Nothing out of new graphics card.
 

Fitted new GeForce GT430 and there is nothing sent to the monitor at all, I mean the light on the monitor is red and never goes green. Using VGA connector.

Can't post any output obviously.

Debian Squeeze 64 bit. It should work on my system.

The fan spins round and I'm pretty sure the heat sink gets slightly warm. Any suggestions at all?

Did you check in bios to see if graphics card is enabled?

Thanks. Tried holding down <delete> immediately after switching on. Nothing, the monitor light never went green.

Tried putting in a live Ubuntu CD, again no green.

Turned computer the right way up and tried Ubuntu live CD again:

This time monitor light went green and got output:Asus M2N-SLI motherboard.

So I'll try putting in the Asus support CD??

Why would the BIOS go down the tubes, the computer has not been used since the old graphics card defuncted?

Have made the mistake of switching computer off. Switching it on again, the red light on the monitor never turns green. Is this a clue to what's wrong?

I assume the machine is not posting also?

I assume you tried both outputs on the card?

That information is needed.

I replaced my 8600 with an 8800GTS. The GTS was on its last leg and it heated up my motherboard literally hot enough to boil water. It fried the PSU, and if the mobo would have also died I would have not been in the least bit surprised. So yes, a bad video card could very well have destroyed or damaged your mobo.

You mean posting this message? No using another computer for that. Perhaps post bios - there is some hard drive activity initially, for a few seconds then stops.

Both outputs on the card? You mean try it in the other PCI Express slot?

In motherboard manual it say: '! DO NOT shut down or reset the system while updating the BIOS! Doing so can cause system boot failure!' I've just done that, at least once. Not being too intelligent to put it mildly.

Reinstall...

The card conundrum might benefit by your removing the card and carefully putting it back in, at the same time checking that the mounting slot is clean, the contacts align, and that the card is well seated.

In addition, check anything that connects to the card and particularly the seating of both ends of your monitor cable.

Do you have the correct monitor cable(VGA or DVI-I)? If you are using an adapter, either VGA to DVI or DVI to VGA, does it have the right pin array? In some cases, more than one DVI connector can be mounted, but not every one has the right connections for a VGA signal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

If the card has a VGA and a DVI output connector, have you tried both?

Don't panic just because the system doesn't POST. A PC has to have a graphics card properly installed before it will go through a POST.

Well, you didnt do it just then.

The system tried to find AWDFLASH.EXE and failed, so it wasnt updating the BIOS.

Trying the other PCIe slot isnt a bad idea, but its not what linuxpokernut meant. What was meant is 'try another video output from the card' (well, if possible, not everybody has a HDMI->DVI converter, or a monitor with DVI + VGA inputs).

I'd try clearing the CMOS, then updating the BIOS (via CD or USB).

Yes sorry to be ambiguous there, I have the same card as OP, and it has 2 outputs. The one that looks like it should be primary is secondary.

By post, I mean does the bios register when you turn the machine on. There should be a beep, or series of beeps to indicate the general machine status. Some motherboards have LED's on them to indicate system status also.

However, given the last post you made, I would say the problem is almost invariably going to be that you broke your bios updating. If you could tell us exactly what happened, in chronological order, we may be able to help more.

I only have a VGA cable, male connector at both ends, it definitely works, but it remains possible it is not connecting to the new graphics card properly.

Computer has been unused for say 4 months - just a thought: could the battery have gone flat, would that produce no green light on monitor?

I'll try blowing gas on CMOS, cleaning memories, and generally cleaning. Also leave it switched on for a few hours. Have reinstalled the graphics card several times it seems well seated. I'll try the other PCI slot.

linuxpokernut, my new card has three slots: VGA, HDMI, DVI. Computer has never beeped, it does not have a little speaker inside the box (perhaps could put one in from old box). Don't think there are lights inside but I'll have another look. Asus M2N-SLI motherboard.

