Blank screen with after installing new video card

Status
Not open for further replies.
Here is the page with my pc specs:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prodinfoCategory?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=471644&lang=en&

I Installed a Chaintech Geforce 6600 video card and was pretty sure it is compatible with the system. First of all, when I plugged the monitor into the new card, I got a blank screen. I then plugged it back into the old card and it worked fine. I have SIS760 integrated video.

After some research I disabled the SIS display adapter in device manager and rebooted....blank screen with new card. I then went into bios and switched the setting from "PCI" to "AGP/onboard". (confusing since my new card is AGP, and I do not want onboard!!) Blank screen. Finally, I removed the old drivers (I was reluctant to do this at first). My fears were confirmed when I rebooted. I got a blank screen no matter where I plugged in my monitor. All I got was 1 long beep and two short ones. (Video error code).

I then removed the new card and rebooted. I was then able to see again thank god; I re-enabled the sis display adapter and rebooted which resulted in my pc freezing every time windows started up. I then booted in safe mode and turned the display adaptor off again and windows loads fine (I suppose removing the drivers was the cause of the freezing). I am now stuck wondering what on earth to do. I have read about people needing to do something with jumpers and power supply, but I know nothing about that stuff and do not want to start messing around if I am not sure what I am doing; as it is I have had to turn off my computer unsafely too many times. Any help would be appreciated...thanks.

Edit: I forgot to add that after I installed the card...I tried the driver installation disk...which resulted in an error message saying that Nvidia could not locate any drivers compatible with my current hardware; this was not surprising considering my computer refused to acknowledge that the card was even installed.
 
YOu should disable the onbaord video in the bios not in device manager. uninstalling video drivers should not cause freezing. make sure the card is fully seated and if it reqquires a 4 pin molec connection tot he PSU make sure it is plugged in. Also another thing to check is the ram, the ram is so close to the video slot that sometimes you can inadvertantly dislodge a module just enough to casue a black screen when you boot up. Last but not least what wattage is the power supply? does it meet minimum power requirements that the card maker state is needed?
 
Hey thanks for the help. First off, I should kick myself repeatedly. The power supply is 250w. The card suggests 300w minimum. To top it all off, It wasn't plugged in to the power supply at all (which may be a good thing). I have thought about trying it anyway, but I am not too sure about playing Russian Roulette over a $25 PSU bill.

The only problem I have now is I am not sure how to go about finding the right power supply for my system. I certainly do not want to make the same mistake again by buying something that I cannot connect or will not work properly. My current PSU is a DPS-250QB 4B by Delta Electronics. Micro-ATX

Thanks again.
 
DOnt go cheap on Power supplies. it is the engine of your system. and cheap generic power supplies can cause erativ system behavior and even destroy components when they fail. go with good quality brand name PSU's one of the best is Antec.
 
I spent about 7 hours now, and can't find one that I can be confident will fit in my system; My head is pounding and I am starting to think that a video game is not worth all this trouble lol. May just give up. You'd think they would make the case so that you didn't have to have the PSU size perfect down to the decimals. Even if I did find one, Murphy's Law states that I would have overlooked something and would need a new "this" or a new "that".

150 bucks to drive myself crazy...well at least I have a useless video card to show for it :)

Edit: It seems to me, after reading hundreds of search results and other people's compaq psu problems that compaq power supplies cannot be replaced with generic ones, at least not without high risk to the system. Can anyone confirm this? I hate companies that pull this crap. It might be a better idea if I just sell my video card and buy a lower end one for now, until I can afford a more customizable PC. Stinks though, as this is not even a year old.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back