You all might remember back around the holidays I was driving poor Fed up the wall with a lot of questions about video drivers, Direct X, and my problems with Guild Wars.

Well, long story short, it was determined that the integrated video on my Emachines W3052 was bad, and a friend sent me a nice new video card to go into my AGP slot.  The card is an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro...not new, but looks to be in okay shape.  He works with computers for a living, so I assume he knows what he's doing.

So it arrived today, and I installed it this evening and tried to run the computer with it.  Nothing.  The operating system wouldn't even boot...the monitor's LED just sat there blinking as it will when the comp is in standby.  I called my friend, he advised me to disconnect the VGA cord from the back of the card and reattach it to the original outlet on the back of the comp.  Then after rebooting I was getting a message on the monitor..."NO SIGNAL".  Although this time the operating system was trying to boot...I could hear the Windows start-up music.

On my friend's advice I shut everything back down, removed the card, hooked everything back up as it originally was, and all is well.  Oh, and the card itself is functional...I left the side panel off and checked to see if its fan was running...it was.  

Right now I'm being advised by another friend to reboot into BIOS and change the primary display to AGP, then save, shut down, install the card, then start up again.  I'm checking with you folks to see if this seems to be the next step to take...I'll be checking with Emachines tech support to see exactly how to reboot into BIOS.  I described the issue in so much detail because I might be missing something.  I won't be attempting this tonight in any case, too tired.  But I get the best help right here, so I'm turning to you again.

Thanks,

Tanith  
Right now I'm being advised by another friend to reboot into BIOS [highlight]and change the primary display[/highlight] to AGP, then save, shut down, install the card, then start up again.  I'm checking with you folks to see if this seems to be the next step to take

Thats what I did with my emachines to get my card  RECOGNIZED,  that should do it.
And it would be important to know if your power supply is up to the challenge. What is the make and wattage printed on it?Hmm...with the help of another techie friend, we think my power supply might be 250W (no clue about the manufacturer, at least not yet).  He tells me that 300W is recommended for this card, but that it should work with the lower wattage.  He says replacing the power supply is cheap and easy, though.

The only sticker I can see on the power supply is the size of a dime, on the other end of it, and unreadable with everything hooked up.  I'm going to shut everything down in a few and investigate further.  I  need a magnifying glass to check out the power supply, for one thing.

Tanith   eMachines have notoriously small and bad power supplies that frequently take out motherboards and other components when they FAIL. I would replace that whether or not it is the issue. It may be, and may prevent other EXPENSIVE problems down the road.My friends assure me that doing this is easy and inexpensive, but I'm CONSIDERING having a professional do it.  I worry constantly that I might irreparably botch something.

Tanith   4 screws and removing a few plugs. That's it. Just label or otherwise write down what went where and get a power supply with the right connectors.  

Don't get an "el cheapo" or you will be back in the same position again.Okay, I'll keep that in mind for a future project.  For today I'll try to get into BIOS and see if switching the video to AGP gets me anywhere with the card.  ATM I'm researching how to get in and out of BIOS, which commands to use, etc.  I'm probably being unnecessarily paranoid, but I want to understand exactly what to do before starting.

Tanith   According to Access/Enter Motherboard BIOS, the Del key is the one to access the BIOS on eMachines.  Take some time to browse through the various screens and see what's in there, but be sure not to change anything other than the settings related to video unless you have a reason for other changes and have specific instructions from a reliable source.  And, make note of your current settings for anything you are about to change so that you can go back to the original setting if necessary. Quote

And it would be important to know if your power supply is up to the challenge. What is the make and wattage printed on it?