The highly rated HP Pavilion Slimline PC thread

QwaarJet said:
probably a silly question, but the bios update posted earlier for the s3100n series should work with any of the amd slimlines, correct? I have an s3220, and just found a new home for it's current Ax2 5000+ 65w, was looking for any reason to get a 45w cpu, so ordered a 4850e :)
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you left off the last digit on your slimline model number. (I assume it's the s3220n?)

BUT note!

I would not update with the other BIOS unless you download a program like CPU-Z to confirm if it's the same motherboard. I was suprised to hear there are several different motherboards in these little slimlines, and I'm not sure which models have the different motherboards ---- BIOS updates are very unique typically and it can really hose up your PC, so it's not worth the risk to download an alternate BIOS in my opinion.

You should be able to get a more recent copy of your own uinique BIOS here - assuming the s3220N when it comes out. Apparently there isn't one now. I would most likely guess your motherboard should already work with the 45 watt chip because it's probably got a more recent motherboard/revision in it.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?product=3548659&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&lang=en&cc=us


since your's doesn't have a BIOS update - I want to reference one that does so you'll know what the link's look like...

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=2093&lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&dlc=en&product=3376325

see the s3020n - about half way down the page has a BIOS update.



What we should probably do is get everybody here to post what motherboard they have and I'll update the first page with the information if it seems significant. Download a popular freeware program called CPU-Z to determine it. CPU-Z also is cool in the sense that it shows you how your CPU is throttling as well as your FSB and RAM speeds on the fly.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php





Beowulf7 - I sent you a time-sensative PM (per your request) you might be interested in!
 
yup, thanks Archaea, i found out shortly after my post that i in fact have a different motherboard than the one that bios was intended for. I have the M2N61-AR (Acacia) mobo, and i'm just gonna cross my finger that it works with the 4850e since i for the life of me couldn't find a bios update for my mobo anywhere. :( I'll report back today or tomorrow with my findings :p
 
I bought it from here since I'm Canadian. They had two left when I ordered mine.

Is anyone planning on or already have installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit on theirs. How easy is it to find drivers for it? I'd like to fully utilize the 4 Gb of RAM.
 
tle041 said:
I bought it from here since I'm Canadian. They had two left when I ordered mine.

Is anyone planning on or already have installed Vista Ultimate 64-bit on theirs. How easy is it to find drivers for it? I'd like to fully utilize the 4 Gb of RAM.
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Oh man, I’m jealous! Please let us know how that works out for you.

Just my own 2 cents ... not sure it’s worth dealing with the headaches of getting programs to work on 64bit just to eak out another ½ GB of RAM. At least not yet.

On another note, I am curious if anyone has installed the Sparkle 270W psu on their slimline? Am I to understand that all that’s required is an adapter to accomodate the funky pin configuration on these computers?
 
Ok guys sorry for the repost, but I just did some back of the envelope calculations on my power usage and it’s kinda freakin me out ...

120W psu – 65W CPU (from HP site) – 43W nVidia Chaintech 8600GT (from this thread) – 6W WD Caviar HD (from WD site) = approx 6W (s-i-x!!) of leftover for who knows what else.

That’s kind of a small margin for error, no?
 
that's why at 100% performance and 100% load they like to shut off, lol. not that it's ever happen to me, the most stressful thing mine does it play bluray/hddvds although, at times i wish it had a little more options for gpu's so that i could do some casual gaming on the projector instead of having to use my primary gaming rig :) this is my first venture into the sff world, and it's been fun tinkering with the slimline, but i can see myself a little down the line ditching it for a shuttle. my ati 3870 will need a new home once i upgrade! :D
 
Apologies if I’ve caused anyone alarm – the AMDs have 160W and not 120W.

Assuming full load and factoring a few other uses of wattage for good measure, that should leave me with about 30W of buffer. Not too much but also not sure if it’s worth the time, risk, and money to swap in a 270W psu.

Thanks again, Archaea for your feedback!
 
So I have some new news.

The 180 watt power supply isn't much more powerful on the 12 volt rail than the 160. The 12 volt rail is the most important line

160 watt has 12 amps on the 12 volt rail
180 watt has 12.5 amps on the 12 volt rail

I know because I compared them side by side tonight. My two slimlines arrived from ubid.

