video card problem

[beerat29]

first off , hello to everyone..

now the problem, i have a compaq presario 7470 that i have been using for my kids to play games on. i attempted to install a nvidia vanta 16 mb video card. i uninstalled the on board graphics as manufacturers directions, then installed the card. when i start the computer there is nothing displyed on the monitor even when i change the monitor cable back to the onboard graphics socket. then i removed the video card and the pc works just fine with the monitor plugged into the onboard graphics. i also use software from fresh devices called fresh diagnose, on the system slots section of this software it does not show any slots?. the pc has 4 pci slots and no others, this software shows the slots on the pc that i use everytime i use it.

this computer seems to not have any problems, it works very well. other than the video card problem, could it be the card, the pci slots? any help would be appreciated.

it is a compaq presario 7470
amd k6-2 533mhz prossesor
320 mb's ram
60 gb hdd
windows xp w sp2

also a freind gave me the video card and said he never used it.

i cant think of anything else right now, if i do i will let you know.
thanks.

[Wandrille]

ok does ur old video card work cuz if it does that means its not ur cpu
and r u sure the new video card works try testin it on another pc

[beerat29]

thanks for the reply Wandrille, the pc does not have a video card just the built in graphics. and i have tested this video card on my pc and it worked. so im really stumped as to what it could be.

[Wandrille]

well ok i know that some motherboards cant take certain video cards so that might be the case
cuz we bought a really high end card for an old cpu we have that we were just tryin to get up and ready for photo editing
but it didnt work so we bought a different card that worked

[Paleo Pete]

U and R are LETTERS, not words. That's a lot harder to decipher, please take the time and effort to type a couple more letters,...

OK I've butted heads with Compaq onboard video machines and add-on video cards several times, it's always a headache. Some will work, some will not, depending on the particular model and how well Compaq stripped the BIOS down.

On older 1st generation Pentium boards, many had a jumper on the motherboard to disable onboard video, many had a setting in BIOS, some had both. And some will not work no matter what you do...

Check to see if you can find any information on the motherboard, a manual would be really nice but don't expect Compaq to still have one posted online. Check the board closely to see if you can find a jumper that may be labeled to disable the onboard video. THen check BIOS, see if it has a setting for that. Many times Compaq stripped their BIOS down to the point you have almost no control over the thing at all, so good luck. If it has both BIOS and jumper settings, BOTH must be disabled to add a video card.

It might also work in dual monitor mode, supported by win98 and up. (p to 12 monitors on any Windows PC) To do that leave the settings alone and try to find out which card will display any picture at bootup, then set the add-in card to default video and make sure in the settings for the onboard video the option "Extend my desktop to this monitor" is UNCHECKED. That's a last resort, it will be much better if you can find jumpers or settings and disable the onboard video entirely. With Compaq that's always iffy at best...

[Wandrille]

I is a word and a letter :)
and ye thats wut i was tryin to tell him since i have an old compaq and it is not compatible with all graphics cards especially the high end ones