Software

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

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.

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

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?

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?

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

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.

Tonight and let you know

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??

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

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?

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