I realize I am going to seem a complete retard. However, we all must learn sometime... I hope. I'm having a lot of trouble installing a new XFX Force 7600 GS video card. I have an AMD Athlon 64 CPU. I'm not even sure if there is a compatibility issue there. I've been unable to find out through the normal venues. Each time I install the new card, I have nothing but a blank screen. I have uninstalled the old vid card drivers. Have no place to plug the monitor into the montherboard itself. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

OK, the monitor plugs into the video card, not the motherboard. cpu/gpu compatability is rarily and issue. Lets consider it non existant. Unless you're trying to shove a pci E card into an agp slot, somehow(If you have one of those old chipsets and sockets that uses prescott(int) or athlon k8(amd) processors.


Anyway, we need some pc specs. The motherboard, the cpu, ram and what kind, along with the power supply unit make. Thx

Mr SuperSmash here is right. Incompatibilities between CPU and GPU are non-existent these days. Your problem must lie elsewhere, and to help you diagnose we'll need some additional information:

1) What type of card do you have now?
2) Do you see your computer POST with the new card?
3) What is your motherboard and PSU capacity?
4) Do you have a second computer you could try the 7600 in?

Well, let's see...
The card I'm trying to install is an XFX Force 7600 GS to replace my Nvidia GeForce 6800. The computer starts with the new card, I could get to BIOS if I new what to do once I was in it. But before Windows can load, I get the blank screen and my monitor is telling me that there is no signal. The processor is an AMD Athlon 64, 3200 +, ~2.2 Ghz. I've got 1024MB Ram. I have no idea what the make of the power supply is... I will check on that, however. The only info I have on the motherboard is that it is an ASUSTek. If anyone knows how I could find out what it's capacity is, I'd appreciate that help as well. And I have no other computer. After reading a lot more, I'm beginning to think the new video card may be bad. I wish I knew more info to give you to help me with this problem, but I'm still pretty inexperienced in the comp biz. Thanks to you both and, in advance, to anyone who attempts to help a ***** out with this problem

Install the newest set of GeForce drivers first, straight from Nvidia's site. After that, use the Reset ESCD data inside your BIOS after you put the new card in, then try going into Safe Mode and seeing if you can. If you can, reboot and go back to Windows.

I'll try. Thanks a lot. I'm about to give up on the whole thing.

not sure if this helps at all.

but did you unistall your old vid card drivers and what not?
it may be a simple fix as this, plug your old vid card back in and uninstall it with its drivers, then plug the new on in and if you have the cd for it, install its drivers or check the website for new driver if you can get that far.

run on sentence is bad,

At first, I didn't uninstall the old card's video drivers. I just installed the new card. When all I got was the blank screen, I put the old card back in, read more about proper installation, removed the drivers via the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, and tried to install the new card again. Still got the same blank screen. Unless, I somehow damaged something when I tried installing the new card before removing the old drivers, it should not be giving so much trouble. I believe I have a bad card. Going to try for an exchange. Cross your fingers for me! Thank you for your advice and comments. Really appreciate all you guys trying to help.

ya, after all that it does seem to be bad card.

good luck with exchange.

Well, guys, I hope someone out there will take pity and have mercy on this computer-illiterate buffoon.
The card is fine. I was able to try it on a friends PC and it worked great. I had a notion to test my hard drive. I knew the motherboard was all right, my old card ran with no problems. So I tried out my friend's hard drive in my computer and installed the new vid card. It worked. So maybe the problem is that I don't have sufficient space on my hard drive to run the new card? I deleted a lot of files (which caused me a buttload of new problems for I never know what I'm doing and accidentally deleted some very important files such as the drivers for my CD and DVD-ROM drives! Lord help me) and defragmented the hard drive. Instead of jumping in blind this time, and before installing the new card yet again, I thought to ask you guys your opinion on this maneuver. Once again, thanks for your help. Your ideas are a lot easier to comprehend than the dreaded tech support.

HDD space does not affect the video card in any way.

Do you have a PSU that is upto to task? What's the information on the sticker? This is what a typical PSU (Power Supply Unit, the box-kinda thingy usually found at the top-rear of your PC) sticker looks like:

It is an ANTEC, 430 Watt Output, TruePower 2.0... there's more info about AC and DC output... what in particular am I looking for? Thanks for your help.

You should be looking for the +12V current rating. But anyways, I'd replace the PSU ASAP. Some pieces of that particular model are still known to have Fuhjyyu capacitors, which fail very easily when their temperature crosses a certain threshold and were the cause of some very negative publicity for Antec some years back.

An Earthwatts unit will cost you about $50 and will last you far longer than the SmartPower, while saving you some money on your utility bill. Still, your current PSU should still run the 7600GS fine, unless it's more than a year old and has seen 24x7 usage during that time.

Well, it is more than a year old, and it's seen a lot of usage. Just can't understand why the card worked when I hooked up my friend's hard drive to my computer. Same PSU, CPU, motherboard, etc.
BTW, any ideas where I might find the drivers I accidentally deleted for my CD/DVD drives? I'm having one helluva time here. Really appreciate all your help. Probably will look into getting an Earthwatts unit. This poor PSU has seen finer days...

Not all HDDs draw the same amount of power, and some draw upto 30-40W upon startup, which may sometimes be just enough to overload the PSU.

So, a new PSU would probably solve the problem with the new video card? I also just got another 2gigs of RAM to be on the safe side. Don't know if that will make a bit of difference or not as far as the vid card goes.

Yeah, a new PSU should help.

I had 3 of the Antec TruePowers fail on me. I was not a happy camper.


I gave Antec the benefit of the doubt and bought one of their high-end line PSUs. It is a champ.