You should go to the Nvidia website and downloard the latest driver for your graphics card. It is a self executing file and either double clicking it or opening it with Start > Run will start the installation process. I could be wrong but I have the feeling you are not using the CD correctly to install the driver on it properly (outdated though it may be). You need to guide the wizard closer to the actual folder containing the appropriate driver file. But regardless, I recommend using the latest driver from Nvidia instead.

One thing isn't clear to me so just to check, you are plugging the monitor cable into the back of the new graphics card, correct? It's not still in the onboard output?

 

Keep in mind that you don't uninstall hardware permanently in the Device Manager. Each time you reboot, Windows will automatically reinstall as you found out. The BIOS is where you disable the onboard graphics.

Plug your monitor into the back of the graphics card. In the BIOS change your primary graphics adapter to PCIE. PCI-E x16 is the slot in which your 8600GT is installed.

 

if i follow that order of plugging it in first and then trying to change the BIOS, there is no signal going to the screen so i can't actually see what's coming up to get to the BIOS. did i read what you posted to do wrong?

 

Let's try something else. When you connect the new card to your monitor, you don't get a signal to the screen, it's dark. Perhaps your power supply is not sufficient to run the new card. What brand and model is it? What are the amps on the +12V rail?

 

when you say the +12V rail, what does that mean? I know that the supply is a 400W max supply made by SuperPower and the model is DR-8400BTX. The card is a Palit GeForce 8600 GT super.

i saw another thread that had suggested the same thing but another post later on in the thread said the supply should have been fine to run it, and my specs were very similar to the computer in question.

 

Power supplies are rated in more than one way. Besides watts there are amps. The PSU puts out different voltages for different parts of components. On the side of the power supply (sometimes it's somewhere else) there is a sticker that shows the total wattage, voltages and the amps put out at those various voltages. All 400W (or any wattage) power supplies are not created equal.

I did a search and it appears that you PSU puts out 13A and 14A on each of two +12V rails. Perhaps you can confirm this by looking at yours. If so, it might be a bit low for your system. Do you have a better one to test with?

 

im at work right now so ill confirm when i get home.

i sadly do not have another one to test with. im not sure what my other options are besides trying to find a friend and testing it on their system...

Okay, so I found another computer which didn't have onboard graphics but did have a PCIE slot with another card in it already. I removed the old card, put in my card, and turned the system on. Nothing came up on the screen at all but the computer made the loading noises like normal. I replaced the card and everything worked fine.

So does this mean that the card is the problem, and I should just try to return it? The old card was a NVidia 7600 I think, so not that much older. thanks for any advice!

any ideas?

 

sounds like your motherboard might not support new PCI-E 2.0 graphics cards

read my thread here:

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic105028.html

there is a problem with some older Asus and Abit boards that have a v1.0 or v1.0a PCI-Express slot that will not work properly with some 8800 series nvidia cards that are built to the 2.0 version of the PCI-E standard.

Its related to an old Intel chipset.

the issue is covered in this news topic - http://news.softpedia.com/news/ATI-to-Dismiss-PCI-Express-2-0-Compatibility-Issues-77282.shtml

You need a MINIMUM of 22 amps on the 12v rail of your power supply for the 8800GT to power up correctly.

did a quick check on your motherboard:

M2N-MX SE Plus


- AMD AM2+ CPU Support Ready
- 2xDIMMs DDR2 1066/800/667/533
- NVIDIA GeForce6100 /nForce430 Chipset
- Integrated GeForce 6100 GPU
- 2000 / 1600 MT/s
- 1 x PCI Express x16 +2xPCI
- 2xSATA 3Gb/s with RAID Support
- 8x USB 2.0
- Conductive Polymer Caps in V-Core

just nosing through the user manual now

ok you cannot 'disable' or uninstall the onboard 6100 card.

You need to change the BIOS setting - Primary Grpahics Adaptor to PCI-E instead of IGP

PCI-E means that the motherboard will use the card in the 16x PCI-E expansion slot as the primary card.

