New graphics card installation

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:16

After going through all the other radeon x1950 pro threads i still can't find the information i am looking for so the reason why I am posting here. I would imagine it is really due to the fact that its more of a bottom line graphics card issue.

Anyway, I have just recieved my card and connected it all up to my power supply earlier. Turning on my computer and well nothing happened. Not much of a shock because nothing seems to work straight away with me. Double checked all the power supply was connected properly and tried again. Still nothing.

So anyway, this is the first time I have installed a graphics card on something that has not been a completely new build or new installation, so I am wondering what steps I may have missed.

Is it necessary for me to uninstall my current graphics card drivers before tryin to use this?

Also, due to the amount of hardware in my computer the graphics card power is being daisy chained off my harddrives as I didnt have any free power slots, is this alright or will this effect the amount of power going to it and therefor stop it working?

Finally the final question... I am using a duel dvi graphics card, does it matter which dvi slot i plug my monitor into? I have tried with both anyway, and nothing either way!

Any help is massively appreciated! Cheers guys!

vanandjuanunited · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:19

What psu have you got?
Does the Graphics card spin up?

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:22

Sepheh said:
Is it necessary for me to uninstall my current graphics card drivers before tryin to use this?

Generally yes, but drivers are only loaded when Windows starts, so that wouldn't be your problem.

Sepheh said:
Also, due to the amount of hardware in my computer the graphics card power is being daisy chained off my harddrives as I didnt have any free power slots, is this alright or will this effect the amount of power going to it and therefor stop it working?

There's your problem. You need a dedicated molex running to that card. Unplug all you hard drives except your boot drive, for the sake of getting your machine up and running. This is necessary because it could either be the total amount of power needed is too much for your PSU, or that particular molex isn't supplying enough current to your card.

Sepheh said:
Finally the final question... I am using a duel dvi graphics card, does it matter which dvi slot i plug my monitor into? I have tried with both anyway, and nothing either way!

I thin it is generally the top one, but if the fans don't start up then I wouldn't worry about which DVI socket to plug in.

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:27

My PSU is an akasa 460 watt, its not like i have en excessive amount of hardware running off of it, i just dont seem to have enough free power slots. Have a few case fans, a fan controller, three harddrives, cd rom, dvd rom, floppy... i guess i will sacrifice the fans for now, i think my big ass heat sync and fan should do the cooling job well enough! Right okay well here goes, lets see if I get any further now. Thank you for the quick responses

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:37

Sepheh said:
My PSU is an akasa 460 watt, its not like i have en excessive amount of hardware running off of it, i just dont seem to have enough free power slots. Have a few case fans, a fan controller, three harddrives, cd rom, dvd rom, floppy... i guess i will sacrifice the fans for now, i think my big ass heat sync and fan should do the cooling job well enough! Right okay well here goes, lets see if I get any further now. Thank you for the quick responses

It would probably be the shared molex then. Try booting it with the case open. As long as you can get to post & then windows, you know the card is fine and then you can experiment with the power setup at your leisure.

bris · 12 Jan 2007 at 15:46

Hi m8 exactly the same thing happened to me. Clear your CMOS on the motherboard. It took me ages to figure it out but it is something to do with changing hardware on the XP operating system. I went though all the other steps first and it neary got sent back.It fixed it for me anyway.
Goodluck.

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 16:09

Gonna try the clearing of the cmos in a second:

Quick thing, hardware:
Mobo: ASUS P4C800-E
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon x1950 pro
PSU: Akasa Paxpower 460w

Changed my cabling now so I have the graphics directly plugged into the power supply and the hard drives now daisy chained together... everything working perfectly with old graphics card in.

Lets see what happens!

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 16:12

Fingers crossed

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 16:37

Had it up and running a second ago, with out having to clear the cmos, got into windows and everything was great. (Well apart from the fact that it was running in 640x480)

Windows started doing its business with its searching for new hardware, which i let it do, and it installed some kinda drivers for it. Was about to install the proper drivers on it when suddenly the screen went blank, and then eventually my monitor went into standby mode?! How strange? Have restarted and now I dont even get to see anything at all again, not even a bios screen...

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 16:53

What's plugged into your PC? Are we down to just one DVD drive, one hard drive yet?

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 17:13

melbourne720 said:
What's plugged into your PC? Are we down to just one DVD drive, one hard drive yet?

Tried it with my hard drive floppy drive and cd drive plugged in, and still nothing. My PSU should be plenty powerful enough to handle what i have in my computer.

Am back on to my old graphics card again now while I try and figure out this problem!

The thing that is driving me insanely crazy is the fact that it worked up until i installed the drivers now i have got nothing... Is this a driver issue? It really doesnt sound like it to me since I can't even get anything on my screen. I really dont think the hardware is faulty, it seems unlikely since I have had it working. Any further ideas?

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 17:20

Unplug everything, 1 stick of RAM, card reseated, unplug the floppy drive, clear cmos, attempt restart, cross fingers

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 17:22

melbourne720 said:
Unplug everything, 1 stick of RAM, card reseated, unplug the floppy drive, clear cmos, attempt restart, cross fingers

And after that? Shall I just start adding all my hardware back in one by one? This is making the assumption it actually works!

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 17:27

Sepheh said:
And after that? Shall I just start adding all my hardware back in one by one? This is making the assumption it actually works!

If that works, then you'll have to look at whether your PSU is supplying enough power for all your rig.

If it doesn't work, do you know someone with a PCI-E card who would swap gfx cards with you (to see if it posts)?

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 17:53

melbourne720 said:
If that works, then you'll have to look at whether your PSU is supplying enough power for all your rig.

If it doesn't work, do you know someone with a PCI-E card who would swap gfx cards with you (to see if it posts)?

Okay well i will try that later... am tired with sorting it out now! BTW this is the AGP version of the card! I heard a rumour that you don't need both power supplies plugged in, only if you want the crossfire to work or something like that?!

LoadsaMoney · 12 Jan 2007 at 18:34

When it booted up and came up with the 2x found new hardware jobbies, you shoud have just cancelled those, then installed the drivers.

Sepheh · 12 Jan 2007 at 18:58

LoadsaMoney said:
When it booted up and came up with the 2x found new hardware jobbies, you shoud have just cancelled those, then installed the drivers.

Solution to the problem then?

melbourne720 · 12 Jan 2007 at 19:03

Sepheh said:
Okay well i will try that later... am tired with sorting it out now! BTW this is the AGP version of the card! I heard a rumour that you don't need both power supplies plugged in, only if you want the crossfire to work or something like that?!

Are both the cables plugged in then?

krisboats · 13 Jan 2007 at 02:52

Don't suppose you read the manual did you? And more specifically the bit where it tells you to remove all graphics drivers before inserting your new card.

If your old card works in the machine still try booting up with that in, deleting the drivers then refitting your new card and installing the drivers from the cd.

If it booted up for long enough for you to supposedly install drivers and things then i'd imagine its not necessarily a lack of power supply.

marc2003 · 13 Jan 2007 at 03:00

Sepheh said:
Was about to install the proper drivers on it when suddenly the screen went blank, and then eventually my monitor went into standby mode?! How strange?

in that case, i'd try the other other dvi port.

Sepheh said:
I heard a rumour that you don't need both power supplies plugged in, only if you want the crossfire to work or something like that?!

nonsense. you need both plugged in.