Graphics Card isn't working in brothers computer?

[konkorfour]

This is a little tricky to explain so please take the time to read.

So I just bought a new graphics card, Asus HD Radeon 6670 2GB for my computer. Works great, my brother has a GeForce 7900 and since it's worse than my old card I had agreed to give him my cheap GeForce 210 1GB so that he can play Minecraft and CoD. I installed it for him, disconnected all cables, switched the PSU off, disconnected his old card and placed in the new GeForce 210. Once I'd set it all back up and switched it on I was greeted with 1 long beep and 3 small beeps but no display.

The monitor is finding a signal since when you plug the monitor to the GFX it goes into standby. I thought maybe I'd broken his PCI-E slot so I placed his old card in and the PC started up, working perfect. I was stumped then realized he has a 2xmolex to 6pin and I disconnected it, now with the GeForce 210 in it makes no beeps but still no picture. His board has SLI so I thought maybe putting it in the second slot would work, the GeForce 210 displays the bios in the secondary slot but shows a message saying something like "To use this card as primary please place it inside the primary PCI-E slot and restart the computer".

So both PCI slots work, both cards work, but they just don't seem to want to work together... I have no idea and I'm completely at a loss here.

 

[zdbc13]

Sounds like a memory error. Make sure your memory modules are firmly seated in their slots and try again. If it still doesn't work, take all but one memory stick out and try that. You can test memory with MemTest86

http://www.memtest86.com/

 

[konkorfour]

Sounds like a memory error. Make sure your memory modules are firmly seated in their slots and try again. If it still doesn't work, take all but one memory stick out and try that. You can test memory with MemTest86

http://www.memtest86.com/

Just took them all out and made sure they where firmly in place and still nothing, with the Molex to 6pin I get 4 beeps, without I get nothing. The GeForce 210 has no fan either since it's a radiator so I can't tell if it's working or what.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

o know not a gt210 haha. i would figure the old 7900 is still better than that card i have one at school but you can still play bf3 on low with it. but did you try clearing the cmos on the board sometimes you get problems when switching to a new card for some reason. also the geforce 210 does not even have a power connector on it so im confused.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

also look at this http://forums.pureoverclock.com/general-hardware/3935-motherboard-beep-codes.html

i would hook it up clear the bios and then go to optimized defaults

 

[swifty_morgan]

power to video card? and what is the PS? does your new card work in his machine?

 

[konkorfour]

@06yfz450ridr: I'm not sure what card you're on about but the 7900 with external power connected wont even run Minecraft on his PC. It barely plays a lot of games which is why he's using my GeForce 210 since it runs most on low-medium.

I'm also not sure what you're confused about?

@swifty_morgan What? 350w same as mine, I haven't tried but I don't want to get my card out lol.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

the 7900 GPU is more powerful than the gt210. but it probably lacks the vram needed to run recent games, it would only have 128 or 256mb. and when vram fills up it goes to system ram which totally kills performance, and may not allow some games to run at all.

 

[konkorfour]

I'm not sure what that has to do with anything?

But I've done everything I know so I've came to the conclusion:

GF210 works in secondary SLI slot, so it's not the card and the PC can run it.
GF7900 works in primary and secondary SLI so the PCI isn't broken

considering the above, I'd assume the RAM isn't the issue either and all cables are connected. I just can't work out why the GF210 wont work in the primary.

 

[swifty_morgan]

would have been nice to know all the hardware at the beginning of the thread. sounds old enough to have to make a BIOS change to enable the second slot or to make whatever slot primary pci-e. or to make both slots enabled?............ reset cmos see what happens.

 

[konkorfour]

Already reset, nothing. Went into BIOs and found options for intial display PCI or PCIex tried both, still nothing. If you mean would be nice to know about the SLI or whatever then I did say in the first post:

"His board has SLI so I thought maybe putting it in the second slot would work"

 

[zdbc13]

I'd just retire the 210 and use the 7900 until budget or fate provides and upgrade....

 

[swifty_morgan]

does the card still work in your computer?

 

[konkorfour]

Both graphics cards are working, the PCI slot and the SLI slot both work as well. Just the 210 wont work in the main PCI slot.

 

[konkorfour]

I remembered I had a PSU 400w that I used a while ago with the 210 card, I thought since a bunch of you say it's the PSU I'll try it anyway and the exact same thing. Shows up in the secondary SLI slot but in the primary where I need it I just get no signal.