Swithched computer on using on/off button on front, nothing; switched it off and on again with button, nothing - no green light on monitor, nothing on the screen. Repeated this cycle several times. Cannot remember exactly what happened when, for the first time, monitor light went green and got message in above post. Had tried Ubuntu live CD, nothing; turned computer right way up from being on its side then for first and only time got something on monitor. Might have touched some keys or CD drive button, don't know.

Notice that HEC-350AR-PTV PSU is 350 watts maximum. Is it possible that is not enough for new graphics card? Have 2 hard drives and a multimedia card.

NO POST...

Did you try booting with your old card, or any other card that works? See if it will POST, or at least give a beep signal.

Tried another graphics card, nothing to monitor, its light stayed red. The graphics card probably works, it got hot, but not definitive unfortunately. The computer has never bleeped, it does not have a little loudspeaker in the box.

I want to know why it gave something to the monitor once, post above. Does this suggest a bad connection somewhere?

2 grahics cards same results, 2 possible solutions.
1. Not enabled in bios.
2. Bad mobo
3. Bad memory, only if onboard graphics doesn't work, if onboard works back to 1. or 2.

A flat CMOS battery would not cause your problems. All that would mean is you cant save the BIOS settings.

I didnt mean 'blow gas on the CMOS', I mean clear it. There should be a jumper on the board near the CMOS battery, labeled 'CLRTC'. Power the computer down, unplug the power cord, pop the battery out, move the jumper on CLTC from pins 1+2 to pins 2+3. Leave the jumper there for 10 seconds, then move the jumper back to pins 1+2. Put the battery back in, reconenct the power cord.

Before you go to boot the computer up, go to the asus site, get a new BIOS, then put it onto a floppy, CD or USB flash drive. Have the floppy/CD/USB flash drive connected when you go to boot up.

Its possible that will get your BIOS troubles fixed. Its also possible that it wont fix anything, you might have a more serious motherboard problem.

Other possible causes include- dodgy power supply, dodgy power switch. You cant really do much about the power supply if you dont have another unit to test, but there is an easy way around the possible dodgy switch- disconnect the switch then use something conductive to connect the power switch pins.

BTW, leaving the system powered on for a few hours will not help, and could make things worse....

Sometimes dodgy hardware does things like that.

The speaker is only of use if you are actually get some 'bad' BIOS beeps (you can use the error code to figure out what is going wrong).

Have you tried reconnecting to the onboard graphics?

There isnt any onbaord video on that motherboard.

Most of the decent nVidia chipsets (and AMD or intel chipsets for that matter) dont have onboard video....

When you press the power button, you can hear it start up right? The HD spins up and the CPU fan, PSU fan spins up. Does the green light near the PCI slots light up? Will it stay on or does it shut itself off?

Have you tried getting into the BIOS setup again. Instead of del try alt+f2 according to the manual that will start the EZ flash setup.

Yes it starts up. HD light on front comes on off on etc for a few seconds. CPU and PSU fans spins up. Green light inside box, that tells you it's plugged into the mains, is on. Light inside on/off button is on. Haven't noticed a green light near the PCI slot - don't want to switch it on to look, decided not to do anything until it's thoroughly researched. It stays on.

Bit nervous of getting into BIOS setup if I can't see anything. Intend cleaning the RAM then clearing the BIOS clock with jumper then starting with bios on CD in drive as suggested above. Unless there is a better idea.

Only boots if given hard reboot?
 

It has started working. Simply hard rebooted and it started normally. Don't know if it'll work next time it is switched on.

[EDIT: It now has the problem that it will only boot if given a hard reboot, so not fixed yet. Also kernel thinks it has a Pheonix bios: dmesg: Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working around it. In fact it has an Award BIOS. So looks like the BIOS should be repaired?]

It thinks it is the 3rd. Jan. 2007, so must have had some sort of contretemps with its BIOS, battery maybe - hasn't been used for several months.

Did put CD with BIOS on into CD drive, had not cleared BIOS first, personally doubt if it used this. Had cleaned RAM thoroughly.

Gather from http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001263.htm that a reboot means the disks and RAM are not checked. But this is done after the monitor screen comes on, so perhaps this does not imply a problem with RAM of disks.

