Video card swap/Monitor problems

Im new to this forum...found it while searching for some kind of solution to my computer problem. I was hoping i could get some help here.

Ive got two computers in my house...one IBM (my computer), and the other an Emachines, both having Windows XP. Yesterday i had planned on swapping the video cards between the two systems (Emachines had the better one).

Before taking out the video card from the Emachine, i disabled the Display Adapter through the Device Manager. I figured it would be re-enabled after putting in the other video card...however...whenever i turn on this Emachines, the display is just black. The green monitor light is on and the computer itself whirrs and everything, but other than that it seems completely unresponsive. Ive tried starting in safe mode and even putting in the system restore CDs on startup, but i still get nothing.

Everything with my IBM is fine and working smoothly, but this Emachine is becoming a problem. I've e-mailed a technician about it, and he suggested that i reformat the HD...i cannot do that with a blank screen though, i dont know how to at least. A friend of mine suggested making the Emachine HD a slave drive in my IBM and working on it from there...i assume i could re-format it from there as well.

I know its a long post, and i apologize, but if anyone could help or give some advice i would greatly appreciate it. If you need more information just let me know and i'll provide it.

First, try putting in a different video card.

Then, ry resetting the CMOS. (Your computer manual should tell you how.)

If neither of those work, then putting the HD in your other computer should come last. (Make sure you backup your important files before you format it.)

I've put in both video cards that i have, and neither of them produce results. Its still just a black screen.

Unfortunately, i dont think we saved the computer manual...ill have to search around for it.

How would i go about backing up files if i cant see anything on the screen?

Pull the files off the drive while it's in the IBM.

And, you can always get the manual online.

Found the manual...all it really says about CMOS is in the "changing the jumpers" section..."you can alter the functions by changing your standard settings, such as Clearing the CMOS settings."


*EDIT* After looking inside the computer again, i noticed that the processer wasnt hooked up correctly. One of my friends was helping with it yesterday and he must have checked out the processor...seems to be working okay now that its in place. The monitor works, but after getting past the WindowsXP load screen, it goes back to the black screen. I rebooted in safe mode, but it stops while its loading all the drivers...the driver it stops at is "agp440.sys," which i can only assume is the driver for its old graphics card (GeForce 4 MX440). I have yet to boot in VGA mode or anything else.

Any advice?

1. Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the computer CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer from the CD-ROM.
2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. Press the number key that corresponds to the installation that you want to repair, and then press ENTER.
4. Type the password for the administrator account of that installation, and then press ENTER. You receive a drive:WINDOWS> prompt, where drive is the drive on which Windows XP is installed.
5. Type listsvc, and then press ENTER.
6. Make sure that the Agp440 service is listed, and that the startup type is set to "Boot".
7. Press ESC.
8. Type disable agp440, and then press ENTER.
9. You receive a message that the registry setting for this service was found, and that its current startup state is "service_disabled".
10. Type exit, and then press ENTER.
11. If you are prompted to start in Safe mode or Normal mode, start in Normal mode.