Videocard and Power Supply - Getting a black/blank screen

The computer is a hand me down Compaq 5600i (custom order) that has a NVidia
based TNT card installed. I tried to add a (then inexpensive today cheap)
Geforce 2 400 card. The computer would boot but I only got a blank screen.

Is it possible that the original Power supply was to weak to power the card
and that an power supply upgrade would fix the blank screen?

My girlfriend is now using the computer and it either needs an upgrade to at
least a Geforce 2 (for the Sims 2) or a rebuild and right now money is
tight.

Any advice is more than welcome and appreciated. Thanks

Don.

On Sun, 2 May 2004 09:38:07 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

The computer is a hand me down Compaq 5600i (custom order) that has a NVidia
based TNT card installed. I tried to add a (then inexpensive today cheap)
Geforce 2 400 card. The computer would boot but I only got a blank screen.

Did it really boot, to the operating system, or did it just power on to
the point that fans, drives, LEDs were working but never loading the
operating system, so essentially it wasn't POSTing? That distinction
could be very significant.


Is it possible that the original Power supply was to weak to power the card
and that an power supply upgrade would fix the blank screen?

Yes with a Compaq it is VERY possible the power supply was insufficient
for such a large video card upgrade.


My girlfriend is now using the computer and it either needs an upgrade to at
least a Geforce 2 (for the Sims 2) or a rebuild and right now money is
tight.

Any advice is more than welcome and appreciated. Thanks

If it didn't post at all the power supply might be the culprit. If it
actually booted to windows it would seem more likely a motherboard (or
it's settings) incompatibility.

Well I will be the dummy and have to say I can't say for sure that it got to
the OS though I am 65% sure that it got to that point. I am basing my this
on an assumption because the Hard Drive light was giving that apperance by
the way it came on and went off (just as in a normal boot).

I returned the TNT card to the unit and it came up normal but I know that
does not prove anything. But are you saying that if the Power Supply is
under voltage that that is the behaviour that MAY occur? i guess that was
what I really wondered about.


Did it really boot, to the operating system, or did it just power on to
the point that fans, drives, LEDs were working but never loading the
operating system, so essentially it wasn't POSTing? That distinction
could be very significant.

Yes with a Compaq it is VERY possible the power supply was insufficient
for such a large video card upgrade.

If it didn't post at all the power supply might be the culprit. If it
actually booted to windows it would seem more likely a motherboard (or
it's settings) incompatibility.

On Sun, 2 May 2004 21:58:54 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

Well I will be the dummy and have to say I can't say for sure that it got to
the OS though I am 65% sure that it got to that point. I am basing my this
on an assumption because the Hard Drive light was giving that apperance by
the way it came on and went off (just as in a normal boot).

Providing it also seems to take similar amount of time to do "whatever" as
it does to boot, it does seem like it's getting beyond POST. In that case
while the TNT card is in the system, check the bios setup to see if
there's any AGP-related settings... unfortunately being a Compaq, you may
have very few settings available. Also look around for a primary display
adapter setting, would be a choice between AGP or PCI... toggle that
setting... it shouldn't matter which way it's set with only one video card
in the system but when Compaq starts customizing a bios the odds go up
that something unusual got messed up.



I returned the TNT card to the unit and it came up normal but I know that
does not prove anything. But are you saying that if the Power Supply is
under voltage that that is the behaviour that MAY occur? i guess that was
what I really wondered about.

If the power supply were undervoltage it would have the potential to
prevent POST. From your description the system "seems" to be POSTing,
just not displaying any video output. Occasionally there will be video
card and motherboard incompatibilities... they're rare but it does happen.
You might find another similiar card with a different (video) bios version
or a different chipset works.

You never mentioned the power supply in your system. A brief list of
motherboard, CPU, # of hard drives, and the power supply manufacturer and
wattage might be more revealing as to whether the power supply ought to
have enough amperage to handle the components including the new video
card. Some of their power supplies were fairly decent and others were
barely powerfull enough to support adding an extra optical and hard drive
to fill all the drive bays, though this insufficient capacity issue was
more common with their microATX boxes, particularly when they used
non-standard shaped/sized power supplies.

