New Graphics Card & No Display

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My friend got a new computer (gateway gt5408) and installed a ATI RADEON X1600 PRO 512MB graphics card. However when they turn the computer on there is no signal to the monitor. Is it possible that the previous graphics card and the new one are conflicting with each other?

Can anyone please help?

Product Details
Processor Brand Intel® Core(TM)2 Duo Desktop
Processor Speed 1.8GHz
System Bus 800MHz
System Memory (RAM) 1GB
System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 4GB
Type of Memory (RAM) PC4200 DDR2
Hard Drive Type SATA II (7200 rpm)
Hard Drive Size 320GB
Graphics Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Video Memory Up to 224MB (shared)
Total Expansion Bays 3 (3.5"), 2 (5.25"
Available Expansion Bays 2 (3.5"), 1 (5.25")
Total Expansion Slots 2 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2
Available Expansion Slots 1 PCI, 1 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 2 DDR
Additional Audio/Video Connectors SPDIF optical
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
 
Might be a driver issue. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager, then scroll down through the list until you see the video graphics line. Look for a red or yellow icon... That will show some trouble.
Usually, you have to remove the existing drivers, then install the ones that go with your video graphics card. But you should still see something on the screen... at least in SafeMode.
But you have a good system, with apparently a lot of experience with it...
Almost any hardware failure can cause this. When not tired or stressed, go back through to remove and reseat every component... then go back to a simple install...
Remember at first you are only trying to get something on the screen... then add components until that stops again.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the assist.
Is there any way to find out if the trouble is in the card itself?
Perhaps we could try that first before having to reset all the components... might save us a bit of work :)
 
Like raybay said, boot Windows into safe mode (F8 at windows splash screen) if it succesfully boots into safe mode then the card should be fine. What is probably happening is there is a driver conflict (like raybay mentioned above) or the bios needs to be switched from onboard graphics to the grahpics adapter.
 
hi wishphoenix,

wishphoenix said:
when they turn the computer on there is no signal to the monitor
I know this sounds painfully obvious, but I have to ask: did they plug the monitor into the new video card? (as opposed to leaving it plugged into the motherboard's video output). if not, then there's the solution ;)

if the monitor is plugged into the new video card, then try plugging it into the motherboard's video output. if you get video from that then you know that on-board video is still the primary video set in the BIOS. enter the BIOS (usually by pressing "DEL" or "F2" during bootup) and change the display order to use the PCI-E card as the primary video display.

wishphoenix said:
Is it possible that the previous graphics card and the new one are conflicting with each other?
to be clear, there was no previous graphics card. the motherboard has built-in video (part of the northbridge chipset).

but regardless of whether it had "on-board video" or a "video card", the old video drivers need to be uninstalled before physically installing the new video card to prevent crashes or unstable operation. (windows has it's own generic drivers that will work until the ATI drivers are installed)

BTW, welcome to techspot :)

cheers :wave:
 
A good, well equipped tech shop can tell you... for a price... around $55 to $85... but you can run these excercises and have a good idea... or send it back to the seller to test.
 
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