Guys --- I do have to laugh a bit here.

One of my slimlines that I bought on ubid had a HD-DVD/Blue-RAY combo DVD burner drive in it. Those drives cost $250 on newegg alone. I paid 297 for the whole s3200t slimline - including e4500, 500GB hard-drive, 2gb RAM, TV tuner, 8500GT, Windows Vista Home professional --- :cool:

That might be one of the best deals I've ever gotten in my life. The auction said HD_DVD drive -- it did not say combo drive. WOOT WOOT!

PICS - http://www.putfile.com/album/186901

HAHA.
 
^ That's not just a slick deal, but a slick steal! :cool:

What type of experiences are people having using a Slimline as a DVR in terms of the PC waking up from sleep/hibernation and then returning to sleep/hibernation? Or are people wiping out Windows Vista and putting in Linux, such as Ubuntu? I know I should probably read some past several pages, which I'll do this weekend. :)
 
Archaea, only because you’ve been so helpful to faceless many in this thread, I will do you a favor and take the BR/HD combo drive off your hands. Nobody should be subjected to such false advertising! Oh, the humanity. :D
 
Archaea said:
So I have some new news.

One of my slimlines that I bought on ubid had a HD-DVD/Blue-RAY combo DVD burner drive in it. Those drives cost $250 on newegg alone. I paid 297 for the whole s3200t slimline - including e4500, 500GB hard-drive, 2gb RAM, TV tuner, 8500GT, Windows Vista Home professional --- :cool:

That might be one of the best deals I've ever gotten in my life.
Click to expand...

Alright! Any quilt I originally felt for tempting you into making 2 uBid purchases has officially been absolved:D
 
Guys, I know this should probably go into a Vista or security subforum but I’ve felt such comraderie among my slimline bretheren that I thought I’d just post it here (read: too lazy) ... :D

I’ve got NOD32 as my AV and all other Vista Home Prem security enabled – except for UAC.

Would you recommend anything else to complement this setup in terms of on-demand AV or rootkit / trojan / spyware specific mitigation tools?

I am very happy with the setup I have now as it runs very lean and clean.
 
beowulf7 said:
^ That's not just a slick deal, but a slick steal! :cool:

What type of experiences are people having using a Slimline as a DVR in terms of the PC waking up from sleep/hibernation and then returning to sleep/hibernation? Or are people wiping out Windows Vista and putting in Linux, such as Ubuntu? I know I should probably read some past several pages, which I'll do this weekend. :)
Click to expand...

beowulf7-I can't let mine go to sleep or hibernate. Upon waking up the sound goes crazy. Definitely bad juju when you the last thing you did was watch a movie and your surround sound volume is at 50. Think of the most annoying sound in the world (Dumb and Dumber) and crank it all the way up. I don't know why it does it, but I have to reboot to get the sound to work correctly.
 
[H]unter;1032391788 said:
i have been following this thread for sometime. but has anyone tried to swap out the PSU for something with more beef then the 160W?
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I did. Here is a the link to the original thread http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6035_102-0.html?forumID=68&threadID=242304&start=15. I was pretty scared to try it at first, but it was fairly straight forward. I wish I had thought to take pictures when I did it, but it didn't occur to do so until it was way too late. The thread provides links to all materials required. If you want to read more of my account it is post #249 on page 13. I do want everyone to know that I am not tony2socks. He gets all the credit for having the cojones to be the first to do it.
 
Archaea said:
So I have some new news.


One of my slimlines that I bought on ubid had a HD-DVD/Blue-RAY combo DVD burner drive in it. Those drives cost $250 on newegg alone. I paid 297 for the whole s3200t slimline - including e4500, 500GB hard-drive, 2gb RAM, TV tuner, 8500GT, Windows Vista Home professional --- :cool:
Click to expand...

