X1900XTX troubleshooting help

[Aganerral]

All,

Ran into a situation that I'm not quite sure the problem is so looking for suggestions.

I bought an ATI X1900XTX from newegg at the new lower price to pair with my conroe (once that arrives) and replace an X800 card. I also got the Zalman VF900 video card cooler, since I'd heard about the stock fan being loud.

One mistake I acknowledge is that I didn't try the card with the stock cooler as received. I replaced that with the Zalman right away, although no damage was observed and everything is installed as instructions say (rubber rings, plastic washers, etc). When I installed the card into my computer, the zalman fan turns on, everything boots as normal, but I have no video, even at the BIOS splash screen. The computer doesn't give the 'no video' beep and with the speakers I can hear that it boots to windows as normal, and even the blip of the 'new hardware detected' box opening, so it seems that it can detect the video chipset as there and operational.

My system:

Pentium D 820
Intel D975XBX MB, BIOS rev 1334 (newest)
ATI X1900XTX ith Valman VF900 cooler
1 GB Corsair ram DDR2-667
Antec Phantom 500W power supply (this is onepossible cause I'm thinking, but 500W should be enough for a single X1900 card, though not a CF configuration.

 

[Aganerral]

Ok, messed with it a bit more but still need help and advice

It seems that somehow, even with no video card installed, my computer will still boot to windows and not error out. No clue why THAT is...

I also doubt that it's an overheating problem with a poorly installed VF900. even if it was overheating, I would expect the BIOS flash screen to pop up when starting from a cold boot.

unfortunately, the Phantom500 is the only acceptable power supply I have around, so I can't try the card in a different system or with a different PSU.

 

[darkclone13]

If your computer boots into windows without the video card, then disable the integrated graphics thats on the motherboard. I tried and googled your motherboard and it seems it has some Intel ViiV technology which sounds like an integrated graphics chip.

Go into windows and click start, then run, then type dxdiag, then click the display tab and if the information in there says manufacturer Intel and not ATI. Then just go into your bios and disable the integrated graphics.