Solved Can't Get Windows to See My New Graphics Card

[TommySTL]

Lately we've had a pretty maddening problem with our desktop PC at home. It used to come and go but now it's basically wall-to-wall. What happens is most of the red color is lost from the display, so the display is severely discolored, and things that are supposed to be red appear black. Not only is it immensely annoying, and probably not good for the eyes, but it also prevents us from being able to do some photo processing work for our business.

The PC is an HP Pavilion a1700n from 2007 that I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit a couple years ago. Its video pretty much comes from the motherboard. It is NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE. The monitor and VGA cable are relatively new, and I have been able to eliminate them as possible sources of this problem.

I had tried shutting the computer down and removing power from it completely for a short period of time, then restoring power and booting back up. After doing this, it used to be okay for a time, but then go discolored again. Now after all of my trying yesterday to get a new graphics card to work (discussed below), it is pretty much discolored all the time.

Yesterday I went to Best Buy and bought a Galaxy GeForce 210 graphics card and stuck it in the PCI Express slot. Windows didn't even see it, even after I installed the drivers, and there's no video coming from it. I took it back today and exchanged it for a GeForce 8400 GS, and so far I'm getting the same result.

I've gone into the BIOS and changed the "Primary Video Adapter" to "PCI-E" and I still have the problem. I've gone into Device Manager and selected "Disable" on the NVIDIA 6150 LE while in Safe mode, and that doesn't help; it just gives me the basic low-resolution setting, but the video still comes out from the old port. I've tried making Windows scan for new hardware in Device Manager, again no workie.

I don't believe either the card I had yesterday or the one I have today require auxiliary power. The fan on the card is running. I just can't get Windows to see it or use it.

I've also tried updating the drivers for the existing 6150 LE system, but that didn't fix the original discoloration problem.

My wife and I will probably buy a new desktop, but that's a few months down the road. Is there anything we can do with this PC in the meantime? The discoloration renders it practically useless.

I'm pretty sure the onboard video is shot and there's no practical way of fix it; and now that I've gone out and bought it, I guess I'd like to just get the new card to work.

Any help you can give will be appreciated. Thanks....

 

[Maguscreed]

Hp monitors are infamous for popping capacitors, which results in all kinds of strange behavior.
Your problem could also be a bad cable from the computer to the monitor.

Outside of that it seems entirely possible you got a dud card.

 

[Slammer]

This is probably irrelevant, but just out of curiosity: when you removed power to get it to display correctly, and then it went discolored again, did it discolor slowly over time, or instantly?

 

[alphanumeric]

Are you 100% sure its not the monitor thats causing the improper colors? Did you try that monitor on another PC? If it is the onboard video that has failed it may be more involved than just that. There may be other failed components on the motherboard that are preventing the PCIe Video card from being detected correctly. The PCIe bus could be defective too.

 

[TommySTL]

Hp monitors are infamous for popping capacitors, which results in all kinds of strange behavior.
Your problem could also be a bad cable from the computer to the monitor.

Outside of that it seems entirely possible you got a dud card.

Maguscreed, thanks for the reply...we used to have an HP monitor that came with the PC but it went south a couple years ago. We now use a Dell LCD that we use with this desktop.

I did try using another cable and still had the same problem, so I don't believe the cable is causing it.

 

[TommySTL]

This is probably irrelevant, but just out of curiosity: when you removed power to get it to display correctly, and then it went discolored again, did it discolor slowly over time, or instantly?

Thanks for your reply, Slammer; and no, I don't think it's irrelevant. Every bit of information is helpful...the loss of color is not gradual, it happens instantly. One moment the display is normal; the next the red is gone.

 

[TommySTL]

Are you 100% sure its not the monitor thats causing the improper colors? Did you try that monitor on another PC? If it is the onboard video that has failed it may be more involved than just that. There may be other failed components on the motherboard that are preventing the PCIe Video card from being detected correctly. The PCIe bus could be defective too.

Thanks for your reply, alphanumeric....I didn't try using the monitor with another PC (although I've thought about trying to hook it up to my work laptop), but I did perform the reset I described above with the monitor only - that is, turned off the monitor, removed the power and cable from the monitor only, and then reconnected them after a period of time, and turned it back on. If the problem were with the monitor, I would have expected to see the normal display come up at first, and then go discolored again after a while. But it just comes up discolored, which makes me think it's just displaying what it gets from the PC. And what you say about the possibility of other failed components on the motherboard is unfortunately true, too. I guess there's no way to know.

