Problems installing "new" graphics card

This is my first time posting on here, but I am confused right now. I have a stock compaq presario sr1650nx computer. I upgraded the graphics card last year to an xfx nvidia 6800xt; everything was fine. My friend just upgraded his computer and gave me his old evga 7900gtx that he said was working fine when removed.



SO I installed the new card into my pci-e slot and hooked up power, plugged everything in, and there was no video signal being sent to my monitor. The card is powering up b/c the fan turns on, but I can not get any signal off of either of the outputs on the back. I checked everything with the monitor plugged into the onboard video and made sure that I had PCI-E selected in the setup. I also downloaded the updated drivers, but it wouldnt install because it didnt recognize an NVIDIA card's presence. Is there something that I am missing?



Someone please help me out...I am sure I just forgot to do something. I am not an expert by any means, just trying to get back to my BF2 and whoop some arse.



Thanks so much for any help!

What power supply is in the computer? im thinking this may be the problem

It is a Rosewill, 450W. sorry I forgot to mention that I upgraded that as well when I changed the card the first time.



What do you think?

Hmm, so it doesn't show anything on the screen anytime? If its a LCD and you have it hooked up either VGA or DVI, make sure its on the correct input. Have you tried putting the other card back in to see if it works?

did you plug in the 6 pin pcie power connector?

um...yes. otherwise there would be no power at all right, and even the fan wouldn't turn on.



I just checked my connectors and that is the only 6-pin connector I have and Rosewill labeled it "PCI-E" just for me.



SO, do I need to disable my onboard graphics first? how do I do that, cuz I thought that entering setup and selecting PCI-E was switching it. Will it make a difference if I disable with the device manager?

No, i haven't put the other card back in...I guess I could give that a go.

I did clean the card out really well with canned air, it had a lot of dust in it. Could this have caused any ESD or something of this nature? I am always really worried about ESD, is it really that serious of a problem when installing new components? As long as I stay in direct contact with the case I should be fine right?

I think thats fine, it may be the on-board graphics conflicting with it. Will it atleast go into bios or show the screen before windows starts to load? and if it has on-board, just take the card out and leave the PCIe empty and see if it boots.



Im not sure, maybe someone else here will know. I hope you get it fixed, its late here, i best get to bed

Well thanks for all of your help anyway...It does not go into the bios screen; as a matter of fact, the monitor shows no signal at all when I am plugged into either of the DVI outputs. It is a VGA lcd monitor, but I have the DVI > VGA adapter to use. When I plug into the onboard, it works like a champ. So maybe it is because the onboard is not disabling (or something like that). Is it okay for me to disable the onboard through the device manger? how will that turn out?



Humor me guys, I am really just trying to get this to work.