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i can’t get my new card to be recognized

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I’ve looked everywhere i can think of and can’t figure out whats wrong. i have an 8400 GS PCi-e card i installed. and i can only get graphics from my onboard video.

steps taken –
disable onboard graphics through device manager
change video priority to PCI-e through BIOS
installed drivers for new cards from provided disk and website
*note* there is no separate power cord on the card itself

computer stats –
motherboard – geforce 6100 am2 v1.3 (biostar)
power supply 380 watt (card asks for 300)
OS windows XP
processor AMD athlon 64 2.21
RAM 512 DDR 2 800

any other info you need let me know. i’m stumped

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

Clarifications

So did you check the suggestions here?

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-394733?messageId=3700747

[i]Though in the mean time check to make sure that the Video Card is actually fully inserted into the Socket on the M’Board and make sure that it’s actually in the x 16 PCI E socket apparently these seem to be more than one PCIE socket on this M’Board.

Some cases hold the Plug In Cards slightly out of the socket and you need to adjust the Back Bracket and M’Board height from the base of the case.

Also if the Video Card had a Power Socket make sure that you plug the Power Supply lead to the Power Socket.[/i]

Does the system start at all? If it doesn’t then you have a Incompatibility between the Chip Set of the Video Card and M’Board and need a different Video Card.

If the system is running then your most likely things are that the Video Card is not correctly fitted to the PCI E Socket, not getting any power or it’s dead.

Col

Tried that

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

I have checked to make sure that it is seated properly and that looks good. As for the different ports the two are only pci ports only one true pcie x16 so I’m sure it’s in the right slot. The computer will turn back on no problem and if I move the vga cable to the on board I have picture still. I really hope it’s not a bad card and I can’t afford a new psu right now. I oh and there is not a separate power cord for the graphics card. It’s starting to sound like this won’t be an easy answer. Maybe just a simple incompatibility issue?

Could it be

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

That the onboard NVIDIA is co-opting the NVIDIA add-on as a secondary display in WinXP?

This assumes you see the BIOS startup on the 8400 addon. Do you? Also what does the hardware device list say about graphics or “unknown” cards?

don’t think so

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

it’s possible that that they are co opting i guess but i only see anything on the screen if i’m plugged into the onboard the 8400 so far is giving me nothing. when i go into device manager all i see is the onboard disabled and nothing for the 8400, not even an unknown

Sounds like a hardware issue with the card

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

Check the 8400 in another computer to verify if there is a hardware fault. If you don’t see the BIOS on powerup it sounds like a hardware issue. I’m still not certain that is the case because you didn’t say that specifically. If you can see the BIOS screen on powerup when plugged into the 8400 you might try reinstalling WinXP chipset drivers. Make certain to use the manufacturer drivers.

I’ll give that a try

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

Tonight and let you know

didn’t see anything

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

i don’t see anything at all during start up if i’m plugged into the 8400. as soon as i plug back into the onboard i’m golden. think its a bad card or just not compatible with my mother board??

only have one computer

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so i don’t have a way to try it on another computer

I can’t honestly say if it’s a hardware problem

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

with the card if you can’t test in another PC. However the only other thing I can come up with is insufficent 12V on the PCIe x16 rail. If the card can’t get power, it won’t display anything.

You do have power going to the 4pin as well as the 24 pin connector?

As far as I know

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I don’t really know how to test that. I can tell you that the fan on the card spins

You are using the same cable/VGA connector

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and no DVI changers? That would be my only other guess (either a bad VGA-DVI adapter or cable or monitor not switching to DVI when plugged into the 8400 or a bad DVI port on the card)

Sounds like there is power to the card, thus it has to be a hardware problem with either card, cable or monitor input select.

maybe a BIOS upgrade is in order

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

i was thinking about it and when i go to turn off the onboard graphics i get the option for either “always on” or “automatic”. is it possible that i need to update my BIOS to give me a proper “turn off” option and force it to the dedicated card??

I’d say definitely reset to factory defaults

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

on the BIOS. And if an update is available it wouldn’t hurt. There may be PCI 1.x updates that could effect expansion card registration. Interesting, most BIOS options I’ve seen are either automatic or utilize PCI dedicated…

I’m a little nervous about trying that

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

Since I’ve never updated BIOS before however I just started going to school for computers so I’m going to try to take it in and see if my teacher will help me with it

Try resetting your BIOS to factory defaults

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This can usually be done through the menus in your BIOS, but if not, there will be a jumper (usually near the cmos battery) that you can set to erase the BIOS settings. Have the video card in when you do this so it is the first thing detected when the BIOS is rebuilding its settings.

If you can’t find the jumper, unplug the computer and press the power button to discharge the capacitors. Then, remove the CMOS battery (it looks like a watch battery) and press the power button again.
Return the CMOS battery and plug the computer in. Make sure you video card is inserted and your monitor cable is attached to the card, then start your computer. If successful, it should recreate your BIOS settings from factory defaults. Some machines will have you set the system clock before it will allow you to boot up.

I can try that

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

I’ll give it a shot and let ya know thanks

So far doesn’t

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Seem to be making a difference still the same results. Maybe this wasn’t meant to be lol

so ….

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

my plan from the beginning was to install Linux Mint on this computer and use the new dedicated card with the HDMI to plug into my TV and watch shows online with it. so i go to install Mint and everything goes smooth until i get to the screen where is says select windows xp or mint and then all of a sudden my keyboard doesn’t want to let me arrow down to mint. i’m really about to go office space on this thing ….

BTW charles and slayer thank you so much for all your help so far i really appreciate it!! you guys have been awesome!!

Your “computer stats” are too low….

In reply to i can’t get my new card to be recognized

“computer stats –
motherboard – geforce 6100 am2 v1.3 (biostar)
power supply 380 watt (card asks for 300)
OS windows XP
processor AMD athlon 64 2.21
RAM 512 DDR 2 800”

You will need to update your power supply to 600 watts
Ram you will need to update to 2gb or 4gb depending on how much your board can take.
After you have done this your new graphic card should work as it should.

why

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would my ram have an effect on whether or not my computer recognizes a card?? i can understand the power supply but i don’t see why my ram would make a difference

hello?

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did i scare everyone away??

[Author]

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