Video Problem (GeForce 9500 GT)

[JeckeL]

Here's my previous setup:

ASRock 4CoreDual-Sata2 R2.0
Intel Core2Duo 2.6 (2.4ghz)
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT (PCI-E)
2x 1gb sticks DDR2
80 gb maxtor HDD (IDE, my CD & DVD drives are IDE as well)

I decided to upgrade to a SATA HDD and purchased a 500gb Western Digital Caviar Green 500AACS hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT (PCI-E). So today I get everything, decide to not even use this 80gb maxtor drive along with the 500gb WD one, so I replace the old with the new and begin installing win XP with SP3 slip-streamed in so it'll recognize all 500gb of the drive. Everything installs fine and the only thing I installed was a sound driver for my mobo. Keep in mind I still have my old 8600 card hooked up to my monitor and its running on "default" graphics (for lack of a better word) because I havnt yet installed any drivers. I had planned on installing an OS on this HDD and getting *** running before I proceed with replacing the graphics card. So I do this next. I put the 9500 in, hook it up to my monitor using a DVI to VGA adapter, because the 9500 has two DVI ports, and my old 8600 had a VGA port that I connected my monitor to. I try to boot and get no video. Monitor stays on for about 3 mins and then goes from green to orange or "Stand-by" mode if you will. So I put the 8600 back in and install the driver that came with the 9500 along with DirectX. I put the 9500 back in and same thing, no video. Thinking it was a DVI to VGA adapter issue I tried my 8600 with the DVI to VGA adapter and it works fine (the 8600 has a DVI and a VGA port, whereas the 9500 has two DVI ports). I have no idea what could be wrong... only thing I can think of is my mobo not supporting this card, or the 9500 being a PCI-E 2.0 card while my mobo is described as a PCI-E 1.0 port, info on the 9500 said that it could be used in a PCI-E 1.0 slot... Thanks in advance for any help I'll be waiting around for replies =p

PS: I noticed on the supported card list on ASRocks site some of the newer cards like a 9800 GTX required BIOS version P2.10, my BIOS ver was P1.80... so I installed 2.10 and still the same thing

 

[Arkaign]

Welcome to AT!

Well, there's really nothing to try that you haven't done. It honestly sounds like a defective/cooked 9500GT to me. Because it seems to have not damaged your setup (everything works fine with the 8600), it would be safe to test the 9500 in another system.

FWIW, there's not much difference between an 8600GT and a 9500GT. If you just purchased the new stuff, return the 9500GT, and grab something like a 9600GSO/9600GT/4670/4830. Not much more $, but a magnitude faster, and usable with new games.