IGP means the motherboard will use the onboard 6100 as the primary card (IGP - intergrated graphics processor)

plug in the 8800GT into the 16x slot, plug in the 6-pin power supply socket into it.

plug the monitor cable into the 8800GT

turn on PC.

If it doesnt post then you aint got enough power (amps)

 

needhelpinnz, I would feel better if I knew what kind of power supply was in the other PC. However, under the circumstances, I would return the graphics card. Your tests show that it appears to be defective. If the card was good, it shouldn't be this hard to get it to work. You might need a return authorization before you can return it for repair/replacement.

guyver1, although interesting, I don't think what you describe is needhelpinnz's problem. For one thing, his graphics card is not an 8800GT, it is an 8600GT. For another, his motherboard's chipset is not Intel but Nvidia so I don't think it applies here.

 

agreed, more likely he just doesnt have a suitable power supply.

 

thanks for all of the help guys. as of right now i sent it back, and am waiting to hear back if they say that it's defective or not. what you were saying about the 8800 tho, about plugging in into the power supply, would i need to do that for my 8600 as well? i have never in the last 10 years had a graphics card that required a plug to directly connect to the power supply, even though I know these days they are becoming more powerful. there was a little connection at the top of the graphics card, however it looked more like the bottom of the graphics card in terms of type of connection, so i ruled it out as a problem, figuring it was most likely an additional fan one could buy, or something of the sort. also, the user manual didn't mention anything about the power supply so that was another reason.

 

I have the same exact problem

My initial video card started to fail like yours with funky lines and colors. It was a 6200 turbo cache that came with my gateway computer. It started with the funky lines and then proceeded to reboot itself giving the nv_4 ??? error in the event log. Then one day it just failed. I ordered a videocard a 8600GT to be exact and it took me three weeks to get it to work. I installed a 450W power supply and nothing happened. To make a long story of flashing (or at least trying to) the bios, taking out memory, plugging and unplugging in every component on the computer. I am sure you get my point. Then one day I gave up and while I was planning on taking it in to have someone look at it I got lucky. I can only think of one thing I did that may have helped me at the last minute. I went to gateway and reloaded the chip set drivers that came with the computer 3 years ago. I also loaded some other video drivers that came with the computer on the gateway site. All of a sudden the old card worked until it faile again hours later. That was ok cause I got the new card to be seen and was able to get new drivers on and away I went to play games. Internet Explorer appeared slower than normal (don't know why yet). Two days later I uninstalled two Call of Duty games and rebooted....guess what the video hasn't worked ever since. I am gonna dollow your posts cause I am in the same boat. The bios doesn't say much of anything on mine either.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Pls post what you find....

 

Well like I said before, I tried it on a friend's computer and it didn't work either. So I sent it back, and after weeks of not hearing anything they finally sent an email telling me that a tech tested it and said it worked fine. so i called and the guy said he was running XP with a 350w power supply. I figure then mine should work fine, so he sent it back and now I'm back to square one wondering what the heck to do...

 

Ok here's what has happened to me

I went downstairs this am and poof the card is being seen by my system again. Right or wrong I will tell you what I am doing, maybe it will help you too. I ended up removing all my cables from my system such as printer USB, blackberry usb etc....all but the mouse and keyboard. I booted the system up without the new board installed. I plugged into my onboard video. Once there I shut down the computer using the start button and installed my new card and with my cable plugged into the new card as if it were going to work. I left the computer just like that overnight with the side of the case off and rebooted in the am but I plugged back into the onboard thinking I was doomed. I had no onboard video tothe monitor and so I crossed my fingers and plugged back into the new card and poof it was there. I have NO IDEA what happened and I don't know why it keeps disappearing on me. Motherboard? PCIE port? Right now I am getting rid of Norton and putting on my work's version of Mcafee. After that I am going to scan for viruses. Could a virus cause something like this? I will admit prior to this crap I did tweak some XP settings using a website I found online. I am pretty caustious about what I remove and I did what I felt safe with so I don't tink that is what did me in BUT I will not rule it out. Have you tweaked anything lately or added in any new programs or deleted anything? I was also told maybe removing direct x versions may messme up. I really don't know......Let me know what you find. It may be that one of us will have to take the computer in and just inform the other. I looked on the internet and there are tons of people with this issue but they never tell what they did to fix it. Good luck and keep in touch.

