Hello all. 
I'm having some major issues getting a graphics card working, and I was wondering if I could get some help. Here's the situation:
I recently recieved an older computer (Compaq 5000 series, model 5WV280) from a relative who no longer needed it. I set it up in a different area of the house than my main computer, and I use it from time to time when the main computer is taken. A couple days ago, I decided I might like to load a game or two, from time to time. It has a 900mhz AMD Athlon processor, 384mb of ram, and a 30gig hard drive, so the only real thing I needed to upgrade to get some of the more modern games running was the graphics card. An 8mb Nvidia Vanta TNT2 somethingorother doesn't get you very far, I find. hehe So I ordered an XFX GeForce 5200 FX from newegg, for the reason that it was basically the cheapest card to support DX9. (And yes, I know, not very well, blah blah blah, no criticizing my choice please.
). I received the card quickly (newegg rox my sox *nod*) and installed the card with no problems. Fit perfectly into the AGP slot, connectors fit, all that jazz. I started up the computer, got a little blurb for a second or two in the top left about my graphics card and it's bios version or something, and so on. The computer was obviously recognizing the card, and things were going well. After the computer recognized the card, and asked me where I wanted to search for a driver, I put the installation CD (the one that came with the card) in, told told the computer to search there, and it did. Said it installed everything, and that I needed to restart the computer.
Which I did. And rather than the 16 color crap of the standard PCI graphics adapter (or whatever it is) I got a nice pretty background. Namely, my wallpaper. This was all excellent. Computer kept booting up, wallpaper stayed, all my desktop icons showed up, things seemed to be going smoothly. . .but then as soon as it finished all it's boot tasks (when the computer stopped making funny noises) the screen went black. And it made that little static-type sound that monitors do when you turn them off. The power light was still on, and green, so it didn't shut off, but that's what it sounded like.
ANYWAY, long story short, it repeats that now, regardless of what I do. I've tried an updated driver from nVidia's website, (which did no good) and. . .well that's really about the only thing I've tried, cause I don't know what else to do.
I'm sorry for barging in on this nice little (little. . .yeah. ) community here just to bug you people for help, but I'm just not sure where else to turn. I may not sound like it, but I really am fairly knowledgeable about computers in general. And I'm stumped.
Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Even if you don't know exactly how to fix things, a simple hint to point me in the right direction would go a long way. I get the feeling I'm missing something obvious.
But yeah. Thanks for listening. Any questions regarding hardware, or configuration, or whatever, just ask.
I'm having some major issues getting a graphics card working, and I was wondering if I could get some help. Here's the situation:I recently recieved an older computer (Compaq 5000 series, model 5WV280) from a relative who no longer needed it. I set it up in a different area of the house than my main computer, and I use it from time to time when the main computer is taken. A couple days ago, I decided I might like to load a game or two, from time to time. It has a 900mhz AMD Athlon processor, 384mb of ram, and a 30gig hard drive, so the only real thing I needed to upgrade to get some of the more modern games running was the graphics card. An 8mb Nvidia Vanta TNT2 somethingorother doesn't get you very far, I find. hehe So I ordered an XFX GeForce 5200 FX from newegg, for the reason that it was basically the cheapest card to support DX9. (And yes, I know, not very well, blah blah blah, no criticizing my choice please.
). I received the card quickly (newegg rox my sox *nod*) and installed the card with no problems. Fit perfectly into the AGP slot, connectors fit, all that jazz. I started up the computer, got a little blurb for a second or two in the top left about my graphics card and it's bios version or something, and so on. The computer was obviously recognizing the card, and things were going well. After the computer recognized the card, and asked me where I wanted to search for a driver, I put the installation CD (the one that came with the card) in, told told the computer to search there, and it did. Said it installed everything, and that I needed to restart the computer.Which I did. And rather than the 16 color crap of the standard PCI graphics adapter (or whatever it is) I got a nice pretty background. Namely, my wallpaper. This was all excellent. Computer kept booting up, wallpaper stayed, all my desktop icons showed up, things seemed to be going smoothly. . .but then as soon as it finished all it's boot tasks (when the computer stopped making funny noises) the screen went black. And it made that little static-type sound that monitors do when you turn them off. The power light was still on, and green, so it didn't shut off, but that's what it sounded like.
ANYWAY, long story short, it repeats that now, regardless of what I do. I've tried an updated driver from nVidia's website, (which did no good) and. . .well that's really about the only thing I've tried, cause I don't know what else to do.
I'm sorry for barging in on this nice little (little. . .yeah.
) community here just to bug you people for help, but I'm just not sure where else to turn. I may not sound like it, but I really am fairly knowledgeable about computers in general. And I'm stumped.Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Even if you don't know exactly how to fix things, a simple hint to point me in the right direction would go a long way. I get the feeling I'm missing something obvious.
But yeah. Thanks for listening. Any questions regarding hardware, or configuration, or whatever, just ask.
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