Video Problem (GeForce 9500GT)

JeckeL

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Jul 19, 2009
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Here's my previous setup:

ASRock 4CoreDual-Sata2 R2.0
Intel Core2Duo 2.6 (2.4ghz)
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT (PCI-E)
2, 1gb sticks of DDR2
80 gb maxtor HDD (IDE, CD & DVD drives are IDE as well)

I decided to upgrade to a SATA HDD and purchased a 500gb Western Digital Caviar Green 500AACS hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (PCI-E). So today I get everything, decide to not even use this 80gb maxtor drive along with the 500gb WD one, so I replace the old with the new and begin installing win XP with SP3 slip-streamed in so it'll recognize all 500gb of the drive. Everything installs fine and the only thing I installed was a sound driver for my mobo. Keep in mind I still have my old 8600 card hooked up to my monitor and its running on "default" graphics (for lack of a better word) because I havnt yet installed any drivers. I had planned on installing an OS on this HDD and getting *** running before I proceed with replacing the graphics card. So I do this next. I put the 9500 in, hook it up to my monitor using a DVI to VGA adapter, because the 9500 has two DVI ports, and my old 8600 had a VGA port that I connected my monitor to. I try to boot and get no video. Monitor stays on for about 3 mins and then goes from green to orange or "Stand-by" mode if you will. So I put the 8600 back in and install the driver that came with the 9500 along with DirectX. I put the 9500 back in and same thing, no video. Thinking it was a DVI to VGA adapter issue I tried my 8600 with the DVI to VGA adapter and it works fine (the 8600 has a DVI and a VGA port, whereas the 9500 has two DVI ports). I have no idea what could be wrong... only thing I can think of is my mobo not supporting this card, or the 9500 being a PCI 2.0 card while my mobo is described as a PCI-E 1.0 port, info on the 9500 said that it could be used in a PCI-E 1.0 slot... Thanks in advance for any help I'll be waiting around for replies =p
 
I have some "good" news for you... forget your problem because it doesn't matter. Just use your old 8600gt for now because it's almost the exact same card as your new 9500gt. A 9500gt is a die shrink of the same processor that is in your old card. This makes it SLIGHTLY faster but not by much really. More important is the type of memory each of the cards use. Both of those cards were/are sold in both DDR2 and DDR3 versions. If your old 8600gt was DDR3 and your new 9500gt is DDR2 then your old card might in fact be the better card. If your 9500gt has a full gig of memory then that's actually a bad thing as that means it's definitely DDR2 and the card is nowhere near powerful enough to need more than the standard 512mb.
Either way send the 9500gt back. It is a very marginal upgrade if it's one at all and from the sound of it it may be defective.
On the low end of gaming cards right now what you want to be looking at is an HD4670 or an 9600 GSO(384 or 768mb, avoid the 512mb or 1gig version.) The 9600 GSO overclocks very nicely but also needs a 6-pin power connector which your PSU may or may not have. The HD4670 is smaller, cooler and more power efficient and needs no power connector.
If your wallet and PSU can handle it there's been some great deals on HD4850s lately which are much better than either of those cards.
 

JeckeL

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Will tiger direct accept it back? most of the packaging is open except for the svideo cables...

Anyway.. even if I'd buy a 9600 GSO ... would my mobo support it? Seeing as that may be my current problem with this 9500...

I had originally planned on buying the HDD that im currently using, the 9500, an nforce 750 mobo:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4316659&CatId=3495

But since it requires an 8-pin power connctor instead of a 4 pin which my PSU does not have, and tiger direct does not carry conversion cables for this type of situation (4 pin to 8 pin) even though I've seen them on other sites.. i jsut said screw it and got the HDD and card for now.... so would I be better off gettin an nforce mobo, maybe a new power supply with an 8 pin connector, and if tiger direct wont take the card back just throw it in the nforce mobo?
 

meeechigan

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Jul 19, 2009
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I had the same problem with the Galaxy Geforce 9500GT 1gig, putting it in a ECS board, and when I upgraded to a Foxconn A74MX , same problem! I was able to go back to the onboard graphics (which I see you can't), enable both, install new driver version 8.15.11.8585 and then did a "hot" switch to the 9500 GT... been fine since then. As far as the Mobo not supporting, the ECS board was a PCI E 8x (ran slower, better than expected), Foxconn is PCI E 16x v.2, I believe your mobo is 4X PCIE, with a AGP slot... Is your AGP slot disabled in your Bios?, Does the fan on your 9500 spin when powered up? have you tryed running it without power dongle? Maybe reset cmos jumper with 9500 installed, see where that will take you. Find a buddies machine, pop it in, if it doesn't work, call for RMA, and yes, Tigerdirect does "take back", with a restocking fee