Help needed. Video card and display issues...

[Thraxen]

OK, I've been through some very frustrating issues with a new build of mine. The card is an EVGA 8800GT. Here's a quick summary I posted on another forum earlier:

1- When I turned it on for the first time I got no video at all with the PCI-E card connected via DVI to my LCD.

2- I then tried using a VGA adapter included with my card and plugging into the VGA port on my LCD. This allowed me to see the POST, but video would crap out when trying to boot off of the Vista disc. I would see the "Windows is loading files" screen for a few second, then it would crap out.

3- I then tried connecting my CRT and got the same results.

4- I think this is when I cleared the CMOS the first time. Nothing changed.

5- I then decided that I need to flash my motherboard BIOS since it was running 0201 and the current version was 0502. So I went to the BIOS screen and selected EZ Flash from the Ultilities menu. The video crapped out... WTF??!!?!?!? I couldn't see the damn EZ Flash screen with the PCI-E card whether connected via DVI or VGA to the LCD or CRT.

6- This is when I tried a very old PCI video card (I removed the PCI-E card). It's some "MGA" graphics card from a Compaq computer. This card allowed me to see the EZ Flash screen. So I flashed to 0502. Upon rebooting I got a bad checksum error, but was able to enter the BIOS and set the time and access all the menus. Since I was up and running I decided to go ahead and see if I could install Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I could. Installation went very fast with no problems. After installation I fully patched Vista.

7- So removed the PCI card and put back in the PCI-E card. Same problems. I can see POST and the Windows Loading screens, but when the desktop attempts to load the video signal craps out and my monitor reports that there is no signal.

8- So then I tried putting the PCI-E card in the second PCI-E x16 slot. Nothing changes, same problems.

9- This is now when, as you suggested, I cleared the CMOS again. I put the PCI-E card back in the first PCI-E x16 slot and booted up again. Got another bad checksum error, but again everything seems to be running fine. Attempt to load Windows and get the same problem. Even trying to boot into Safe Mode results in the same issue. The card simply ceases the put out a video signal.

What's really odd about this situation is that the card doesn't just quit working when I attempt to load Windows, it also quits when trying to load the EZ Flash 2 utility. I have no idea why it would work for the BIOS and Windows loading screens, but fail on the EZ Flash 2 screen. That doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

So I went through all that BS and was basically about the write card off and RMA it. I started the RMA process through Newegg, but since I coudn't ship today I decided to play with the card a bit more.

I actually managed to get to the card to sort of work in Windows. I did this by installing both the old PCI graphics card and the EVGA PCIe 8800 card at the same time. Then in the motherboard BIOS I set the PCI card to be the primary device (the PCI/PEG setting). This way I could boot into Windows and have video output and then install the nVidia drivers and not have the drivers tell me that it couldn't find compatible hardware.

So I got the drivers installed and then upon reboot set the BIOS back to having the PCIe device as the primary. Doing this the PCIe card FINALLY showed the desktop! Hooray! But not so fast... It only works in analog mode. I can only see anything if I use the analog input on my Samsung 245BW LCD. I tried playing around the the nVidia control panel and couldn't find anyway to get it to work with DVI. I tried various solutions like unplugging the monitor from the computer and power for 10 minutes and then starting the computer back up. Nothing. No video using DVI. Even after installing the drivers from the Samsung site it won't work with a digital signal.

The GPU drivers I installed earlier came from the nVida site so just now I tried installing the drivers available from the EVGA site and installed them. Now I'm worse off! During the middle of the install the screen went blank and never came back up. So now it looks like I'm going to have to go through the whole process, AGAIN, of setting the BIOS back to using the PCI card, uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers from nVidia's site, rebooting, and then setting the BIOS back to PCIe for video. Such a freaking PITA. Never have I had such problems with a new build. And I'm at a total loss as how to get this damn card, the LCD, and Vista 64-bit to play nicely together. Is it too much to ask to get proper DVI output from a card with two DVI ports?? For fvcks sake.

Any suggestions?