compaq 7599 doesnt like radeon 7000 pro pci \ VOGONS

compaq 7599 doesnt like radeon 7000 pro pci

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First post, by perestroika

Posted on 2021-08-16, 03:58

perestroika Offline

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i searched a lot about this but couldnt find any info on the board about this specific computer, do hate me if i am too stupid to do it right. the short version is this. brother has an old compaq presario 7599 and it only has 4 pci slots, one being used by the modem card and the rest are free.

i bought him the radeon 7000 pro [and brand new too, in box and all which was crazy to find it like that] but thing doesnt work. basically we insert it, connect the vga cable then turn it on and nothing. there is just a black screen with the blinking text cursor. card itself looks super new and the capacitors for example dont look bloated or that they exploded or are leaking or anything.

we went into the bios and we found no real settings to help with this, like maybe an option was off by default and needed to be on. been looking online for a firmware update for the bios but i cant find anything that i guess would help with the issue.

im just guessing the card is dead. i have no idea how to read the components with a multimeter, but i have somehope that maybe there is something we arent doing right.

https://www.cnet.com/products/compaq-presario … z-128-mb-40-gb/ - thats the compaq

https://videocardz.net/ati-radeon-7000-32mb-pci - and the card

the one thing im wondering about is how do i check if its agp 2x - the cnet website tells me thats what the compaq is compatible with, but the videocardz website doesnt tell me.. unless im just blind as fak. unless thats just for agp cards? i'll be honest, im pretty dumb with this stuff.

edit - should mention i tried it on all 4 pci slots and always the same, a black screen with a blinking cursor.

Reply 1 of 5, by Caluser2000

Posted on 2021-08-16, 04:48

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Biff the modem card and you will have another spare PCI slot. More than likely a WinModem anyway.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2021-08-16, 19:59. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 2 of 5, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2021-08-16, 14:34

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I think the fact you get a cursor means the card is actually alive, the PC is just not using it. Some machine had a jumper on the board to disable onboard graphics. Some machines you might need to pull power then reset the CMOS by jumper or pulling battery before new hardware is correctly configured.

However, I found sad news for another machine of the same series with internet commenters saying that in this Presario line it was not possible to disable onboard graphics.

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Reply 3 of 5, by perestroika

Posted on 2021-08-17, 06:43

perestroika Offline

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BitWrangler wrote on 2021-08-16, 14:34:

I think the fact you get a cursor means the card is actually alive, the PC is just not using it. Some machine had a jumper on the board to disable onboard graphics. Some machines you might need to pull power then reset the CMOS by jumper or pulling battery before new hardware is correctly configured.

However, I found sad news for another machine of the same series with internet commenters saying that in this Presario line it was not possible to disable onboard graphics.

you were right. at least i cant find a jumper for video. removed the power supply to have a better view and all i found was one to disable onboard audio, another for cmos ram stuff and nothing about video. brother brought a more modern tower and the gpu worked fine in that one. funny enough after that no cursor on the compaq, so perhaps i was imagining things or there never was one. so disappointing, but oh well.

thanks for the help!

Reply 4 of 5, by Ydee

Posted on 2021-08-17, 09:35

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Graphics card will very likely be fine, but some older boards simply do not cooperate with newer PCI cards. I had the same problem on another Compaq machine (Deskpro EN SFF) - neither the TNT2 M64 nor the Rage Pro LT, which work in newer mobos, worked in the PCI slot. Only black screen - the image went on just from onboard graphics. There was no need to turn off the onboard graphics in BIOS or via jumpers, just insert the older Voodoo3 PCI and the board itself switched the video output to it.
I think your problem will be the same - an incompatible graphics card.

Reply 5 of 5, by perestroika

Posted on 2021-08-29, 01:57

perestroika Offline

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an update in case anyone with a similar computer [or a compaq like this one] has the same issue - updated the bios to the latest version i found and it instantly detected the video card and everything worked fine. 🤣.

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