Video card-need major help please

[Dragon Master Hiko]

Hello all and thanks in advance for any help.

Ok here is whats going on, I have recently purchased a GeForce 6600GT 256MB/DDR3 PCI-Express TV-OUT/DVI DirectX 9.

My computer is a custom built computer, with AMD Anthlon 64 Processor 3000+ 1.81 GHz with 512MB of RAM. (If you need me to supply more information just ask)

what happens is...I uninstall my old video drivers, remove old card, put my new card into the PCIe slot. I start up the computer, first thing I see on a solid black screen is some white text in the upper left corner, it reads Geforce 6600GT BIOS then says the version and copyright. After that it goes to the Press TAB to enter Post and press Delete to enter BIOS screen. And I can enter the Bios, I have many times trying to see some way to get the card to work, but I obviously failed. Anyways, after that screen it enters a screen with a LOT of white text and at the top it says PCI Device Listing and later on through the list it says about 6 times in a row 'Unknown PCI Device'. After that screen when Windows normally loads nothing happens and the screen just stays black/blank permenantly.

I've looked at the system requirments for the card and it appears i have the requirements...I don't know whats wrong but I'm praying that it's fixable. Any ideas/help will be greatly appreciated, thank you very much.

 

[Bryce W]

Do you have the "SoundBlaster X-Fi" as your sound card and you have a nForce4 based motherboard? Ive heard of a compatibility issue between the GeForce 6600GT, the X-Fi and nForce based mobos. They are usually fine on their own but together they seem to have issues. Im wondering if your installing the video card just completed this triangle.

Could you post full system specs?

 

[Dragon Master Hiko]

Thanks for the reply, and Honestly I'm not sure, I'm not incredibly computer savvy. So can you tell me how to find the specs I need and I'll post them, thanks again

 

[Bryce W]

Try this link, I havent used the application myself however I think it will do the job:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/System_Spec_d4530.html

I know this sounds dumb, but I usually check the dumb things first when there are PC problems. Try removing the card and putting it back in making sure its fully in because even half a millimeter can cause video card problems (well, with AGP anyway). Give it a shot, this is called re-seating.

 

[Dragon Master Hiko]

Ok I got System Spec and it works very well, I'm not sure exactly what you need, but I'll post some stuff here.
Memory(RAM)-512MB
CPU-AMD Athlon (tm) 64 Processor 3000+
CPU Speed-1806.6 MHz
Sound Card- Realtek AC97 Audio
Display Adapters |NetMeeting driver| RDPDD Chained DD|
Network-Present
Network Adapters- NVIDIA nFORCE Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport|
Windows-XP
Manufacurer-Phoenix Technologies, LTD
Product Make-MS-7125
BIOS Info-AT/AT COMPATIBLE|03/11/05|Nvidia-42302e31||
And oddly where it says motherboard, it's blank....
Oh, and I have re-set the video card many many times to no effect. A friend of mine who knows a bit about computers says that the card should work with my computer especially since i am able to make it into the BIOS with the card inserted. He said that if the card wasn't compatible I would never see anything but a blank screen.
Thanks again for the help, hope to hear from you soon.

Oh and I have gotten some ideas from some others, but I honestly don't have any idea how to do them, so I was curious what you thought of them.

"First take your card out and reset it in the PCI-E slot, making sure it's tight and snug. Then try Reseting your CMOS (motherboard bios). Flashing an updated BIOS may do the trick also.

There is a possibility that your video card has a corrupted bios and thus you may need to RMA it . . ."

As I have said I've tried reseting the Pci-e slot several times, but I have no how to reset CMOS or RMAing my video card.

 

[Bryce W]

If possible, try the video card in your friends PC (or any other PC with a PCI-E slot) to determine if the video card is working correctly. If its not working in their computer, the video card is faulty. If it does work it is most likely either an incompatibility of some sort or there is an issue with your motherboard (like a damaged PCI-E slot).

 

[Dragon Master Hiko]

If possible, try the video card in your friends PC (or any other PC with a PCI-E slot) to determine if the video card is working correctly. If its not working in their computer, the video card is faulty. If it does work it is most likely either an incompatibility of some sort or there is an issue with your motherboard (like a damaged PCI-E slot).

Through some searching I was able to find my board, here is a link to it. http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=637

And I'll try to find someone to test my card in, but most of my computer friends use laptops sadly. And my old card that I'm using now works in the PCI-E slot so it can't be a faulty slot then right? I keep hoping theres some way to fix it without having to ship the thing back and order another card....but speaking of which if I find out the card is completely incompatible and/or doesn't work...after looking at my motherboard do you have any suggestions for video cards? Ranging somewhere below 200 dollars. Thanks again for all the help man I greatly appreciate it!

 

[Bryce W]

Ive been reading around and it seems that other people are having problems with your Motherboard and are getting "unknown pci device" regardless of what it is they are plugging in and which slot its in (normal pci and pci-e).

Most say that flashing the bios to the latest version fixed it.
Might be worth you updating your bios, however be very careful when you do it and follow the instructions exactly, if its done incorrectly it can kill your motherboard.

Here is a link to the latest version of the bios:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=637&kind=1

 

[Dragon Master Hiko]

Awsome! I haven't tried it yet but I'm just glad that there is something I CAN try. And I'm very sorry for bothering you still but you scared me a bit with the BIOS update so I just wanted to ask you, on the bios update page there are like 10 updates for it, and none of them are very much bigger than the last version leading me to think that if I want to update completely I need to go through from the oldest up to the newest. Just wanted to make sure on this so I don't make a mistake, thank you very much again for all the help I greatly appreciate it .

One of the updates specifys fixing compatibility with nVidia graphics cards, but it's one of the later versions of the Bios, so again do I need to systematically go through from the older Bios updates untill I reach that one or do I just skip the older ones and go straight for that one?

 

[Bryce W]

Grab the most recent, which is the top one.