[snippage]
"Paul" wrote

Did you get a manual ?
Manual is online. Gigabyte driver siftware is online

Did you read the section in the manual about "Clear CMOS" ?
Yes. I'm not stupid.
All power must be removed when you use the shunt!
Yes.
Since the battery was dead, you don't even need to do
My bad.
a Clear CMOS. The settings are gone.

Page 31
https://download1.gigabyte.com/Files...-ds3l(r)_e.pdf

"Short: Clear CMOS Values" === this shorts a potentially low impedance
power source.
Excess current can be drawn through a
~70mA dual diode.

"Always turn off your computer and unplug the power cord
from the power outlet before clearing the CMOS values. [ switch off,
using the switch
on the back
of the PSU is sufficient
to remove
+5VSB. On an Asus mobo
the Green LED
should be extinguished.
For Dell
switch-less, unplug the PSU. ]

After clearing the CMOS values and before turning on your computer,
be sure to *remove* the jumper cap from the jumper.

Failure to do so may cause damage to the motherboard. [ Uh Oh ]

After system restart, go to BIOS Setup to load factory defaults
(select Load Optimized Defaults) or manually configure the
BIOS settings (refer to Chapter 2, "BIOS Setup," for
BIOS configurations).
"
*******

On many motherboards, the manual text section on Clear CMOS was wrong,
[snippage]
https://www.intel.com/content/dam/do...-datasheet.pdf
Other possibilities:

1) BIOS not compatible with CPU. That's a reason
for a black screen on new systems. The CPU Support
table on the Gigabyte website indicates that's
just not possible for your 9650. So that isn't
the problem. The original BIOS works for 9650.
Not true Q9650 and BIOS program working as expected. RAM detected When I
press DEL BIOS keeps trying. PS2 keyboard detected.

2) No Aux power to the video card. You forgot some
PCIE 2x3 or 2x4 connector. Highly unlikely.
If the CPU was running, it might beep the speaker
three times if the video was bad. On ATI cards,
they could pop up a red-decorated warning box on
the screen, that the power cable was not seated.

3) Many other problems could be detected with a
PCI Port 80 card (in slot nearest CPU). It's
possible there are PCI Express versions now, but
the topic of Port 80 cards never comes up any more.
A few expensive boards, have a two-digit Port 80
display right on the motherboard.

Not true or not relevant.

But that's about all that comes to mind.

Each mobo screw hole has a "keep out" zone marked in
the silk screen. No electrical components in the
motherboard design should enter the keep out circle.
As then, a screw head could touch a circuit. On a
certain Asus Nforce2 motherboard, one mounting hole
could short out an Audio channel on the sound subsystem,
leading to one dead speaker. Something was too close
to the keepout area. Design reviews are supposed to
catch **** like this.

Otherwise, the mounting holes are *designed* and
*intended* to be grounded. They help join the PCB
ground to the chassis ground. They do not need to be
insulated. On computer cases where the mounts are
made by bending metal (instead of using "posts"),
sometimes the job is so poorly done, the extra-wide
support "bump" shorts something out.

No Shorts. Circuit board working as expected. This is V1.0 BIOS of 2008
board. After many attempts I have not found a PCI or PCIe VGA or HDMI video
adapter that is recognized by BIOS. Consider: what's in an adapter? Answer:
I/O ports, RAM addresses and ROM. A not yet updated 2008 V1.0 BIOS knows
nothing. This board has dual BIOS waiting to be update.

Probability theory says my best bet would be to find a part number for a
2008 GIGABYTE PCI VGA adapter. This is a hard problem for GIGABYTE techs and
me. I have tried using Wayback Machine for dates 01/01/2008 to 31/12/2009.
I'm so stupid I cannot even find a webpage for Microsoft in that date range.
Please help me Paul, you know Wayback Machine. Please find GIGABYTE web page
or GIGABYTE PCI VGA in that date range.

Thanks.