xfx 7900gs help needed!!!

[mathewdbarlow]

Hey guys, this is my first post so bear with me!

Just got a xfx 7900gs 256ram pci-e but having trouble getting it to work.

Spec:
msi-7053 925x mobo
p4 3.0ghz 2md cache 800fsb
1gb infineon 533mhz ddr2 ram (dual channel)
160gb maxtor hard drive
570 trust power supply with pci-e connection
Nothing else worth mentioning.

All parts are new and working fine I think.

Now, when I put this card in and power up it shows the details for the card on the screen, then quickly flicks to the motherboard screen where it asks iof I want to enter bios, then it resets and repeats this. It doesn;t let me enter the bios or do anything, it just keeps repeating on this cycle.

Curiously, if I plug in a ps2 keyboard then it doesn't show the mobo screen , it just keeps repeating the graphics card details and rebooting.

I am confident everything is set up correctly etc and have tried another power supply. Also tried testing each ram dimm and they seem to be fine. I really want this to work, any help would be appreciated.!!

[notsobig]

Can you post with just motherboard, cpu, videocard and 1 stick of ram?

[mathewdbarlow]

Nope, exact same problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[blueball]

I think the 7900 needs a PCIe power connection to the card. Did you plug one in? If not did you use a convertor to plug two 12v connectors into the PCIe card

[mathewdbarlow]

Yep, tried both the pci-e connector and tried the adaptor that uses 2 4 pin molex connectors. Still no luck!

[blueball]

Is BIOS set to boot PCIe rather than PCI/AGP?

[notsobig]

I guess it's your ram. It sounds as if your pc is restarting during ram checking. Accordin to your mobo manual this board is set to check memory three times as default. Are they firmly in place?

[mathewdbarlow]

Don't think it is the ram either, its 2 512mb sticks of ddr2 533mhz. I've tried just using 1 and in different sockets but to no avail. I am starting to think that I have just got a dodgy mobo but would like to know for sure before I send it back!

[notsobig]

Or could be a short circuit somewhere(wierd PS2 keybord behavier).If I were you I would strip everything out and rebuid whole system from scratch again. I know you don't want to but even when you are careful you still make mistake sometimes and do wierd things. And that can be very difficult to troubleshoot. But it is quite rare you make same mistake twice so if you still have same problem after rebuild you can rule out possibilty of bad build and concentrate on other possibilities. It's tedious work but you have to live with it I guess.