 

haha wow....glad you got it to work. i should be able to play around with it tomorrow (couldn't get it from the office that works with my mail before they closed). With yours, did you put in the CD and try to install the drivers before you put in the card, or no? I think I might just start with what you did and see if that fixes anything. What I don't get is how the tech tested it and the card came back okay...I'll bet it's one small thing, software probably, on the computer, like you were saying maybe direct x. but i'll try what you did and get back to you in a day. thanks for the info.

Okay, got the card back and still isn't working for me. I'm going to start everything over at the beginning. Here is what I'm working with:

Board: Asus M2N-MX SE Plus
CPU: Athlon 64X2 4800+
Memory: 2GB
OS: XP
Power Supply: 400W
Card trying to install: GeForce 8600 GT Super


Step 1: Turn off computer, unplug wires, get rid of static from myself
Step 2: Open case, plug in card in only PCI-E slot, make sure it's firmly in
Step 3: Close it all back up, reconnect using new card and reboot


List of Results
Result 1: No signal on screen using new card, so I switch to onboard where there is a signal
Result 2: No box telling me there is new hardware
Result 3: Upon putting in CD, a box pops up listing all the drivers on the CD and at the top it tells me that no suitable driver was found
Result 4: I check the fan of the card

Questions
-For the 8600GT Super, is there an additional plug that I'm supposed to plug into either the card or the MB? The fan on the card is spinning, so I figured power was good, but there is a small slot at the top of the card that isn't mentioned anywhere and I'm not sure if it's vital
-POWER: I did check and I did confirm that the +12V rail did show 14A and 13A. I'm not sure what the other system's was that I plugged it into, but if the minimum I need is 22A then I should be fine and can rule out the power supply, right? Especially considering that the fan for the card is spinning normally?
-@guyver1: You said "plug in the 8800GT into the 16x slot, plug in the 6-pin power supply socket into it." Even though I'm using the 8600GT Super, would this still be a step I should have had to take? If so, I never did...
-I read the article regarding the 8800s, so would this still possibly apply to my situation, and if so, what do I return? The MB or the card that works on other MBs, just not this one?
-Also, could I be missing something with the BIOS? The only thing I changed was what i mentioned before, changed the boot order to have PCI-E be first, but it still didn't pickup the card. Could there be something else in there too?

 

I wish I could help you more! I didn't need the bios flash, I didn't need the extra plug on the card. When this happens to me again I am going to physically remove the GT card from the system and boot up on the onboard video with just the mouse and keyboard plugged in. I am going to update the drivers I have onboard at that time or in other words put my system back to the way I bought it via the gateway website support page. After the system is running "ok" I will shutdown and install the new card. Here is where the tricky part comes in. I can't remember 100% if I had the onboard plugged in or the new card. I want to say I had the onboard plugged in and it didn't work which is why I moved the cable to the GT8600 and it was ok. I also want to add I have not been able to get a DVI cable to work, only the DVI converter to serial cable to the monitor. Man I am as confused as you but it is working for now. I am afraid to try anything.

Hate to keep bringing this up but have you made any OS changes to your system? I can't remember what you said initially. Hopefully someone will chime in with more help but I am here if you need something.

 

nope, no OS changes. sigh. im not sure what else to do at this point...

anybody else have any suggestions

 

Is the graphics card made by Palit? If so, it doesn't appear to have any other power connectors to hook up. The small connector blade at the top of the card is for SLI which you don't have so you don't have to worry about it. Without going into detail, SLI is when you have two identical graphics cards installed on the same motherboard.

You cannot compare power supplies by watts only as not all power supplies rated similarly are equal. You need to compare amps and 14A and 13A on the 12V rails are not great specs for a power supply. Power supplies can get weaker as they get older too. IMO, it is a possible culprit. There might be enough power for the fan to spin but not for the card to operate.