Guess it was quite a deal at $297 since it was originally $1540!
http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp...0.html?subj=fdba∂=rss&tag=TR_Computer+Systems

"You can configure it to be as low as $450, but the build we're reviewing here will run you $1,540. The main reason is that it was configured with HD movie-watching in mind. And compared to traditional HD-capable PCs, this Slimline is not only an absolute steal, it's also technically more advanced, thanks to its hybrid HD DVD/Blu-ray optical drive. If you're looking to integrate a PC into your home theater, HP has the best, most HD-versatile deal going with this system, and earns our Editors' Choice as a result."
 
IT IS ALIVE

Well at least a slower variant (1.8Ghz) of the AMD quads are being sold, even bundled in HP slimlines now!


http://www.cpu3d.com/content/view/4465/67/

Using the Phenom X4 9100e

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107653


On a different note...I think I've decided to keep one of my s3200t's as my primary rig...and

gulp...

sell my Q6600 gaming beast. :( Though it REALLLLLLLLLLLY pains me to do so. I very very very much like that machine, but it's kinda overkill for my needs. Man on man though -- would I LOVE! to have a quad core in my slimline. Quads are soooooo impressive in a rigg.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1032419963#post1032419963

I've had that case for a long time, and it's big and noisy compared to the near completely silent slimline. As I mentioned above the quadcore is an amazing chip and I love the fact that's like always 'ready to go' --- it's like there's no delay in any tasking EVER....but I don't really need it...I played through Crysis mostly and that's the main reason I had upgraded from the slimline. I've got the three consoles to keep me gaming company anyway......All my other games I play run fine on the slimline and I think I might just try to sell it before the quad devalues too much.
 
mrcosmos said:
beowulf7-I can't let mine go to sleep or hibernate. Upon waking up the sound goes crazy. Definitely bad juju when you the last thing you did was watch a movie and your surround sound volume is at 50. Think of the most annoying sound in the world (Dumb and Dumber) and crank it all the way up. I don't know why it does it, but I have to reboot to get the sound to work correctly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. That's weird how your sound goes out of whack when it wakes up. If you left the receiver turned off, then obviously the sound wouldn't go crazy ... until you turned on the receiver. :(
 
Well some very bad news. I have the s3020 with the M2NC51-AR motherboard, came with a 3800+. I have flashed to the newest bios available on HP's site, version 5.06 dated 09-2007. I just installed a 4850e processor and the computer will not boot, shuts down due to "unsupported cpu" error.

Looking at cpu specifications on AMD's site

http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=393&id=395&id=426&id=427&id=428

it seems the original 45w chips ran at 1.25v. The newer 45w chips are specced at 1.15/1.20/1.25 variable. Maybe this is the source of the incompatibility.

I wonder if they will work in the M2NC61 motherboards.
 
Ipc91 i think you misread my post. I am indeed aware that my motherboard is the M2NC51-AR, and i am indeed using award bios revision 5.06 dated 09-2007, and the 4850e is not supported.

Nobody has mentioned yet using the new 4850e in the M2NC61-AR, so i am simply curious to know if it is possible, especially considering that the latest bios for that board is a month older than the one i am using for the M2NC51-AR.
 
zauber said:
Well some very bad news. I have the s3020 with the M2NC51-AR motherboard, came with a 3800+. I have flashed to the newest bios available on HP's site, version 5.06 dated 09-2007. I just installed a 4850e processor and the computer will not boot, shuts down due to "unsupported cpu" error.
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AFAIK the motherboard checks CPU compatibility using a "white list" in the BIOS: if the CPU identifier is in the list, it is supported; if it is not, then it is not. Given that 5.06 came out before the release of 4850e, the unsupported CPU error is not surprising.

Following the same reasoning, I don't think the old BIOS for M2N61-AR would support Phenom 9100e either... so HP must at least have a new BIOS for M2N61-AR ready (which may also support 4850e).
 
I received this reply form HP tech support:

"From your e-mail, I understand you have upgraded the processor of your HP Pavilion Slimline s3020n Desktop PC with AMD Athlon 4850e 2.5 ghz 45w processor and the PC is not not able to boot with this processor installed in your PC.

This issue occurs if the processor is not supported by the motherboard.

George, I have verified your PC specification and wish to inform you that the processor you have installed in your PC is not supported by the motherboard preinstalled in your HP Pavilion Slimline s3020n Desktop PC.

