HELLLPPPPP!!!!! (Updated)

[Scrooge2]

So i finally upgraded to a BFG 7950 GT PCIE 256 mb!!!

The problem is that I cant get it to work! I plug the card in, plug in pcie connector and when i boot up into windows i dont get the windows splash screen and the monitors says no input! I can hear the windows startup sound on my speakers and clicking of my mouse's menus so the computer booted but just no image.

I also can't get into safe mode, safe mode boots (i'm sure) but since there's no sound i can't really tell)

Specs:

Monitor: Viewsonic VX2025w
Mobo: Asrock 4Core-Dual Vsta (This is AGP AND PCIE)
Video: BFG 7950 GT 256 MB OC PCIE
Ram: 2 X 1 Gb Crucuial Ballistix
PSU: Antec Earthwatts 500W
HD: Seagate 7200.10 400GB

What I've tried:

Tried switching in my old Geforce 6800 AGP, booted up fine

Tried switching in my REALLY old ATI 8500le, booted up fine

Tried switching the PSU to an old 300W, booted, but same problem

Tried analog CRT with DVI adapter, same problem

Tried CHANGING THE MOTHERBOARD to this new GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 that i bought, i got a windows xp splash screen on the first boot up, but after that monitor says no input. Again, safe mode doesnt post either. After another reboot, no splashscreen either!

Need help!

 

[Cheex]

Ouch. That's a really awful situation. What is your driver status?

Did you install the drivers before you installed it?

 

[Scrooge2]

I was running on a geforce 6800 so i had the latest nvidia drivers on the system, if i installed it, it should have recognized it!

 

[milesl]

I had something similar happen when switching between graphics cards.I had to put the old card back in,totally uninstall and clean the drivers.Then shut down,remove old card,install new card,boot into safe mode(regular still did not work) and install drivers then reboot into regular windows.If that doesn't work you can try a reformat.I am assuming you have video at the bios screen ect.. before it loads the drivers.If you don't the card is probably bad.Oh, and be sure the drivers you install do support the card.The old original drivers for the 6800 were made way before the 7950GT was designed.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Yeah - you're going to need to uninstall and reinstall those drivers.

 

[speckedhoncho]

if it isn't the power or amp draw to the card or the software, it could be the card's RAMDAC or maybe the monitor itself.

Since it can handle the text GUI but not the more intense signals, maybe the power connector on the board itself is bad or the RAMDAC fails when the signal variation is much higher.

 

[speckedhoncho]

As milesi, said, if you didn't uninstall the old drivers before putting in the new card this will happen as it did to me.

 

[speckedhoncho]

even though Nvidia has a unified driver, you might need to uninstall it before putting the new card in.

 

[Scrooge2]

Okay Update:

I tried uninstalling the Nvidia drivers and still the same problem with no monitor input

I pulled the card and put it on my friend's computer and it booted right up perfectly. He had an ati card so he had no nvidia drivers either. So we can also rule out the hardware of the card to be bad either.

I have checked the PSU and i am pretty sure that the PSU is fine.

I am pretty sure this is a software issues predominately with windows, maybe an IRQ problem?

 

[JustaGeek]

Try 91.47 driver - works perfectly with my card.

If that doesn't work, uninstall the NVidia drivers and do the Repair Install of Windows.

Then install the NVidia driver again. I would start with 91.47. Never liked the 93.... driver, went back to 91.47 and it works great.

Good luck!

 

[speckedhoncho]

It could be a BIOS setting. IRQ problems never happened to me with AGP, but with a PCIx I dunno.

Did you try to uninstall the drivers with the old card in the slot?

Looking at your mobo on newegg it looks a little clearer: you have an AGP slot and a PCI slot.

When AGP and PCI (or PCIx) are on the same mobo, a BIOS setting tells the system which to boot up from.

Since your last card was an AGP card, your BIOS must have been configured to use the AGP bus as the display bus.

At POST time, the BIOS doesn't have to worry about this. In fact, it needs a fail-safe since there would be know way for you to operate the computer if you put it in the wrong one (even if it is the right slot, you may not know it if there is another issue with the system that causes a fatal error and prevents display from working).

So ... go into the BIOS and look for the setting that tells the BIOS whether to use the AGP bus or the PCIx bus for display.

 

[JustaGeek]

Just noticed the Dual-VSTA MB - I have the 775Dual-VSTA.

Go to BIOS, and (still with the old card in) make sure that your video is set to PCI, not AGP, and boot into Windows.

Shut off the computer.

Switch the cards.

Boot and see what happens - but only then change the BIOS setting to PCIe 4x (or sonething to this effect).

Main thing - BIOS set to PCI bus for video.

Good luck!

 

[Scrooge2]

OKay problem solved, I reformatted....=(

 

[JustaGeek]

Pretty radical solution, but I am glad it worked!