Installed Graphics Card. Blank screen though when booting up

[noobasaurus rex]

AMD Phenon II X3 720 2.8ghz
BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI
Western Digital Caviar SE 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Thermaltake Purepower W0121RU 600W ATX12V V2.0
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Windows Vista Home Premium
EVGA 512-P3-N884-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB



Hi, this is my first computer build. I got everything working perfect. Now that I am trying to install the GeForce 9800 card, when I boot up my computer the screen is blank, Vista doesn't even come up. I am positive the card is all the way in. I have the extra power cords connecting to it. The MOBO turns on, the fan on the vid card is working.

Do I need to install the driver cd before I install the actual card?
Do I need to connect the monitor cable to the actual vid card instead of the mobo?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[cmichael138]

Video cable from the monitor should be connectd to the 9800 card.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Yes, you need to connect the monitor to the video card instead of the motherboard. If you still don't get any video output, I would go through this checklist:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-build-post-checklist

 

[Guest]

Hello,

At first You need to check where you tried to connect your monitor. If you just connected it to the built in graphic card on your mainboard it will be the problem. If it's not because you tried to connect your monitor to the graphic card you have installed, it seems to be hardware problem. Have you checked if you graphic card fits well in PCIe expansion slot? Try this. If it still doesn't help follow the descriptions in your user manuals from the hardware producers. Sometimes it's better to read a little before you assembly something than just brake it. As you know as computer components are highly electrostatic sensitive devices and small electrostatic discharge from your clothes may destroy it or make it non functioning well. Don't listen anybody who says you can assembly your PC by using only screwdriver . First you need to follow some safety rules with electronic devices to make it working well. I don't want to scare you but there may be many reasons why your graphic card is not functioning at all or it's acting like you described. Hopefully you are lucky and it's only wrong connected cable, Check your BIOS if it's configured to auto detect the main graphic card as a default one.

Slawek