The spec on the standard Presario 5600i comes up with

Power Supply
.. Steady-state 165 watts

.. Energy Star compliant

I was thinking this one came with a slightly larger power supply but I will
have to recrack the case and look at it. I am also thinking that it is one
of the non standard size units.

I want to say it is 230 to 250 watts

1 CD-RW Rom - Was a Normal CD Rom drive then

2 Hard Drives - (12 gig each)

PCI Graphics Card (Both the TNT and the GeForce )

1 3.5" drive

10/100 Either net

USB



That is the major components and I will have to double check the power
supply.

The TNT was the best video card I could order with the comp at the time of
order because the better units were sold out.



"kony" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 2 May 2004 21:58:54 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

Well I will be the dummy and have to say I can't say for sure that it got
to
the OS though I am 65% sure that it got to that point. I am basing my
this
on an assumption because the Hard Drive light was giving that apperance
by
the way it came on and went off (just as in a normal boot).

Providing it also seems to take similar amount of time to do "whatever" as
it does to boot, it does seem like it's getting beyond POST. In that case
while the TNT card is in the system, check the bios setup to see if
there's any AGP-related settings... unfortunately being a Compaq, you may
have very few settings available. Also look around for a primary display
adapter setting, would be a choice between AGP or PCI... toggle that
setting... it shouldn't matter which way it's set with only one video card
in the system but when Compaq starts customizing a bios the odds go up
that something unusual got messed up.



I returned the TNT card to the unit and it came up normal but I know that
does not prove anything. But are you saying that if the Power Supply is
under voltage that that is the behaviour that MAY occur? i guess that was
what I really wondered about.

If the power supply were undervoltage it would have the potential to
prevent POST. From your description the system "seems" to be POSTing,
just not displaying any video output. Occasionally there will be video
card and motherboard incompatibilities... they're rare but it does happen.
You might find another similiar card with a different (video) bios version
or a different chipset works.

You never mentioned the power supply in your system. A brief list of
motherboard, CPU, # of hard drives, and the power supply manufacturer and
wattage might be more revealing as to whether the power supply ought to
have enough amperage to handle the components including the new video
card. Some of their power supplies were fairly decent and others were
barely powerfull enough to support adding an extra optical and hard drive
to fill all the drive bays, though this insufficient capacity issue was
more common with their microATX boxes, particularly when they used
non-standard shaped/sized power supplies.

On Mon, 3 May 2004 05:41:55 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

The spec on the standard Presario 5600i comes up with

Power Supply
. Steady-state 165 watts

. Energy Star compliant

I was thinking this one came with a slightly larger power supply but I will
have to recrack the case and look at it. I am also thinking that it is one
of the non standard size units.

I want to say it is 230 to 250 watts

1 CD-RW Rom - Was a Normal CD Rom drive then

2 Hard Drives - (12 gig each)

PCI Graphics Card (Both the TNT and the GeForce )

1 3.5" drive

10/100 Either net

USB



That is the major components and I will have to double check the power
supply.

It doesn't have a CPU or motherboard?
I don't need to know about floppy drives, just all the major components.
There's a huge difference in power consumption between a Celeron 300 and
an Athlon 1.2G, for example.

You need to also narrow down what that PSU wattage is, again a large
difference between 165W and 230-250W.




The TNT was the best video card I could order with the comp at the time of
order because the better units were sold out.

You might've been just as well off, likely they wanted an arm and a leg
for upgraded video card, typically it's cheaper to get a low-end card AND
buy the card you want, than just that one upgrade from the OEM. I suppose
it varies though, sometimes bundled sales help.

On Mon, 3 May 2004 05:41:55 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

snip

I am also thinking that it is one
of the non standard size units.


That is another detail to focus on. If it's a completely proprietary
shape you may be out of luck, needing a whole new case to house a higher
capacity power supply. If a standard mATX shape then you "might" be able
to get by with a 200W mATX, but frankly I'd sooner advise not chancing it,
going with a different case instead.