 

[thomas242]

I like to say you might have to disable the on board video in the bios before your PC can detect it. I also recommend trying that monitor out on another PC with the cable you plan to use just to be 100% its not the monitor causing the problem. I had an old Hp that the video went out on and it was a pain in the but to get the new card in that computer some of the prebuilt pc just dont like working the way they are sapose to.

 

[TommySTL]

Thanks for your reply, thomas...What did you eventually have to do to get it to work? I actually have gone into the BIOS to change the setting. Although maybe by now I should do a reboot and double-check to make sure the setting stuck...

 

[Slammer]

I have to agree that you should try the monitor on another computer to be 100% certain it's not the monitor. It'd suck if we spent hours working troubleshooting your motherboard only to find it was a problem with the monitor that somehow evaded your power reset test. Alternatively, you could also try hooking up a different monitor to your computer and seeing if the red still goes away. Either one will confirm without a doubt that it's a problem inside your computer.

Does it still happen/persist if change screen resolutions? And does it still happen when you're in safe mode?

A few other things to try: In your screen resolution window, click Advanced settings. Choose the Monitor tab and see if changing your Colors: setting makes any positive difference (will probably have a 16 bit and 32 bit option). Changing to a lower bit will reduce overall color quality significantly, but you should still be able to tell if it brings red back.

If you have some sort of program for managing graphics , mess with the setting in there and see if you can find anything that helps. Mine can be found in those same Advanced settings in it's own tab, and in the system tray. Yours should be in at least one of those places, if you have it.

If you can find the driver your graphics are using, you can try downloading them and manually reinstalling them.

 

[alphanumeric]

I've got an old 17 inch IBM CRT sitting on the floor next to my desk that is destined to go to the recycling depot. It was a spare that I used when working on other PC's here at home. Pretty similar circumstances to what you describe above. I noticed the colors were off, power cycled it and it would be normal again, for a while. Now one color is completely gone so its going out the door to be recycled. I swapped monitors to confirm it wasn't the motherboard/PC that was faulty. lol, the even older and even smaller CRT I swapped in works fine. This is why I suggested testing your monitor on another PC. It might save you some time, head scratching, and maybe some money too.

 

[Maguscreed]

Yeah it never hurts to have that old cheap monitor in the closet that you know at least works.

 

[TommySTL]

Everyone,

Thank you for trying to help, but I've given up on this PC. I've come to suspect a power supply issue; i.e., the graphics card (GeForce 210 or 8400) probably wasn't getting enough from the power supply. I could have gone out to get another power supply, but it's just not worth pouring money into a 5-year-old PC, not to mention the time, of which I have little. Because what if I blow another $60 or whatever on a new power supply, and then the motherboard goes out in a few months?

I will actually just go out and buy a new desktop in a few days here.

I am going to go ahead and mark this thread as resolved, and I really appreciate everyone's attempts to help.

Here are some links I got from friends on this topic; thought I would share them with you in case they are helpful in the future:

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator (this one is how I came to suspect the 300 W power supply is too weak to provide for the new card)

How to Disable the Onboard Graphics and Install a New Graphics Card in Your HP Pavilion 6630: 8 steps - wikiHow

How to Disable an Integrated Video Port in an HP Pavilion 1700 Computer | eHow.com

I'd still like to hang out here and learn and hopefully be helpful at times.

Best Regards, Tommy.

 

[alphanumeric]

Trouble shooting a PC problem can be a real pain if you don't have spare parts to test with. I think most people are looking for a good excuse for buying new gear, and yours is one of the better ones. I don't think too many here are going to ague with your logic on this one.

 

[thomas242]

I am thinking your PC might have a PSU that’s about 350 to 400w tops and i am fairly certain that an 8400gt needs a 12v rail and a 500w psu just like the new cards correct me if i am wrong but if my suspicions are correct your psu is the problem. never hearts to open up the case and look at the back of it. if my memory is correct you need around a 500w psu and one 4 pin pic-e connector for the back of that video card. Any build i do for my friends i don’t put any thing smaller then a 850 psu in them now and even that’s a little small for my gaming buds that are running some of the newer cards.