jibberegg
Member
Hi everyone,
What with this being the best tech website around I feel rather abashed to be posting what is (hopefully) going to be such an easy fix, but I'm having real trouble with a graphics card upgrade. Apologies for the long post but I thought Id at least show Ive tried to fix the issue myself! My old system specs are as follows (let me know if any more detail required)...
Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3GHz
ASRock Conroe 1333 eSATA with latest bios version (1.50)
ATI 2900XT 1GB
OCZ Gold Edition RAM - 2x2GB
Coolermaster 550W PSU
Creative X-FI XTREME AUDIO PCI Sound Card
1TB (Toshiba?) 7200rpm HDD
64bit Windows 7 Ultimate
Edge10 22" DVI monitor (http://www.edge10.com/technical_pdfs/Edge10_W223_technical.pdf)
All I tried doing was lifting out the (very) old 2900XT and plugging in a shiny new Sapphire 5850 Toxic... Lights come on, fans power up on everything (including beautiful new graphics card) and I hear system go through the usual post/boot sequence. Unfortunately there's nothing coming up on my monitor. Hmmm....
Turn it off, check all cables are properly connected, turn it back on again... Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
I try plugging the monitor into the second DVI port on the card and restart... to no effect. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... I boot to windows 7, remove the ATI display drivers and shut down. Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... I boot to windows 7, install the new drivers from the supplied Sapphire disk and shut down. Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
OK, so into the picture comes another hard drive that I'd been using for backup. I format it from working PC and try a fresh Windows 7 install from the disk... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... System posts and monitor displays usual Windows 7 install stuff. Hmmm....
Out comes the formatted HDD/windows 7 disk and back goes the original HDD. I happen to have a 42 LG 1080p LCD TV in the same room so I get the DVI to VGA adapter out and plug the PC into the TV... System posts and TV displays normally...
Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Using the DVI to VGA adapter on both ports yields usual nothingness and same story with the HDMI cable (No HDMI on the 2900XT so couldnt test that one). Hmmm...
After all this Im thinking that the 5850 is probably a duff that has wasted my weekend so I ask the retailer (Amazon) to send me a new one. All credit to Amazon, a new one was in the post 1st class the next day and with me a couple of days later with no quibbling over if I was an idiot or had tried plugging the monitor in. Great job guys!
Unfortunately... The new 5850 was equally unresponsive to my charms; leading me to believe that Amazon perhaps should have checked if I was a buffoon before sending me a new one. Rather than selling both cards for an outrageous profit (they left me the old one 😀 ), does anyone have any idea what Im doing wrong? Any help/insight/sympathy greatly appreciated. Oh, and thanks for making it to the end of the post. Your dedication is a testament to your awesomeness.
Cheers,
Dave
What with this being the best tech website around I feel rather abashed to be posting what is (hopefully) going to be such an easy fix, but I'm having real trouble with a graphics card upgrade. Apologies for the long post but I thought Id at least show Ive tried to fix the issue myself! My old system specs are as follows (let me know if any more detail required)...
Intel Core2Duo E8400 @ 3GHz
ASRock Conroe 1333 eSATA with latest bios version (1.50)
ATI 2900XT 1GB
OCZ Gold Edition RAM - 2x2GB
Coolermaster 550W PSU
Creative X-FI XTREME AUDIO PCI Sound Card
1TB (Toshiba?) 7200rpm HDD
64bit Windows 7 Ultimate
Edge10 22" DVI monitor (http://www.edge10.com/technical_pdfs/Edge10_W223_technical.pdf)
All I tried doing was lifting out the (very) old 2900XT and plugging in a shiny new Sapphire 5850 Toxic... Lights come on, fans power up on everything (including beautiful new graphics card) and I hear system go through the usual post/boot sequence. Unfortunately there's nothing coming up on my monitor. Hmmm....
Turn it off, check all cables are properly connected, turn it back on again... Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
I try plugging the monitor into the second DVI port on the card and restart... to no effect. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... I boot to windows 7, remove the ATI display drivers and shut down. Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... I boot to windows 7, install the new drivers from the supplied Sapphire disk and shut down. Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Lights come on, fans power up on everything and... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
OK, so into the picture comes another hard drive that I'd been using for backup. I format it from working PC and try a fresh Windows 7 install from the disk... nothing coming up on the monitor. Hmmm....
Out comes the Sapphire 5850 and back in goes the 2900XT... System posts and monitor displays usual Windows 7 install stuff. Hmmm....
Out comes the formatted HDD/windows 7 disk and back goes the original HDD. I happen to have a 42 LG 1080p LCD TV in the same room so I get the DVI to VGA adapter out and plug the PC into the TV... System posts and TV displays normally...
Out comes the 2900XT and back in goes the Sapphire 5850. Using the DVI to VGA adapter on both ports yields usual nothingness and same story with the HDMI cable (No HDMI on the 2900XT so couldnt test that one). Hmmm...
After all this Im thinking that the 5850 is probably a duff that has wasted my weekend so I ask the retailer (Amazon) to send me a new one. All credit to Amazon, a new one was in the post 1st class the next day and with me a couple of days later with no quibbling over if I was an idiot or had tried plugging the monitor in. Great job guys!
Unfortunately... The new 5850 was equally unresponsive to my charms; leading me to believe that Amazon perhaps should have checked if I was a buffoon before sending me a new one. Rather than selling both cards for an outrageous profit (they left me the old one 😀 ), does anyone have any idea what Im doing wrong? Any help/insight/sympathy greatly appreciated. Oh, and thanks for making it to the end of the post. Your dedication is a testament to your awesomeness.
Cheers,
Dave