Something else to keep in mind is that some cards do use less power per
performance level. IIRC, a Radeon 9600SE is a little slower but uses a
lot less power... don't have a figure off the top of my head but maybe
only 50-70% as much power. One way to identify cards that might use less
power is the heatsink... when a given model of card comes in versions with
only a passive (fanless) heatsink it's a pretty safe bet it uses
significantly less power, thus creates less heat, allowing that passive
cooler.

The power supply is an anemic 165 watt supply not a 230 like I was thinking.
The CPU is a Pentium 3 - 800 (card type with cooling fan and Heat sink).
I have been unable to identify the Mother board other than the Compaq Logo
near the center of the board. Must be a proprietary board.

The power supply unit mwasures 5 7/8" wide x 3 3/8" tall and 5 3/8" deep
(there is 1" for air flow on each side of unit) which looks like a standard
PS/2 size power supply (as per an Antec spec sheet I found on the internet
at http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/trueblue/specs.jpg .

Is there anything I forgot to mention?

Thanks for the help and sorry I did not have all the info infront of me
before I started.

Thanks for your help.
Don

On Tue, 4 May 2004 07:22:47 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

The power supply is an anemic 165 watt supply not a 230 like I was thinking.
The CPU is a Pentium 3 - 800 (card type with cooling fan and Heat sink).
I have been unable to identify the Mother board other than the Compaq Logo
near the center of the board. Must be a proprietary board.

The power supply unit mwasures 5 7/8" wide x 3 3/8" tall and 5 3/8" deep
(there is 1" for air flow on each side of unit) which looks like a standard
PS/2 size power supply (as per an Antec spec sheet I found on the internet
at http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/trueblue/specs.jpg .

Is there anything I forgot to mention?

Thanks for the help and sorry I did not have all the info infront of me
before I started.

Thanks for your help.
Don

It does seem to be insufficient capacity, and also of a standard PS2 size.
The other consideration is that it has the standard ATX pinout;
http://69.36.189.159/usr_1034/atx_on.gif
However, some colors might not match, for example Compaq sometimes used
blue for 12V leads instead of yellow, but the overall placement, groups
should be the same. If you had a multimeter that would provide easy
verification.

The only issue then would seem to be that, from your account, the system
seems to be booting, just without video. This "might" suggest both an
insufficient power supply and a motherboard-video card incompatibility,
but certainly I'd replace the power supply before trying to run a TI4200.

Thanks for all your help in trying to answer my questions. I will try a test
this weekend and see if I can swap out the power supply and try the video
card again and will post my results.

Don


"kony" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 May 2004 07:22:47 -0500, "Dboy" wrote:

The power supply is an anemic 165 watt supply not a 230 like I was
thinking.
The CPU is a Pentium 3 - 800 (card type with cooling fan and Heat sink).
I have been unable to identify the Mother board other than the Compaq
Logo
near the center of the board. Must be a proprietary board.

The power supply unit mwasures 5 7/8" wide x 3 3/8" tall and 5 3/8" deep
(there is 1" for air flow on each side of unit) which looks like a
standard
PS/2 size power supply (as per an Antec spec sheet I found on the
internet
at http://www.pcabusers.com/reviews/trueblue/specs.jpg .

Is there anything I forgot to mention?

Thanks for the help and sorry I did not have all the info infront of me
before I started.

Thanks for your help.
Don

It does seem to be insufficient capacity, and also of a standard PS2 size.
The other consideration is that it has the standard ATX pinout;
http://69.36.189.159/usr_1034/atx_on.gif
However, some colors might not match, for example Compaq sometimes used
blue for 12V leads instead of yellow, but the overall placement, groups
should be the same. If you had a multimeter that would provide easy
verification.

The only issue then would seem to be that, from your account, the system
seems to be booting, just without video. This "might" suggest both an
insufficient power supply and a motherboard-video card incompatibility,
but certainly I'd replace the power supply before trying to run a TI4200.