Installed new video card - NO SIGNAL

[dc3john]

I recently purchased a galaxy nvidia 8600gt card to upgrade my graphics a bit. Installed per instructions, connected VGA cable and boom NOTHING (monitor went to sleep) Plugged back into vga on motherboard and it was back to normal. Tried to install drivers, restart and still nothing. The card has power because fan is turning, but no signal. Card requires 300 watts I'm pushing 400 with nothing else dragging it down. Please help me, this is the second attempt at a graphics upgrade. Gonna return the computer if I cant make this work.

I tried another Geforce card prior and vista wouldn't accept the drivers... it's a ztsystems... is this where I went wrong?

 

[Mousemonkey]

You may need to turn off the onboard VGA in the BIOS, press delete or f2 at start up.

 

[dc3john]

Thanks for the quick reply. Galaxy, the manufactuer says that it is possibly a bad card. I tried uninstalling, reinstalling, disabling onboard gfx but only ended up with NO SIGNAL. I'm starting to think that it's a motherboard problem. Two cards in a row and can't get either to work. At least the last one had signal but would not take the nvidia drivers. SIGH, returning both.

I have another question along these lines. This motherboard has a slot for PCIE 1.0 X16. Does that mean that no PCIE cards described as 2.0 will work. I'm going to try one more card in this thing and if IT doesn't work, bye bye PC. Please let me know if 2.0 will work on 1.0 board. Also, you are the experts... maybe you could recommend one that will keep me from blowing this pc away with a 12gauge, lol.
Thanks in advance for any help.!

BTW it's a ztsystems pc AMD Phenom II X4 (3.00)
4gb ram
running vista 64 bit
onboard graphics are ATI Radeon 3100

 

[Mousemonkey]

PCIe 2.0 should be backwards compatible with PCIe 1.0 but some people have reported problems although I have not had any myself and both of my boards are PCIe 1.0 and all of my cards are PCIe 2.0.

 

[dc3john]

So, now i'm shopping for a newer, better and faster card now that I know that MOST 2.0's will work on a 1.0 board. My next question: Does the memory on the card have to be the same type of memory as in the system ex:ddr2? Does it matter?

 

[dc3john]

ddr2 is what i meant, it inserted the smiley

 

[Mousemonkey]

Not as far as system RAM is concerned as they are separate and do not 'interact' with each other unless the card shares memory but that's normally reserved for the lower range cards and integrated VGA's, all you need to concern yourself with is getting a card with the fasted memory available so with GDDR5 being the quickest and GDDR2 being the slowest try and get a card with GDDR5 if possible.

 

[dc3john]

Gonna probably shoot the middle there. Something in gddr3. Gonna give bestbuy a shot. They are a little more pricey but close to home so that I can stop wasting money on shipping fees then returning. Gonna try another card or two then send the pc back. At that point I will be comfortable that it's a motherboard problem. Will pop back on here and let you know what happened. Thanks again for all of your help.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'll have my fingers crossed that you have some success.

 

[nicholasx2x]

I Would love to know the Mobo you have?
I am Having the same issues But with my its an nvidia mobo trying to install a radeon card( should work I know)
But now when I put a 9800+ in it doesnt even display

 

[dc3john]

Nick, I have a ASUS motherboard, wish i could give you the number but i'm busy packing it up to go back.

Mouse, I brought home a geforce gt220 and same thing, no signal at all. Even after disabling integrated gfx. I'm taking it back, HAS to be a motherboard/ pcie problem. Would you agree?

 

[Mousemonkey]

It does sound like it, either way if it's under warranty then it's time to get your moneys worth.