I recently purchased a new EVGA GeForce 7600GS AGP 256mb card. My power supply meets the 12v @ 18a requirement, but when I put the card in, the computer will start, I will have video, it will perform a memory check, then freeze. I currently have a 420watt max psu, three hdd'*, a cd-burner, pci LAN card and audio. Could it be I'm still short on power because of the extra hdd'*? Now, I did try disconnecting two of the HDD'* and two case fans to see if I could get anywhere, and it made no change. I also tried with the vid card unplugged(it has an extra power hookup), same thing happened. Any ideas?

You did hook the separate power connector into the video card, right?

Yes, the vid card was on it'* own connector. Everything else was running off of one line.

I just tried again, disconnected all but one hard drive. I am getting static in my speakers :? with the new card. I believe this one may be a reject. I took the precautions to make sure I did not screw it up. Fully seated into the slot, all that jazz.

Call EVGA.

e-mailed EVGA. Gonna call too, buuuut... waiting for a reply on that. Signed up at forums.techguy.org. Was suggested to reset the BIOS as it seems to be hanging(lack of updates maybe?). Anyways, hopefully I won't have to send the card back and can use it tonight.

What motherboard do you have?

MSI KT6V VIA KT600 SLR

All I've heard on that is to try the Microsoft UAgp drivers instead of the Via 4in1.
There plenty of info on the net on how to switch over but I warn you; for some its easy and others is a PITA.

Drivers should only be played with if you can determine the issue is the drivers. When is the system stopping? Right where it normally would say "Booting windows" and the all-so high tech (yeah right) Windows bootup screen, or before that? If before that, more than likely it'* a hardware conflict, not good. If at or during the Windows startup screen, I'd say more than likely software, but don't even count out hardware there either, I've had memory for example crash windows during bootup but be fine during a test from the Motherboard.

I've been opening and building PC'* since the 286 came out, and let me tell you this, I've seen stuff that still amazes me to this day. There are issues that just cannot be explained. Be aware of how many different pieces of hardware and configurations are out there. There can be that "one" that causes issue, nothing is perfect, we're humans, we designed them, we're not perfect, thus, yeah, you get the idea.

Alright, it lists the
bios version, Energystar or whatever it is...
ram check, ram latency, processor, front side bus
Press del to go to setup tab for logo blah blah blah
Stops here

It is supposed to list the
ide master
slave
aster
slave

*.M.A.R.T. check
*.M.A.R.T. check
*.M.A.R.T. check

then the irq'* hdd'* screen flashes up, then windoze. But, if you can understand my really strange post, it doesn't get that far. I'm going to contact Newegg and see if I can exchange it. If the next one fails, guess I'll get another card? I don't know... I just want to play WoW with some decent FPS in 1024x768... I'm stuck with 8xagp at best....