As the PC is slimline which requires the Thermal Design Power of the core processors up to 35W, instead of up to 89W, to accommodate slimline systems"

This has to be wrong, the M2NC51-AR 5.06 bios has been conformed by several people to support the be-2300, be-2350, and be-2400 45 watt procs. As well as all 65 watt X2's.

There WAS a 35w version of the 3800+ produced, but supposedly these slimlines used the 65w version. I will clean the TIM off my old proc when i get home and check the model number against AMD's website.
 
zauber said:
George, I have verified your PC specification and wish to inform you that the processor you have installed in your PC is not supported by the motherboard preinstalled in your HP Pavilion Slimline s3020n Desktop PC.

As the PC is slimline which requires the Thermal Design Power of the core processors up to 35W, instead of up to 89W, to accommodate slimline systems
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I cannot believe HP tech support makes these bull statements. My s3100n, which has the same motherboard as your s3020n, comes with a 65W 4000+ processor. Don't sell your 4850e yet! Otherwise what happened to Archaea may happen to you again.
 
The stock 3800+ processor i removed from my s3020n is AMD part number ADO3800IAA5CU which is indeed a 65 watt cpu, 90 nm F2 Windsor.
 
Archaea said:
My two slimlines arrived from ubid.

Guys --- I do have to laugh a bit here.

One of my slimlines that I bought on ubid had a HD-DVD/Blue-RAY combo DVD burner drive in it. Those drives cost $250 on newegg alone. I paid 297 for the whole s3200t slimline - including e4500, 500GB hard-drive, 2gb RAM, TV tuner, 8500GT, Windows Vista Home professional --- :cool:

That might be one of the best deals I've ever gotten in my life. The auction said HD_DVD drive -- it did not say combo drive. WOOT WOOT!

PICS - http://www.putfile.com/album/186901

HAHA.
Click to expand...

Archaea,

Lurking for awhile, got an open box s3100 last fall from Ckt City and installed additional RAM and Galaxy 8600 based on reccs here to turn it into a decent mid performance gaming/multimedia rig. But I really got to thank you for the Ubid heads up. Just grabbled an s3200t rig identical to yours (Core Duo 4500/HD-DVD/8500/2GB/500GB) on Ubid for $350. Not quite as great a deal as yours but but still a steal and wouldn't have found it without knowing where and what to look for based on your post. Thanks again and can't wait to put this to work as my prime HTPC rig. WOOT WOOT!

BTW - no mention of Wifi in any of the Ubid specs on this thing so I assume it has none. Also, no mention of a Media Center remote for the tuner? Can you confirm what shipped with your 3200t? - I probably won't see it for another week or so.

Thanks again to you and all the other groundbreakers here on this awesome thread.

Vic
 
Thanks, and hopefully that's true. But it doesn't jive with HP's typical Slimline customization options which allows you to select or deselect wifi as a value added option (i.e., whether you choose wifi affects final configuration price of the rig implying that hardware must be added or at least enabled during confiuration). Browsing the HP site for 3200t shows that wifi is a selectable feature option. I'll keep my fingers crossed but I'm probably going to hardwire it into my network anyway but wifi would be a good stopgap until I wire up my home theater with CAT or Home Plug AV. If I have to I can always use a usb wifi adaptor in a pinch. Thanks again for the response.
 
vferrari said:
Archaea,

Lurking for awhile, got an open box s3100 last fall from Ckt City and installed additional RAM and Galaxy 8600 based on reccs here to turn it into a decent mid performance gaming/multimedia rig. But I really got to thank you for the Ubid heads up. Just grabbled an s3200t rig identical to yours (Core Duo 4500/HD-DVD/8500/2GB/500GB) on Ubid for $350. Not quite as great a deal as yours but but still a steal and wouldn't have found it without knowing where and what to look for based on your post. Thanks again and can't wait to put this to work as my prime HTPC rig. WOOT WOOT!

BTW - no mention of Wifi in any of the Ubid specs on this thing so I assume it has none. Also, no mention of a Media Center remote for the tuner? Can you confirm what shipped with your 3200t? - I probably won't see it for another week or so.

