Ok, so I had an A8V-E Deluxe (that's K8T890) that was working fine for several months. Recently, it stopped booting. It would go though BIOS POST, andall the way up to starting windows -- but it would fail around the time the resolution changes and windows boots. I switched to a new motherboard, the MSI K8N Neo4-F (that's NF4, not Ultra/SLI). Still nothing. After trying a s**tload of other things, I got a hold of a PCI ATI Rage XL to see if my GF 6600 was busted. Booting off the Rage XL worked fine. So I figure, the 6600 must be busted. RMAed that, and bought an X800 in the meantime.
Fast forward to today. The X800 arrives. This is the card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127172
It doesn't have any external power connector, it pulls 100% from the PCIe bus. I plug it in, BIOs goes through its stuff, windows begins to boot...and nothing. When it attempts the resolution change, nothing happens. Just a blank screen, exactly the same as before. So right now, I don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of as a possibility is that the power supply can't supply enough. It's a generic 400W that came with my case. All of the voltages are right, but it's only a 20 pin ATX connector, not a 24 pin one. The manual for the K8N Neo4-F says that it should work fine with either a 20 or 24 pin...but maybe when the power draw of a PCIe video card is factored in, 20 pins can't supply enough? The Rage XL is a tiny chip that draws practically no power -- hell, it doesn't even have a heatsink. Is this a plausible theory? I don't know what else could be wrong...
Fast forward to today. The X800 arrives. This is the card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127172
It doesn't have any external power connector, it pulls 100% from the PCIe bus. I plug it in, BIOs goes through its stuff, windows begins to boot...and nothing. When it attempts the resolution change, nothing happens. Just a blank screen, exactly the same as before. So right now, I don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of as a possibility is that the power supply can't supply enough. It's a generic 400W that came with my case. All of the voltages are right, but it's only a 20 pin ATX connector, not a 24 pin one. The manual for the K8N Neo4-F says that it should work fine with either a 20 or 24 pin...but maybe when the power draw of a PCIe video card is factored in, 20 pins can't supply enough? The Rage XL is a tiny chip that draws practically no power -- hell, it doesn't even have a heatsink. Is this a plausible theory? I don't know what else could be wrong...