[Cialug] PCI Video No Boot

[Todd Walton]

So I've built me a phat new computer:

1) Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz with VT support
2) 4GB DDR2 Kingston "HyperX" memory
3) Asus P5Q SE/R mobo
4) Everything else will be what I already have

About a day after ordering the parts I realized that this motherboard
has no AGP port and no built-in video.  In itself that's not a
problem.  But all I have is an AGP video card.  All it takes is PCI-E,
and it has PCI slots.  I wanted to get it up and running (the parts
arrived yesterday) so I dug through my box of crap and found an old
PCI video card.  I'll get a PCI-E on my next paycheck I suppose, but
this'll do to make sure the system at least works, so I can send back
anything that doesn't.

Only...  it didn't work.  I got the initial BIOS splash screen and a
message at the bottom about which key to press to enter BIOS setup.
But the text was garbled with dense vertical lines in place of the
letters.  The splash images were fine.  And it went no further.  It
just remained on that screen indefinitely.

It's possible that the card is bad.  But I suspect that what's
actually happening is that the BIOS just doesn't know how to run a PCI
video card.  PCI, yes.  But a video card?  It's been a while since PCI
video cards were produced.  What's funny is that I really don't care
about graphics.  As long as mpegs play, I'm good.

So now I have to rustle up a PCI-E video card somewhere.  Anybody have
an under-$40 suggestion?

-todd