Thanks again to you and all the other groundbreakers here on this awesome thread.

Vic
Click to expand...

I bought 2 s3200t units.

One came with WiFi, one did not --- the panel is just solid where the wi-fi was on the one without. I didn't pay attention when ordering them -- I likewise figured they all had wifi. Likewise again, one had the media center remote, the other did not. One came with a TV tuner, the other did not. One came with the Blue-Ray-HD-DVD drive, one came with the DVD-RW/CD-RW drive. Both had 8500GTs, both had 500GB hard-drives, both had 2GB of RAM, and both had the E4500 procesor. Basically what I did is swap components all around between the 3 slimlines I own. My AMD BE-2400 slimline s3200n with 2GB of RAM is my HTPC - so I stole the Blue-Ray/HD-DVD drive from one of the new s3200t machines and the 8500GT video card, and the TV-Tuner card and put it in the AMD based slimline.

I'll keep one of the s3200t's and am considering using it as my main rigg and plan to sell the other on ebay. Since I have a Xbox 360 w/ the HD-DVD attachment, and the PS3 for blue-ray I have half a mind to gut that Blue-Ray/HD-DVD drive out and sell it on ebay for ~150-200 --- whatever it sells for and then just buy one later a year or two down the road (if I need it) when the prices have dropped. The amazing thing on these prices is that at $300 bucks you could part them out and double your money on ebay if you get the loaded slimlines off ubid!
The remote seems quite sweet. I would try to locate one on ebay as it seems an accessory worth having. However if you have a wireless keyboard and mouse hooked up the remote may not be as important.

The configuration options on these slimlines at ubid seems nearly limitless. If you guys are ordering them really read carefully what you're buying. I think at $350 you still got a great deal...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you to get a unit with Wi-Fi built in!
 
Arch -

Thanks for the reply - from your first-hand experience sounds like a good chance I'll get the media center remote at least because the rig I got does have the built-in NTSC/ATSC tuner (can't imagine they sent you the remote for the rig that didn't come with a tuner). We'll see what happens with the wifi but its not really a deal breaker either way. I still think it is an awesome deal regardless and blows away even the Buy.com $339 refurb deal posted a few weeks ago. I'm tempted to swap the 8600GT I put into the s3100 with the 8500GT in the 3200t, but since my 3100 is running pretty hot, I'm probably better off just keeping the lower power 8600 card in the 3100 and not bother cracking the case and messing with the stock config on the 3200t. At some point I might put a BE-2400 or similar 45W proc in the 3100 to get the PS heat dissipation down.

Thanks for keeping the thread going..I'll post my experience with the Ubid rig.

Vic
 
Guys - don't delay on this at all if you are interested.

The low profile Galaxy 8600GT with HDCP and DDR3 is back in stock at NCIX.com. It's got a $40 rebate. $105-$40rebate = $65 + shipping.

I got my $40 rebate from Galaxy after about 2 months wait on the 8800GT I bought -- it arrived just today. So that confirms the rebates are good!

This card is out of stock nearly all the time and to my knowledge it's the best 8600GT low profile option there is for the slimlines, because the chaintech card doesn't have HDCP.

Web link for card

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=26441

Web link for rebate

http://docs.ncix.com/artman2/uploads/1/26441US-May-15-08.pdf

I picked one up for the s3200t I'm keeping.
 
^ Actually, I think the more relevant differences between the Galaxy and Chaintech is that the former is DDR3. However, the Chaintech is 512mb. As you suggested before Archaea, AnyDVD can bypass lack of HDCP support.

Don't get me wrong ... I'm still jealous as hell. :D


[edit]

Quick question while we are on the topic ... the Chaintech also has the same output configuration forcing you to use up the other PCI-E slot to accomodate VGA. Is there any reasonable method of tapping the video card VGA into the stock plug?

Granted that there is not much room anyway for the PCI-E with the card’s fan (both for the Galaxy and Chaintech), it would be nice to know that slow is still an option in case something can be squeezed in there safely.
 
