, but no display. on the box it says 350w minumum, but mines a 400w generic one. due to the size of the fan, i had to tug it out, without undoing the latch, which i thought may have damaged the actual slot, as when i put in my old 6600gt, it managed to display stuff like the bios and post screen, but it was all corrupted, with no readable letters. i dont think i did though because i put in my old X300se and it works fine, apart from not being able to do anything demanding with my pc. any help please would be appreciated. thanks.

it doesnt beep or anything, all the stuff just whirls as if it will boot, but doesnt. the red light on the front is on, if thats hard disk activity, but thats on even if the computers fine. and while trying to boot, i can feintly hear a kind of irregular chiming sound.

Either your PSU can't handle the load (just because it says 400w doesn't mean it has the ability to consistently handle high load) or the card is dead.

Did you get the card from a friend, Ebay, Craigslist...etc?

If you have someone that has a working system, ask them if they can test it out for you. If you discover the card is dead, see if you can find out if it was registered and valid for RMA.

to weetobix: i changed the dvi to vga adaptor and it still doesnt work, if thats what you meant, and all the holes look fine. are you talking about the power cable at the back of the graphics card? its like V shaped, two of the connectors are the same as the power ones that go into CD drives, and the other into the back of the card.

to rubix_1011: thats what i was thinking, but the guy i got it off said he was running it on a 480w psu OC'd with 5 HDD's and it was fine, and my computer's got like 1. I got the card off gumtree.com, which is similar to craigslist. I have a friend i could ask to check, which i may do, and if it doesnt work ill try and return it to the guy who sold it to me, as he said it works fine.

to rbd: yeah i did, ive tried it with different power cables and combinations and it still sounds like its stuck at boot.

im not really sure about reading the psu rating thing as i havent done that before, but i think for 12v it is 17A, the graphics card box says 350 minumum with 12v current rating at 20A. is that most likely to be the problem, meaning the actual card is fine, and i just need a new psu?

ok, thanks. I dont really want to spend too much on a PSU as my systems fairly old (amd 64 3200 939, 1gb ram, 1 HDD) so it wont need too beefy a power supply, and im a student, so preferably in the realm of $20/$30. Glad to know its the psu rather than the card though.

However i was also wondering why my 6600gt no longer works. it was working fine before i put the 7900gtx in, however as i couldnt reach the latch to remove the card, i yanked it out. could this of caused damage to the PCI-E slot, m x300se works in it, so it might be due to the weight.