My Dad bought a GeForce 8800GT graphics card quite a long time ago now. It has never worked in his PC.

Print out from a dxdiag:

System Information

Time of this report: 4/13/2010, 19:52:40

Machine name: USER-PC

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.091208-0542)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

BIOS: Default System BIOS

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.3GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

Page File: 1045MB used, 3296MB available

Windows Dir: C:\Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 10

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode

DxDiag Notes

  Display Tab 1: No problems found.
    Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
    Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
    Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
      Input Tab: No problems found.

DirectX Debug Levels

Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)

DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)

DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)

DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)

DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)

DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)

DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

Display Devices

Card name: ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO

Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.

Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor (0x94C3)

DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_94C3&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00

Display Memory: 1012 MB

Dedicated Memory: 245 MB

Shared Memory: 767 MB

Current Mode: 1280 x 960 (32 bit) (75Hz)

Monitor: Generic PnP Monitor

Driver Name: atiumdag.dll,atiumdva.dat,atitmmxx.dll

Driver Version: 7.14.0010.0523 (English)

DDI Version: 10

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

Driver Date/Size: 8/22/2007 02:43:14, 3021312 bytes

That info is from the current card that is installed in it and has been installed since its purchase roughly 3-4 years ago.

When I physically install the card I put it into a purple slot on the motherboard that the old card was in (if I go into the device manager and select properties on the current card it confirms that the slot is a "PCI Slot 16 (PCI bus 2, device 0, function 0)") and boot up the computer but get absolutely no output. The screen that we have registers that it is connected to something (by not displaying the screen it does when the cable is unplugged) but just remains blank, no output at all.

I recently took the card to my University and one of my friends who is better with hardware issues than I am tried it in his system and it worked perfectly. No issues whatsoever. I do not have a spec list for his system but I could get one if you need it.

If you need any more information on this issue I will be happy to supply you with it as I am starting to get very annoyed with this problem ^_^