oh, ok, than I probably shouldn't waste my time trying that. I also wasn't sure about the changing my hard drive between systems but if its about a 25% chance I don't have the time to try and install it and it not work today. That will be a last resort I suppose. The other video card I have is an ATI Radeon x700 pro 256mb. It says it needs a PCIE slot. The only problem with that though is it says i need the s/n and p/n from the stickers on the card and all that the card has is a silver sticker with AGP: and then some numbers and a barcode. And the Article No:######## and a MS- number/letter combination.
Would it be usable until xp is installed?

-I'm going to try switching my vid cards out to the x700 from my eah4850 after I wash my car and do a few things around my place before I get a chance to sit down and see if this works. I'll check back to see what your opinion is before I do though.

Thank you for all your help so far.

The dos method I found online and posted here asking if it would work didn't work. When I put in my other vid card and went to bootup it just beeped about 5-7 times and nothing turned on except my fans.

Any other ideas? I am currently looking online and thinking about flashing my bios to see if that will fix it.

The one thing that's coming to mind... Does your video card need it's own power? Many video cards require a dedicated power cable, usually a 4, 6, or 8 pin (I believe it's a 6-pin in this case). If it needs one and doesn't have it the system will not display anything at start-up.

As far as the other video card, that's just confusing. You shouldn't ever need the serial number off the card, unless it's for validation on some kind of bundled software. But if your system is generating an error when you connect it there must be some problem with the card (or it's not set properly).

My current vid card does require a 6pin and I know it's working because the fan is on and lights flash when I power down.

The other card said it needs it if I install it, not now, I was mistaken. It just won't work though and I had it set in the same pcie slot as my other card so I know it's not the pcie slot.

I also have my usb mouse/ethernet cable unplugged. Only things plugged in are my keyboard(the purple keyboard plug), my monitor, and my power cord.

I tried loading with each of my different desktop mems and neither of them fixed the problem, just made me waste like 4 hours reformatting my comp a couple more times.

Also I only have one CD/DVD drive connected, I don't have another CD drive/floppy drive so I was unable to flash my bios. Unless you know a way that I can do it without a second drive?

time to call a tow truck and haul it to a mechanic

haha thanks, but I don't like spending money where I don't need to. I'll figure it out eventually and just keep using my laptop until then.

yup! me to