how do i install a video card

i have a motherboard that has no onboard video and the video card that it used to have went into the pci express slot and it recently stopped working so i am replacing it with another card that i have recently purchased and it plugs into the pci slot (the white one) and after i plugged it in and powered on my monitor and system nothing came up but the monitor asking me to check the video cable connection

and to top everything off there is no operating system yet whats the deal here

 

I think you answered your own question there. Install your OS, then your chipset drivers and lastly use the provided disc to install video drivers. If you want to see if it works is to get into BIOS, the splash screen should be there on bootup. What card did you get, I don't remember.

Oops, I may have misinterpreted that, sorry. You got all the proper power connections to the video card if it needs them?

 

hi, Ive replaced a few in my time
first uninstall old drivers then tern pc of and remove card,put new card in and start.
do you have an installation dsc?,if so use it if not let windows look on the net allso make sure its properly pushed in.

 

nothing came up but the monitor asking me to check the video cable connection
I(d allso make sure that you've not over tightened th cable attachment

 

^

Just use the onboard video to install your OS, then install the drivers from inside your OS

 

First sentence.

Jeez Dawg, too much turkey man? That's twice today.:confused

 

WAY to much turkey!
Put in the CD, let it boot from it. There might be a plug 'n' play driver right on the cd

 

just did put the cd in the drive and let it start up and nothing happened the drives light stopped blinking so i was guessing that it just wasn't reading the disk anymore

and since when does not having an os have anything to do with this i uninstalled and reinstalled os all the time with the last video card and there was nothing that would contain drivers except the mobo wiat makes this one any different than the last one

as for the model i have a
BFG Geforce 8400 GS

 

oh i would like to correct myself

the last video card tiat i had wasn't pci express it was agp

 

Ya, if you can't even see a BIOS screen upon boot then... Do you have another cable you could try?

EDIT: Due to added info by OP AGP info. AGP and PCI-E are not compatible specs. What's your PCB so that we can tell for sure.

 

you mean the model of my motherboard i don't exactly know but if i tell you all of its features then would that help

so you were saying that my pci card won't work because my last one was agp (the long brown one?)

 

Colour codes for slots won't help as they are all different, need the model #. Are the fingers on the old card exactly the same as the new one, as in length and slot position?

 

not exactly but then the plugs reach then fit in the pci slow but there just isn't any picture

and are you guys saying that the fact that the last card was agp the new one won't work in the pci since the last one wasn't the same as this one

 

Ya, AGP and PCI-E are not compatible, I'm just trying to drill down to what the mobo needs. What confuses me is that it apparently fit in your mobo as you didn't complain about it.

 

well this sucks do i have to exchange it at the store for an agp compatible card

 

Well, you corrected yourself and said that you had an AGP card before that died, Then that's what you need, you confused me with all the slots that you described though I'm still wondering how did that PCI-E card fit in the first place.:confused

Anyways, take your old card in and make sure to get something better than your original specs, you may have a tough time finding one unless the shop has a used one. Good luck.

 

well that makes all kinds of sense now

plus i need to know, will a new video card that has a similar connection be plug and play? like i don't have to install drivers just plug it in and go.

and i don't plan on using windows for this machine, i want to use a Linux distro. which one? i don't know yet i haven't gotten that far in the realm of deciding to do with the system when i fix it

 

You need to get into your BIOS and set what video slot to boot from.

If it wont show a signal after installing a PCI video card you may have to pull the battery for a few seconds and clear the CMOS.
Re-insert battery and see if it boots hit the delete key to reset your time and such.
There should be a setting which slot to boot video make sure its set to PCI not AGP.

 

so the motherboard is still set to boot video from agp not pci i'm better off just buying a new agp card, much simpler

will it matter if the side of the agp slot is broken, the short side without or atleast i think, electrical contacts

 

I dont know how serious the break is.I could be bad enough to render the AGP slot useless.
You will have to get a AGP card and find out.

 

This is a flame,:tas
In case no-one has figured this out from the Baron's past posts, the cheese has slid off the cracker a few times.

 

Just for future reference for you all, he said he had a PCI card, NOT a PCI-E. There is a difference.

Standard colour for PCI: White

Standard colour for AGP: brown

Standard colour for PCI-E: there isn't one, but it is not white.

 

my last video card was an agp the brown plug, the one i just purchased is a pci plug the white one, but since my last one was agp, the motherboard is still set to boot video from agp slot not pci. is my statement here right

 

Oh my, how could I forget the brown AGP socket as I just took my TUSL2-C machine apart to ship it to someone!:-o Apologies to the OP.

 

The computer should default to the AGP slot, but when it finds no card there it should go to check the other slots.

Thus I suspect either the motherboard or the card is broken.

Is there another PCI slot that you can try the card in?

 

there were several slots totest it in and i did just that, still no dice but i do suspect that the motherboard would search the agp slot by default and since there aren't any video devices plugged in there it won't display anything, but i doubt that it is checking other slots to find video cards. i think its just the agp. but when i purchase an agp card and plug it in for a test then i suspect that the motherboard is broken

but until then i will start making plans on building a new computer, i mean come on my motherboard is ancient now.
AMD Athlon tm 1.44GHZ
512MB sdram
2 pata slots (ide)
1 floppy disk slot
2 sdram and 2 ddr ram slots (can be used simultaneously)

its old

 

Yes it is old. However, it is normal for computers to at least query hardware on bootup to find out what is plugged into each slot. What it decides to do with that hardware is a different matter and your motherboard may be too old to "understand" the concept of PCI gaphics cards.

 

what if i get an agp video card thats new, will it work on the motherboard

 

As long as the motherboard is working properly, then yes, it will work.

 

Can he select what to run in his bios?
:confused

 

then i'll be crossing my fingers in hopes that it will work, i need this thing for my online classes

 

i can't select anything if i can't see it

 

,:-o sry about that
yes new card

 

i just have one more question

how can i tell if the motherboard isn't broken all the fans turn on, the LEDs on the cd drives blink a couple times, i can hear the processor making the noises it normally makes but the LEDs on the front of the case don't light up, actually 1 out of 3 light up, i played around with one of them a little and its not the LED its the pins on the board, i can also hear the hard drive clicking a little (thats normal)

 

double post i'm using my psp

what has me concerned the most is that the power supply connection on the board is burned slightly, there is still a little bit of black in there but it all came back to life after i scraped most of it off

and the power supply that i was using previously had the pluh to the board melted to where the melted plastic was covering the contacts so i just threw it away

will this incident effect how my motherboard works now will it still load from the agp slot like it's supposed 2

 

This may or may not affect it.

I recommend you go to a big name brand store like best buy and ask them if they would be willing to let you buy a card and return it if the motherboard is dead.

 

they have already planned to do that before in case the card that i have purchased doesn't work and it didn't but everyone told me to wait until after Christmas if someone buys be one or gives me a gift card like always

but there isn't a way to test it myself without breaking something

 

you will need to install the appropriate drivers that came with the hardware

 

so if my pc had an agp video card which stopped working and i no longer even have my only option is to get replacement agp video card? if that is so then how can i install the drivers when i cant get a signal to the monitor? because as it is right now i have a brand new pci video card but nothing displays except "no signal". am i screwed unless i get an agp card. will that even work considering that it would still need diff. drivers than the existing installed ones for the old original card that i no longer have?