Ok, heres my problem.
About 2 weeks ago, I ordered the Powercolor Radeon HD 3870x2 from newegg, as seen here:
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX3870X21GBD4PH Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR4 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
I was happy to finally have recieved it, went inside and uninstalled my previous video card drivers. I then took the old video card out, then replaced it in the same slot with the new card. It's a big card, I took my time however to make sure I did not damage it and carefully lowered it into the Pci x16 port in my motherboard. Unfortunately, when I went to go turn on my computer after plugging everything back in (I left the side of the case off to watch for problems just in case) the display on my monitor was completely blank. I was a little confused at first, I wondered a few things in my mind such as do I have too little power? Is this motherboard not compatible? Is my RAM not compatible? I began to frustratingly unplug and replug the video card into the pci x16 socket for maybe 3 hours trying a different thing here and there before I gave up.
So, I wrote to newegg, figuring that I would logically try the first option, that the card was DOA. My specs matched up fine from what I thought at the time. ( I will list my specs later) I just recieved my new card today, (Sept 5, 2008) and it's the same card, however the same problem persisted. I kind of got the feeling that it was an issue with my motherboard or power supply, but I can't decide wich one is causing the problem. I will now list my current specs:
ECS motherboard kn3 sli2:
ECS KN3 SLI2 (V1.0) Dual-Core nVidia nForce 590 SLI MCP 2000 MT/s FSB Dual Channel DDR2 800 Socket AM2 ATX Motherboard w/ SLI 2x PCI-Express X16, Audio, Dual GBLAN, SATA 3G/II, RAID, USB 2.0, Firewire 1394a (Retail) (Discontinued)
Processor: AMD Athlong 64 X2 Duel core processor 4600+ 2.41 ghz:
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
I have 3 gigs of RAM, 2 gigs is some G-skill Ram (no exact details) and the other is a kingpin or something like that who knows it was a present.
Power supply: 700 Watts, I forgot the make/model but I can find it if you really need me to for whatever reason.
Current Video card: radeon sapphire x1950 pro 512 mb (not a bad card honestly)
Sound card: the soundblaster fatility version it was like 150 bucks but got it half price thanks compusa for going out of business haha.
Now I will tell you about my new card, and some interesting things that it says on the box wich confused and continues to confuse me.
PCI express 2.0 support on the back of the box: Oh? interesting... because right here on the side of the box it says something like.........
-PCI express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
Do you mean to tell me it is compatible with both 2.0 and pci x16, I don't know much about 2.0, I JUST started looking at computer parts again and I guess it's become quite popular if it wasn't already.
-Certified for windows vista
I've done my research, and I understand it will work with xp, but Direct X 10 and vista seem to be kind of intended for this card, and I DO NOT want to switch my os I'm not liking vista yet although a lot of people have caught on.
-550 Watt or greater power s upply with two 2x3 pin PCIe power connectors required (750 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for dual ATI crossfireX)
OK, well I'm not putting two three pound cards on top of my motherboard, so now I'm a little confused, I seem to meet the power specifications.
Well, that's all I got, just a reminder, when the new card is in the fans do run, the card is working, and I doubt I got two DOA cards. If anyone can help, I could avoid throwing this 300 dollar piece of shit out the window, thanks
PS: I have found some posts stating a few people ironically having the same problem, with the exact same motherboard as mine with the exact same card (like 2 posts) but do not use this information to justify your opinion I need some serious ideas and possibilities. Thanks again.
PSS: check this out, just found it after posting it, specifies basically everything that you may need to know (I would hope so)
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