? Problem with my New Graphics Card

[Doc One]

I am a relative novice and am finally putting together a PC for the first time. I have been awaiting the Graphics card as the last piece of H/W to install. I've installed it switched on the system and am just getting lots of multicoloured squares on the screen flashing. The speaker beeped just once as it should according to the MoBo manual. Is this the Graphics card that is U/S? I have tried reinstalling the card but the same problem prevails. The system is made up of the following:-

P4 3.06Ghz
Gigabyte SINXP 1394 MoBo
Gigabyte Maya II Radeon 9700 Pro Graphics card
2X 512 Mb DDR 400 ram

Any help would be much appreciated.

Also reading somene elses thread below I saw that someones Graphics card benchmarked low because they did not re-install the Chipset drivers. What are these and how do I know if I've installed them when I eventually get around to installing Windows and the appropriate drivers that hav ecom ewith all my bits?

[BipolarBill]

The right drivers are only important while in Windows - not POST and DOS. If the card does not work in those, my money is on a bad video card.

Just be sure to plug in the supplementary power to the card.

[Doc One]

Thank you Bipolar Bill. I thought as much I will try a replacement card. Bit of a stressful time undertaking this kind of thing, knowing very little about computers. But I'm learning!!

I am indebted to you.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by Doc One
I am indebted to you. Maybe. If so, it's you and about 18 thousand others at SysOpt. :D

I'm not counting the approx. 50 thousand others in other forums. :eek:

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by americaonline


your whole system is very high end. my opinion is take your system and go see a professional. Who asked you? I doubt you'll make 10 posts here with that attitude.

[2penguins]

Try not to upset Bill, afterall he is.........


bipolar.:)

[americaonline]

Originally posted by BipolarBill
Who asked you? I doubt you'll make 10 posts here with that attitude.

sorry. what i am trying to say is his problem may have something to do with 1 or others high end components of his. trying to return one component after the other may be hard, i think it's better to send to your work place BipolarBill or some other computer professional and have you (the professional) test each component.

[BipolarBill]

That's a better way to put it. :)

Frankly, we see these sort of problems quite often here. A new card should fix it.

There's not much that can be adjusted, video-wise, at that low of a level. It either works or it doesn't. We used to recommend trying another video card for these things, but considering video card costs, maybe we should start recommending trying another motherboard. :(

[2penguins]

Well, it wasn't that long ago when a card with 8mb of memory was the cat's pajamas....

Now nothing under 128 of fast DRR will do...


and them chips cost...

[bushmaster]

Maybe I'm coming from left field here. But since thats a dual power system with a graphics adapter that also needs to be powered from the PSU. What wattage is your PSU, and do you have it connected to the vidcard ?.
And finally make sure the vid card and memory are firmly seated into their slots.

[Doc One]

My PSU is 400W. The suppliers of the Video card and the Motherboard seem to agree that its a bad vieo card and have asked for its return for a refund. I have now ordered a replacement video card from a different supplier in view of the fact that the original supplier was so poor in response etc. It is the same model card I'm replacing it with. I just hope that it works. I really only want to visit a proffessional if I cannot rectify the problem myself as that was the whole point in the exercise. The other being speed. I love speed!!! I'll let you know how I get on when the ne wcard arrives. Thanks to you all.

[zeus21]

**** dude u got that kinda money that u can just drop another 300 bucks into another radeon ........ more power to u i like my ti 4800 8x.... so whatcha doing with that other radeon *wink wink*

[zeus21]

or wait your probally just getting a refund that would only make sense after rereading ur post

[Doc One]

Thanks all, I received a new Video carsd from an alternative supplier and it worked like a dream. Having difficulty running through all the free software but am getting tere. Th eoriginal supplier have agreed to a refund so allis well that ends well. I am having difficulty with the HDD and its size however (see Data Storage Forum) but thats another story. My particular thanks to the ever reliable Bipolar Bill.