Is there some trick to putting in a video card?

[videobread]

I'm having trouble putting in a video card. My system is not on-line. The system has a 32 meg Nvidia now. I'm trying to put a Nvidia Quadro4 980 XGL. It is a working card. The system is an HP xw4100. When I put it in windows won't even come up. Is there some big picture trick to changing video cards?

[redwudz]

Can you tell if Windows is completely loading? Does the screen go black when the Windows screen comes on? If so, I don't know the exact cause, but during boot, try hitting the F6 key. If that's the right one, you should get a black screen that has 'VGA Mode' as one of the selections. Try that.

Other than that, try pulling and reseating the VGA card. Sometimes the sockets don't make full contact.

And you should delete (Uninstall) your old drivers before you pull out the old card.

[jameshgross]

Did you follow the manufacturers installation instructions. Some video cards require the drivers to be loaded before the card is installed.
The best source of help is the vendors tech support system.

[jagabo]

Does the video card have a power conneector? If so, connect one of the power supply lines to it.

It's also possible your power supply can't deliver enough power to the card.

There are a few different generations of AGP with different voltage requirements. The connectors are slightly different so you usually cant plug a card from one generation into a slot for another. But it's something to consider.

[DereX888]

32MB nvidia is pretty vague... but it sound to me like some old PCI card rather than AGP (or some on-board video).
And your Quadro4 is most likely AGP, right?
Perhaps you have to go to your BIOS and change video settings (ie change primary from PCI to AGP or to automatic or such).

Does the video card have a power conneector? If so, connect one of the power supply lines to it.

It's also possible your power supply can't deliver enough power to the card.

There are a few different generations of AGP with different voltage requirements. The connectors are slightly different so you usually cant plug a card from one generation into a slot for another. But it's something to consider.

It would have to be very old motherboard.
And IMHO every modern AGP card has auto-voltage and protection circuitry to prevent it from being electrocuted by 5V slot when it is 3.3V etc...

[jagabo]

That graphics card is supported with the 280 watt power supply:

http://stemo.bg/jsp/bg.do?a=YXR0YWNoLWRvd25sb2FkLTAwMDYzMDAxMzEyOTA=

Graphics... Midrange 3D: NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1100
Power... 280 watts output

This points toward a driver issue.

[aedipuss]

is the old video a card or an onboard built-in chip?

[videobread]

The old 32 meg video card is an Nvidia GeForce 2 MX/MX 400. The xw4100 has a 280 watt power supply.

[lordsmurf]

Be sure the BIOS is set correctly.

[videobread]

Got it in by restoring windows from scratch. Reformatted the HD. It's a new system. I did not have any data on it yet. Some sort of driver issue. All is well.

[thecoalman]

Apprently unistalling the old drivers is sporadic, I had a lot of issues when I installed a Nvidia after uninstalling a ATI card. Only thing that fully resolved it was complete reformat.

[videobread]

To follow up, all did not end as well as I thought. The 980 XGL would just not go in. All the drivers were on the system. I loaded drivers. I unloaded drivers. I put the 980 XGL in and tried a reinstall. It would not reinstall. The reinstall would hang up while trying to load a device. I had to reformat and reinstall windows with the old card, then install the 980 XGL. Finally got that to work and have the system recognize the 980 XGL. Problem is, then I started having all sorts of other problems. The system was sluggish, the mouse erratic and it locked up. So I ended up reformatting and reloading windows again with the old card. I have ordered a another 980 XGL on ebay. The 980 XGL is bad. I bought it on ebay. Hope all this helps somebody.

[videobread]

Got my new Nvidia Quadro4 980XGL in today. Went in without a hitch. The other 980 was in fact bad.