Okay guys, I need major help.

I just got my new graphics card: ATI Radeon 9600 Atlantis, 256MB

My computer has an integrated card.

The card goes into the AGP slot fine. But, when I turn on the computer, the monitor shows nothing. It just displays the standard "Going to sleep" message that shows up if turn on the monitor when the computer is off. No signal, I guess.

My next step would have been to change (in BIOS) from PCI to AGP. But of course I can't enter BIOS if I can't see anything on my monitor!

I did not uninstall my old drivers before installing the card. I had a bad feeling about it from the start, so I didn't want to end up with no way of getting my computer back to normal. I also didn't install the new drivers, because the installation guide says to install the card first, then the drivers.

If I change from PCI to AGP in BIOS *before* installing the card, there won't be any way to change back if I can't get back into BIOS because of the monitor problem. Right? Or is this safe to do? What will the computer display if I change from PCI to AGP but there is nothing installed in the AGP slot?

So I'm stuck. I've removed the card (obviously) and my computer works normally again.

What am I doing wrong? :confused:

I appreciate any help.


[EDIT] Guess I should also say I have a Compaq Presario piece of crap. Do you need my specs for this?

Compaq Presario
XP Home Edition
1.43 GB RAM
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+, ~2.1GHz
VIA/S3G UniChrome IGP graphics card, 64MB

This is going to seem like a pretty silly question, but did you plug your monitor into the card or leave it where it was? That's what I did when I changed my card. Felt pretty stupid when I realized what I'd done. Anyway, if you haven't already, try plugging into your new card.

Plugged it into the card.

Tried plugging it back into the original place, too. Nothing either way.

I also tried restarting the computer a couple of times, but still nothing.

Okay, going to assume you've got the software, so try going to the Add Hardware Wizard in Control Panel and see if that helps.

try resetting your bios... you can do this by removing the battery for a few minutes or by placing a jumper on the bios reset pins... You would want to check your motherboard manual to know how to do that If you cannot find one, check with HP...

Still nothing.

I even downloaded a BIOS update from HP, since there was (supposedly) an important update in it.

I'm going to have to drag this thing to a tech, aren't I?

Damn this sucks!

I would think you would need to disable the onboard video first. Not quite sure about this, but I'm guessing the best way to go about this would be to remove the new card, then after starting the computer in Safe Mode go into the Device Manager {on 2000/XP right click My Computer and select Properties from the drop down menu, then go to the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button} and find the onboard video. If it's there, it would be under display adapters. After all that's done, put the new one back in and fire up the machine. Hope this is helpful to you.

i had this same problem too - i ended up having to disable my onboard video card in BIOS (disabling in the control panel only didn't help), and then my new one worked (i'd installed the software and drivers before i switched it in BIOS)...i forget how i got into BIOS (my boyfriend did it) but we pressed one of the F# keys as windows was loading) try searching the internet if you don't know how already, that's what we did.

If it's like my computer, It's F10. This is Bizzare.. It's Excatly what happened to me last night.. To a tee. Same computer, same card.. lol. Just wish I could help more.. my older brother came and fooled arround with it and made it work.. Except it didn't. The card plays all my games great except one.. Yep, you guessed it.. Sims2 now makes my computer freeze up like an icecube. It's loads fast, the graphics are beautiful, everything looks happy, than Bam! Freeze.

By the way, If anyone could help with the affore mentioned freezing thing, it would be much appreciated

Well, I've tried everything. I finally gave up and lugged the whole thing to the nearest Best Buy. They'll install it for $39.99 by Monday.

Thanks for trying, everyone.

Mechallama, are you certain its not an overheating problem? Overheating can cause weird things like the computer suddenly restarting itself, etc.

Go into your BIOS and look for the intergrated/onboard section. Disable the onboard graphics card there. Remember to save the settings and boot. Also, if the card requires power other than through the AGP slot make sure it is pluged in. My 9800 Pro 256 will not function unless I have power to it. You may need a Y cable if you have used all available, they do not provide a y cable with the card.

Not, the card has a internal fan, so my computer is actually running much cooler now. and some of the games I've tried it with, like Half Life , are more graphicly intense than Sims2, and they work fine.

mechallama, did you upgrade anything else at the same time? I had a computer that I swapped out the video card and memory and the same thing started happening. Sims 2 would run for a few seconds, and lock up. I thought it was the video card, I tried a different one, no luck. Finally put the original memory back in, it worked fine. I quess the motherboard couldn't handle the speed of the new memory (PC333), because I installed it in my new computer (where I had planned on the old memory going) and it worked fine.

No, a month or two ago I added a little memory.. Not actually more, but a little faster.. and it was fine.. But I only added the vid card. I'm not sure if it has built in memory or not though