No video even with new video card

[mcm]

Hello: I have a A8N-SLI motherboard and an Athlon 64x2 4800+ Dual Core CPU. I have 2 GB of ram.

Yesterday when I booted up, I had no video. During boot up, I heard one long beep and three short beeps, which I believe means no video card.

I tested the monitor on another PC and it worked.

So, today I replaced the old video card

-- an EVGA GeForce 7900 GT 256 MB GDDR3 PCIe

with a new card

-- an MSI GeForce 8400 GS 512MB DDR-3 PCIe 2.0.

I still hear the four beeps on boot up and have no video. I know that the PC is booting up, i.e. I hear the Windows music and even, the first time, a pop probably meaning it found the new card.

I'm stumped. What should I try next?

Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[mcm]

I cleared the CMOS memory per the manual, but no luck. Any suggestions (before I hit it with a hammer)? Thanks.

 

[mcm]

On the advice of a teenaged clerk at Micro Center, who refunded me for my replacement video card and seemed much smarter than I am, I swapped out the RAM from the motherboard. That didn't work either.

 

[mcm]

I have two theories now 1) something is fatally wrong with the motherboard or the components thereon and I will never have video again with it or 2) the PCIe slot is broken.

If the second theory is correct and I put a PCI video card in one of the open PCI slots, should it work?

Anybody?

Thanks.

 

[sylmarils]

Try moving the card onto a different slot. Make sure you plugged in the 12 rail onto the video card first.

 

[mcm]

Thanks. The motherboard has only one PCIE slot that can be used if you're using a single video card. If the PCIE slot is the problem and I use a PCI video card in a PCI slot instead, should that work, i.e. if you have a PCIE slot, does a motherboard require that you use only that slot for video?

 

[mcm]

I bought a cheap PCI video card and put it in an open PCI slot; it works, albeit very slowly.