Asus EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G/A problems

i got hold of one of these 4 DVI o/p cards and have attempted to install it over the last three nights and am at my wits end.

my computer currently has a HD 3450 card, Acer MCP73PV motherboard (it was an Acer Aspire M5640 computer to start).
Instead of purchasing a new psu, i have chained two psu's i had laying around for power. a 400w and a 350w.
i use the 350 for the motherboard and drives and the 400 to power the video card.
from what i've read this should be more than enough to drive the card.

the video card is powered thru 6 pin from 400W and double molex to 6 pin adapter to the 8 pin connection (couldn't find an 8 pin adapter locally).
I have read the extra two pins on the 8 pin video card connection are just extra grounds for overclocking, which i'm not going to do anyway and this setup should power the card.

after much searching on the internet I have done everything from uninstalling all drivers, including on board graphics, cleaning out drivers as well as removing cmos battery and only ever get a black screen.
the fans are whirring and lights are flashing on the video card but....black screen.
have done endless variations of the above.

i'd like to avoid buying a new psu unless absolutely required but if i hafta, i guess i'll bite.

at any rate, has anyone got any ideas how i might proceed further with this?
appreciated.
thx in advance.

I believe this graphics card actually has 2 power connections, one 6-pin and one 8-pin. From the sounds of it you are just connecting the 8-pin connection. You will need to connect two dedicated cables to both of these power connections to ensure the graphics card is receiving enough power.

Given the info in your post, IMO you will need a stronger PSU to run the card, as 400W probably isn't going to cut it. You should be looking at something stronger than that I reckon. The fact that you are receiving no display at boot could suggest a power issue, so you may want to try a stronger PSU to see if it helps first. If so, you can then look at investing in a new (stronger) PSU. Let me know how you get on.
Cheers.

Thanx for your reply.
I had the 6 pin connected, and 6 pins on the 8 pin one in my scenario.
i had two psu's dividing the power requirements between the two.
was trying to save a buck on the psu.

i ate the bullet and bought a 750W psu with the proper power connectors thinking this was my problem but alas, same result.

this is a very large video card!
there are only two more things i can think of.
1. this motherboard, although the video card should work on any pcie slot is not compatible for some reason. i cannot seem to update the bios on the board to see if that might help to solve.
2. although the video card seems to be seated securely in the slot, the card covers my sata plugs and as a result actually pushes against them. also there are two capacitors on the board that are rather high and the card sits against them making it impossible to push in any further. i don't think this is the problem however as the card pins seem to be all the way in.

the video card was working prior to installation in this machine.
i don't have another machine to backcheck right now.

i'm thinking i might have to bite another bullet and get a new mobo. Hell, if i'm gonna do that maybe i'll just upgrade to an AMD 6 core or intel 7.

again. thx for your reply.

Yeah the issue here might be with your mainboard, because as you said yourself the graphics card worked fine before installing it into your machine. You could test it in a second PC before actually buying anything? You don't want to be shelling out for components you don't need.

You could try contacting your mainboard manufacturer too. See if they can provide you with BIOS updates, chipset drivers etc. They may know of compatibility issues too.

i decided to hold back on upgrading to i7 right now as there are always new things on the horizon and my quad core will do for now, so, i picked up a new motherboard on special and everything worked just fine.
as far as i can tell, the motherboard i had was not pcie2 compatible.
we can consider this matter closed now.

thx for your replies.