Long time forum visitor, not so much a poster, however i was reading this thread in insight for a good low profile video card for a very nice system im hoping to build in the next few months, seems my options are a Galaxy 8600GT, however i did stumble upon this...Visiontek HD2600XT 256mb DDR2 pci-e 128bit review here. Perhaps not quite as fast as the 8600GT, but certainly worth a look... also to mention the price is slightly higher, at 139.99, but very good performance, close to the 8600GT which is hard to come by =[

** Edit ** found a MSI 8500GT 256mb PCI-E 128bit DDR2 for 88.40 from amazon
 
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the.ronin said:
^ Actually, I think the more relevant differences between the Galaxy and Chaintech is that the former is DDR3. However, the Chaintech is 512mb. As you suggested before Archaea, AnyDVD can bypass lack of HDCP support.

Don't get me wrong ... I'm still jealous as hell. :D


[edit]

Quick question while we are on the topic ... the Chaintech also has the same output configuration forcing you to use up the other PCI-E slot to accomodate VGA. Is there any reasonable method of tapping the video card VGA into the stock plug?

Granted that there is not much room anyway for the PCI-E with the card’s fan (both for the Galaxy and Chaintech), it would be nice to know that slow is still an option in case something can be squeezed in there safely.
Click to expand...
Chaintech is also whisper quiet, I don't know if the same can be said of the Galaxy. In a small form factor PC, this may be more important than a few fps.

And yes you do not need to use the VGA on the Chaintech, in fact mine had blurriness so I chucked it immediately. The single bracket fits much better than the double(sold separately). You can use almost any DVI to VGA adapter on the DVI port, my ATI brand works fine. No blurryness but you won't get the 1:1 pixel mapping feature via VGA.
 
I don't know of a good way (don't think it's even possible) to pump card output from a PCI-E card into the onboard video card output without physical modifiction of the onboard VGA port.


Summary on the two cards -- --
The Chaintech lacks HDCP and has 512MB of GDDR2 -- apparently it's whisper quiet and is usually available from newegg. From the reviews I've read, unfortunately the 128bit bus on the 8600GT card limits the effectiveness of the 512mb of RAM. The Galaxy uses the same 128 bit bus, only has 256MB of GDDR3 which runs slightly cooler and uses slightly less power than the GDDR2 --- but it actually performs a slight bit better because the RAM is faster. The Galaxy has HDCP but has an unknown noise level.

I not minimizing the chaintech 8600GT. It's still a great card! I hope the Galaxy is quiet. If it's not I'll be selling it to buy the chaintech. I do NOT want a noisy PC this go round. My quad core system is loud, and I've had a loud system for the last 10 years. I'm ready for a quiet system this go round.
 
larken, so you've got the Chaintech's VGA cable just dangling inside? And if I understand correctly, a DVI to VGA adapter works better? Mine did not come with one so I'm assuming you just bought it.

I just want the chance to try other peripherals in the PCI-E slot ... perhaps an eSata card that will let me use external HDs as mass media storage and use a lightning fast (Raptor?) but smaller HD in the system itself for programs. Currently the Chaintech VGA is using that slot (via XFX brackets). Even if freed up that slot, I am still concerned about the video card's fan right up against the eSata PCI-E card.
 
I refuted HP's reply to my inquiry about supported cpu's and received this in reply:

"Thank you for writing back.

I apologize for the incorrect information provided in previous e-mail.

George, I have once again verified in our database and found that the information you have mentioned in this e-mail is correct for the M2NC51-AR motherboard and is supported by all AMD 65 watt dual core processors.

However, Hp has not yet released any BIOS updated which will help in updating the CPU table to recognize the the newly released Brisbane 45 watt CPU's.

I have also checked for latest BIOS updates which will add support for new CPUs, and wish to inform you that the HP has not yet released new version of BIOS updates. The only available BIOS update that you have already updated which was release in 13-09-02007 with Version: 5.06."

No mention of whether or not it is on their "to do" list.
 
Hi everyone,

I have a quick question. After installing the Galaxy 8600gt and turning the system on, my monitor remains black. Before installing the card, I've changed the setting in the BIOS to use PCI-e instead of PCI. The monitor is connected to the card using a VGA cable. I know there is power to the card because the fan is on.

I'm a total novice when it comes to computer hardware. Any help is appreciated..
 
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