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Trouble Installing Video Card - Any Ideas?
Fuzzguitar:
My PC is an AMD Athlon 2400+XP, 256 MB DDR, 32MB on board video, on board sound, 40 GB etc and I have a Geforce 2 400MX (64MB) spare I would like to install to boost performance a bit. I've used this card in my other pc without any trouble for ages (it's a PCI card) but can't get it to work at all in the new PC. My new motherboard is a Gigabyte Triton K7.
I can't remember how I installed it the last time so I could just be doing something basically wrong, here goes with the problem:
I've got it in the PC slot no probs, but when I boot the PC it doesn't display ANYTHING (seems like monitor is in standyby mode) - not even the BIOS. Eventually, perhaps when it's about time for Windows XP to load something comes up and the monitor power light comes on. What happens is the screen goes BLACK on the left half and displays an ugly rectangle of colour on the right half. Note that the colour is different each time and I've seen it vary from yellow to purple.
Weird stuff. Then when I unplug it and use the onboard video all is fine even without rebooting.
Windows says the device is working, there are no conflicts, the PCI location is correct in the bios... my mobo manual does not say anything about jumpers that need to be changed for external graphics cards.
Is the card too old for this mobo? Could I have broken it when swapping between PC's (doesn't appear so)?
Any ideas???
The only other thing is I noticed when installing it that the mobo is actually designed fairly badly. There is a chip of some kind that got bumped on it because it's too close to the mobo's edge and the case's PCI slots. You have to apply some force to get it in, hitting it's almost unavoidable. I realise I'd slightly bent 3 pins on that chip (will never work in low light again!) but although they are ultra small I managed to bend them back perfectly, not touching anything they shouldn't. Anyway, this chip probably isn't even related to the PCI slots and the PC is still working 100% since.
I would love to get this up and running with a little help!
maraxle:
Do you have another PC to test the card in to make sure it still works? Also, is there a BIOS setting to disable the onboard video? Finally, is there another PCI slot you can try?
Lilwolf:
btw, you will want to also check to see if you can update the bios on your motherboard to the latest.
Also, not every board can be disabled. If you can't.. you will have HUGE problems getting it to work. You should also test the internal video card speed and see if its acceptable / good. The increased speed for the AGP port might end up being faster then the PCI slot (for 2d stuff especially).
good luck..
Goz:
Also some on board video chipsets are only disabled by plugging in an AGP card.
I would try another slot as previously suggested. Some of the earlier K7 boards had chronic problems with the 3rd PCI slot actually being functional.
Hit the mobo manufacturers web site.
Good Luck
-Goz
Sprucemoose:
I would also get the latest drivers from Nvidia for the graphics card. It never hurts.