Hi Im having trouble fitting a ati radeon card into my firends packard bell computer. When i put it in the system boots up. Most of the time it just hangs on a black screen before auto-rebooting. Sometimes (rarely) it gets to the windows splash screen but the progress bar isnt moving and the picture is very faint as though it is lacking colour and brightness (changing the picture settings doesnt improve it), it then reboots itself after about 30 secs. The POST screen and everything is fine and i can get into the bios with the agp card with no apparent display problems. I cant get into safe mode (the system hangs and reboots the same as normal). I first thought it might be a power issue so i looked at the voltages in the bios and the 12v rail fluctuates from 11.17v to 11.97v (the other rails fluctuate the same), so im thinking that maybe these readings cant be trusted (im thinking about trying a good spare tonight), but i dont know. I also thought it might be a compatibility issue so i told my mate to go to where he got it from and ask them. They told him that they are unwilling to give any information because they will not be fitting it themselves (my mate wants me to fit so it doesnt cost him anything :\ ). Im really lost as to what is going on. We dont have a motherboard manual as he wasnt given one. I dont know if it's the power or the compatibility (or anything else). I dont have another agp card with a different chipset (eg nvidia), only ati. So im wondering if these symptoms ring a bell with anyone here? If so id be grateful if you would share. Much thanks! John

checklist : 1. is there a setting in the bios to disable onboard agp? if yes, do it. 2. go to http://www.packardbell.com/#, select your country and see if you can get a copy of user manual from there. 3. check your agp slot and radeon card voltage, make sure they match. hope this help....

With the card and monitor installed and connected , clear bios by removing the battery or reset jumper to clear and back to save.

Ps turn off power first

Take a look here: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4061.html

Thanks everyone for responding. Unfortunately ive tried all of the suggestions and nothing has helped. Im going to update the bios as it seems some packard bells' have trouble with agp cards with the bios version my friend has (this info from packard bell website). Thanks again. John