I'm not sure what you meant by changing the boot order in the BIOS to PCI-E. That doesn't make sense to me. You don't boot from a graphics card. Even if that was an option, you should be booting from the hard drive once Windows has been installed. When there is no operating system installed, you change the boot order to the CD drive first so it can boot from the Windows CD but after that it is the hard drive.

Anyway, can you borrow a better power supply to test your system with?

 

Yes, the graphics card is made by Palit. That's good to hear I don't have to worry about the other connector.

That is a bummer about the specs for the 12V rails. So is this something that I should go out and replace first to see if that fixes the problem? I just don't want to spend more money than I have to, which I'm sure anybody can understand.

In the BIOS, there is an order of what comes up or is checked first. I probably used the wrong word when I said 'boot.' But the two orders you could change it to were either were PCIE->PCI->IGP or IGP->PCI->PCIE. I have the first selected so that it checks (or uses?) the PCIE slot first.

So is that my best option here then? New PSU? I just would hate to go out and buy one only to still have issues with the graphics card. Also, you said those numbers for the rails were crap, so what are good numbers that I should be looking for?

I'm at uni right now and we just hit semester break so most of my mates are gone. I'll keep looking tho in the interest of saving money...

 

Okay. I understand about the graphics card "order." Actually, I got lost and should have re-read this thread from the beginning again and I should have figured it out for myself. Sorry about that.

Here's my thinking on the matter. If the graphics card is good (according to the tech you sent it to) and onboard graphics are good, then either the power supply or the motherboard seem like good candidates to be bad. When you installed the 8600 into a friend's PC, you got nothing. But if his PC is otherwise good, it can't be a bad motherboard. His power supply must be underpowered for your card and therefore, so is yours. Well, I could be wrong and I would hate for you to spend your money unnecessarily. But that's all I can figure at the moment.

Too bad you couldn't try his 7600 in your PC. If it worked, that would eliminate your motherboard as being faulty.

 

Too bad indeed. I'm trying to follow your logic with one line you said.

if his PC and MB were both good, the friend's that I tried, are you saying that at least something would have come up on the screen then telling me that it found the card? I guess I'm just confused how you came to that conclusion.

I found a mate's PSU that might be 450W so I'm going to try that in the next 24 hours. I'll let you know if it's big enough or if it works.

Thanks again for all the help. Wish me luck.

 

What I meant was that we know your friend's PC is good, including his motherboard. So if your supposedly known good 8600 doesn't work in his PC, it can't be due to a bad motherboard or any other bad part for that matter. The only thing it could be (logically) is an underpowered power supply, not a bad one, just underpowered for your card.

It's still possible that your motherboard is bad or maybe just the PCI-E slot but I'm leaning toward the PSU.

Good luck on the 450W PSU.

 

Back in the fold...

I am back after a little trip down south. Right before I left on Wed morning I went down to the computer to check a few things and guess what? No video. The card is back to acting up again. I am still in the process of getting it to work. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I want to add to your conversation above. I went out and bought a 450W power supply and it hasn't fixed me 100%. Maybe my amperages are off as well. Let me add this:

When my card stopped responding the computer was in hibernate and no matter what buttons I pressed the computer (HD) would not budge or make any type of action as if to wake up. I tried everything. Then I unplugged the 8600GT and plugged in the onboard video and the HD responded and came up after a power off. What's up with that. I am still here and I'll keep you posted on what I find as well. Good luck.

 

Arg

PSU Update:

So I found a mate who had a 450W PSU with 30A on the +12V rails. I first tried the 8600 in his machine, but nothing came up on the screen. Again, the fan on the 8600 was spinning normally but no signal. Computer sounded like it booted up normally as well.

Then I tried taking the PSU back to my computer and trying it i there with my setup and the new PSU, but again, still no signal from the 8600. I tried switching the cable to the onboard card and I was getting a signal from that.

So what does that tell me then? I wasn't sure if the extra 50W/3A was enough to be considered a good tester, BUT since my PSU already exceeds the specs for the card, this should have at least shown something, right?