Will not mark this as solved for fear of tempting fate. It's bloody embarrassing revealing yourself as a complete idiot on this forum. :)

Thanks for the help.

Repair/fix/reinstall your BIOS for sure.

You've had a BIOS ROM checksum error, which would be enough for me to fix the BIOS by itself. Now you are getting dmesg tellign you that you've got a different BIOS as well.

Your BIOS may have cleared itself when it tried to recover last time, or your battery might be flat. Both would explain the wrong date. Having a corrupted but semi-workable BIOS could explain the 'unable to reboot, cold starts only' problem.

If it used the BIOS from the CD drive, the drive should have spun up and there should have been a display telling you what was happening.

Much thanks. It was booting if it was switched on which would give no output to the monitor, red light on monitor never go green. But if it was then hard rebooted it would boot normally. Did that twice.

On second occasion left it running for several hours and then overnight and came back to it perhaps 15 hours later. It was down, fans running, green light on front of box on but no hard disk activity and nothing to the monitor.

It can no longer be booted by method in first paragraph. When switched on it gives the motherboard splash screen and once allowed access to BIOS setup, but quickly froze after behaving sensibly in the setup menus.

Not at all knowledgeable; does this make sense: When it was running the OS the BIOS would have been shadowed into RAM, so the reason it stopped working could not have been the BIOS itself. ??

(Incidentally said previously that it had misidentified the BIOS as Pheonix when it was in fact Advent. Pheonix bought Award in 1998, the bios setup is titled: Phoenix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility. Also happened to notice from the command 'sensors' that Vcore voltage was below the minimum, not a huge amount.)

Sounds like the machine is dead, or very close to dead.

I wonder if yuo ever got the BIOS replaced. It might have helped, a corrupted BIOS can stop the machine booting at all. If you keep trying to get the machien started when you do have BIOS problems, all you are likely to do is corrupt your BIOS even more.

Even when the OS is loaded, a 'bad' BIOS can still cause all sorts of problems.

So it's probably a good idea to buy a pre-flashed BIOS chip in case it's that and not say the motherboard?

Did once get the box to give the BIOS setup display, and it worked correctly which it did not do on single previous occasion. Insanely decided it was fiddling about with the RAM that had fixed it and did not take opportunity to flash the bios, but re-booted to nothing. Seem to have some sort of death wish with the thing.

Buying a 'pre-flashed' BIOS could be a problem. If you do find one, its going to be a custom one-off job, and probably reaaallly expensive.

If you can find a chip flashing machine, it is (in at least some cases) possible to pull the BIOS chip from the board, use the machine to flash it, then reinstall the chip.

https://www.biosmaster.co.uk/index.p...=checkout/cart 11bpd, near top right under Bestsellers. Not too bad. Share your suspicion of being able to get the chip out, though it is supposed to be removable.

Whatever the state of the bios chip, I share the opinion that the board (or power supply) is dead.

Vcore should never be low. It's a sign of something pulling too much current. The behaviour described reminds me of a faulty component that fails, and settles itself after a fashion, but will inevitably fail again. It's often a heat related thing. There is no reliability or longevity in it. Just decide whether it's power supply dying, or m/b dying. At 25 posts, you've given this enough effort.

As for the bios chip, it it is removable, it will be in a turned pin socket. These have round holes into which the squared legs of the chip are pushed, making for tight contact. Skill in applying brute force is needed, as it is quite easy to stress the chip and damage it.

Nopt as expensive as I would have guessed. Still, not cheap when you consider you can get a whole new AM2/AM2+ board for under 30 quid.

Depends on what is meant be 'vcore is low'. Vcore at 0.01 volts under spec and the system is stable? Dont worry. Vcore at 0.1 volts under spec, and the system is unsable? Not good, and the vcore could be causing the instability problems (and BTW, 0.1 volts is just an arbitrary number, its not like 0.09 is 'fine' and 0.1 or higher is 'bad')

+1.