Pny geforce 8600 will not boot up

pnyhater

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Feb 4, 2010
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ITS A 8400, error in title!

Okay, i recently purchased a PNY Verto GeForce 8400 PCI with 512MB memory and it will not boot up on start. I have installed the latest Nvidia graphics drivers. While trouble shooting myself, I uninstalled those drivers and used several other versions as well a PNY drivers CD. The Microsoft drivers list tells me that I have the proper driver and that the device is functioning properly but whenever i restart my PC with my cable plugged into the 8600 it just has a black screen. After a few moments I hear the log on sounds for my PC so I know that it is an issue with the card itself.

Note: I am currently running a XFX GeForce 7300 LE perfectly so the drivers should be good.

I have tried it on 2 computers and neither computer had the card boot at all.

I have submitted a message to PNY support about getting a replacement or a refund based on my 1 year warranty but they have failed to contact me in return after several weeks, so I have lost all faith in them and I hope that the card will at least function as I have heard of others with the same issue as me.

Current Computer Specs:
Dell Inspiron 546
Windows Vista Home Basic 32 bit Service Pack 1
Processor: AMD Sempron LE-1300 at 2.3GHz
RAM: 2.00GB
Current Graphics Card: XFX GeForce 7300 LE 256MB
 

pnyhater

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It works fine, the screens flicker then go black the moment I start the PC. Device Manager also says it is fine, it fully recognizes it everything. I did hear though that i mean need to disable onboard graphics to get it to work from another site so I am a little worried about doing that incase it messes up.

If it is dead PNY better pay me back before I call my lawyer, that card costs a good deal. ($100+)
 

pnyhater

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Feb 4, 2010
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Well from what I have seen so far, PNY does not have the best track record, but I have a 6600 from them so I am beginning to think it is a faulty card or a bad model card with flaws.

And it does not disable onboard, I have my BIOS set to boot PCIe first. The onboard is not disabled because I sometimes switch the cables with it on it reconfigures to the onboard automatically.
 

pnyhater

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Well after more research it appears I have found the reason. My PC ain't got enough juice. It takes 350W from what I hear and my PC, although new, has a weak power supply of only 300W, just short of what it needs to run, so it looks like I am probably back to my 7300 LE unless the expert I emailed can tell me otherwise which i pray for.

((One of my brother's graphics cards (the 6600) just got shot,so i was going to get teh 8400 GS to work then give him the 7300 LE, but it looks like it is not going to happen, and we will need to save up for a new card or atleast exchange the 8400 for a new card.))
 

pnyhater

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Feb 4, 2010
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Made a breakthrough, the card is not dead, I did manage to get it working lightly, my background appeared but none of my icons, apps or even the start bar where on the screen so i had to do a hard shutdown sadly and it did not save the settings.
 
Did you go into the Bios and set the PCI slot as the first Video default (on my Gigabyte MOBO it is listed under Advanced BIos Features - Init Display First - and can be either PCI, onboard, PEG (Pci-E Graphics), or PEG1(secondary PCI-e Slot)- If this is not set to PCI it may not be searching the PCI bus for a video card (since most systems use either onboard or AGP or PCI-e nowadays so it may require the right setting in the BIOS to even try to find a PCI card
 

pnyhater

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In my BIOS I have it set to boot PCI first.

I did manage to get teh card to work but that was only with both graphics cards in the PC and one was "piggybacking" the other so it ran slowly. I have given up on the card and decided to look for a new PCIe card instead.

Thank you for all the help