Problem w/ new video cards! (power fine, single clicking noise in v card, no display)

Hi, I've been having a really annoying problem. I decided to upgrade my video card from my old Radeon 7000 VE AGP to the Sapphire Radeon 9550 AGP.

So I brought the card home, removed the 7000 (and drivers etc.) and plugged in the 9550, and basically the power started up (fans started working on comp and processor) and there was a single scratchy click around the video card, from that point nothing happened (HD didn't boot, there was no POST - there was no display, my monitor didn't get a signal, fans were still running)

I thought it was a faulty card, so I got a refund and bought a Sapphire Radeon X1650 pro AGP. exact same problem - the video card still made that clicking noise and stopped (the fan on the vid card was still working though)

I've tried the following:
-removing old drivers before replacing the card
-disabling on-chip VGA frame buffer on the bios
-resetting the CMOS manually
-cleaning the contacts on the video card
-removing the power from all other devices except mobo, vid card, and hard drive
-replacing the monitor cable

the weird part is, whenever I plug in my old radeon 7000 it works fine! (it's working fine now as I type this message) everything I do, the problem's being localized to the video card (either that or i'm really unlucky in that the two cards i got brand new from two different stores were both defective) again, the slot works fine with the other card (the only difference I can tell between the new cards and my radeon 7000 is that the 7000 had both a 1.5v and a 3.3v slot but the 9550 and x1650 pro both had a single 1.5v slot (is it possible that the 1.5v slot part of the agp slot might be damaged?)

any help would be appreciated

btw, here are my specs:

processor: AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2GHz
motherboard: K7 Triton GIGA-BYTE GA-7VKMP
power supply: thermaltake 420W (should cover the 350W requirement of the x1650)
chipset: VIA KM266

vid card (problem): Sapphire Radeon x1650 pro AGP
previous vid card (same prob): Sapphire Radeon 9550 AGP
current video card (working): Radeon 7000 VE


any help at all would be appreciated, thanks in advance

 

anyone?

 

Can somebody explain what kind of incompatibility can be there?

I have basically the same kind of desktop system. Mobo is based on VIA KM266, it's AGP 2.0 (1x, 2x, 4x) I have Athlon XP processor and plenty of DDR RAM. Currect video card is FX5200.

I have also ordered Club 3D Radeon X1650 Pro AGP 512 MB.

But I am starting to doubt if I will actually be able to run this card. Because this is not the only complaint I have found in the internet about X1650 incompatibility with AGP 2.0 4x motherboards.

Is there any living human being that has AGP 2.0 (4x max, 1,5 volts) mobo with working X1650 or other X1000 series AGP Radeon based card?

Does X1650 really support AGP 2.0? Or is it a nasty AGP 3.0 video card with fixed 0,8 volt response. My nVidia FX5200 is "Universal AGP 3.0" card which can work in both 1,5 and 0,8 volts and probably 3,3 too because it has universal 3,3/1,5 volt slot.

 

I was looking at the card and it looks to be a PCI-Express? I'm thinking I must be wrong. AGP slots won't carry it unless your running a PCI -e slot? Are you running a board for PCI-e or AGP? Perhaps I'm wrong. Let me know if I'm confused. Won't be the first time. Jazz

 

It is not a PCI-E card. It is AGP. Even the name says it.