BFG 9800 GTX+ OC on a Dimension 9200

Trying pressing f8 a bunch right after the bios screen loads, then you should get a prompt for a bunch of different options, select start windows in VGA mode and see if that does anything for you.

Thanks for the quick response and finally something different from the same ol' "Is the card seated right?". Did that with the new card mounted and same thing. As soon as I enable VGA and select my operating system it goes to a black screen.

Hmm,

Time for a little trial and error before you ship it back,

If you can get ahold of another machine with pci-e slot try the card in it real quick and see if you get the same results

If that works the only think i can think of is that your not getting enough power to the card VIA the 6pin or the board.

But it gives you a post screen and everything,

Might wanna drop your old card back in back up all your data and wipe and reload, thats if ydou can afford to lose all your data.

Might be a fix, painful fix at that for most

Is the wipe to rid old graphics drivers? I just formatted a month ago and I have a 7900 GS in right now. I shouldn't have a mess of video drivers. I'm not sure if this card has any LEDs to light up but if it does mine aren't lighting up.

I think I'm going to try and find a second PC to try the card or exchange for a new one. Thanks a lot for your help though.

If anyone's got anything else I'm still up for it.

Also, I have a 2 year old Dell Dimension 9200, I'm not sure what mobo it has but could that be the problem? I'm guessing not because it has a PCI-Ex16 slot and that's what the card is so it should work.. but I'm not an expert or anything...

A couple of other things to check, beings as I have 2 of those cards running currently, No there are no lights that light up on the card so thats not the issue... a 550w psu is pushing it a little in my opinion.... I set up two with a my old setup and it was a quality PSU 550w and it was shutting down... Do you have both 6 pin connectors connected? Are you do are you using the add on connectors or true 6 pin connectors? These cards are power hungry, I would really like to know what PSU you have and what are the amps on the 12v rails... If your getting a boot screen, thats the part that is stumbling me... If you kept up with Nvidia drivers ultimately you would be using the same driver set anyways and I don't think that would honestly do it.... I put 2 of these in my system w/o unistalling drivers, (upgraded from twin 7800gt oc's and it booted right up and found new hardware ect ect... I would definetly say more power.... Ideally finding a friend that has a pc that you could borrow for a few minutes would be great before you RMA the thing... If its BFG there Tech support is pretty good and avail 24hours a day... I would also try giving them a shout...



Edit: Sorry just read your first post FTW... definetly call BFG... they are good.... Funny thing is they'll offer you the trade in program... I laughed at the guy and said considering I just bought these 2 yesterday I think I'll pass lol...

I actually have talked to them. I have a BFG 550W psu and the tech support didn't think that was the problem. It has two 18A rails and I only have the card using it. BFG support actually told me to exchange the card, I'm just here trying some last ditch options as I have 2 weeks before I can return the card anyways. Maybe I'll check the power anyways though..

The only real potential for power issue would stem from you also have a bunch of fans and several hard disks installed, all adding to the 12V draw. The 9800GTX+ is power hungry while under load during 3D apps, though, pulling as much as 130W rather easily when overclocked at all. Far more power hungry than even the old 7900GS, which was a monster for it's time, too, capable of sucking down a solid 100W itself at stock settings.

For more on video card power ratings, check this link: http://mark.zoomcities.com/images/gfx/GFXpowerchartby3d.png

Raz is right on with his power ratings for that card... BFG also told me that when my cards were shutting down it shouldn't be the PSU... I had an antec 550w 2.0 Truepower with dual 18A 12V rails and when it would get into full load situations it would go poof and shut down with no logs or anything. So I went out and bought a Corsair TX750 and never had the issue again.... Mind you I was running SLI though... Like Raz said what are the other things you actually have running in the machine besides the card? HD's how many, CPU ect ect......

The only other thing I could think of and I'm pretty sure this isn't it... is that your Dell MB may not for some reason be scaling that card back to PCIE 1.0 from 2.0.... I'm not even sure if that is capable of happening, basically because I thought that was the card that did it in the first place.... Thats all I got... the last thing is just a stab in the dark.