I just purchased a new Geforce 5500 256MB AGP 4x/8x card, installed it, turned on my computer and the monitor is completely blank. The indicator light is orange, so I don't even think there is a signal going to the monitor. I've checked the card, connections, and cables and they all seem fine.

I've reinstalled my old card (Radeon 7500 64MB) and it works fine. Is this a problem with AGP? My computer only goes up to 4x but from what I've read my new card should be backwards compatible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!


My comuter is a P4 2.0 Ghz, 256 DDR Ram, Windows XP.

Hi vlapwr, welcome to SAF

When you "installed" your new card, I suppose you just seated it on AGP slot and won't be able to install proper drivers.

Assuming that your new card has no hardware problems (this may happen), you can try to install the drivers/utilities provided with your GeForce 5500 using your Radeon card, which is working normally. After installing all, shut down your system, replace the Radeon by Geforce and restart. (have done that on a Win98 system with a Xabre card and it worked)
Before doing that, create a restore point, as you can return back to the Radeon config if something goes wrong.

Check also that your onboard video is disabled at BIOS setup.

Hope it will help

Chris

Thanks for the help!
I tried what you suggested, but it won't let me install the drivers because it doesn't recognize the hardware (the Radeon). Is there a way to force an install of the drivers?
Thanks again.

Hi vlapwr,

You do not need any proprietary installed drivers to get your v/card up & running; XP has generic drivers that will kick in when there are no installed drivers.

>Install your old card; delete all the old card drivers: go into Control Panel, Hardware, Device Manager; click Display Adapters, RIGHT click your video card listing and click UNINSTALL . Then go into Explore/C drive and delete all references to your video card and drivers-the drivers may still actually be on the hardddrive. Find their file designation and delete them all. Now power down and remove your old card.

>Install your new card fully inserted properly into the slot; sometimes these v/cards snap in firmly: it should be even all the way around the base, not higher on one end than the other. The latch lock at the back should be fully up, locking down the card.

>Boot up. You should boot into XP. If you still get a dark screen and no signal, take your card and install it in a different computer and see if the same thing happens. If it does, you have a bad card. It happens.
If you get image, then either your monitor has a problem with the Hz settings on this card or with the card itself. Then you have two options: buy a new monitor, or return the card.

Hello again,
Well I've tried everything. I even checked all my bios settings, but couldn't find anything. My monitor is only a couple of months old, so I doubt it's the culprit. I think I will send the card back. (Unfortunately I don't have another computer to check it on).

Is your computer a Dell by any chance? Because they have an exact section covering blank screens when installing a video card. I suppose the section could be useful for all motherboards with on-board video also.

Basically if you get a blank screen, connect monitor to the old video, get into bios, turn off on-board video (or it should be set to auto). Turn computer off and connect monitor to new video card.