Sushi have you definately installed the drivers? If so do you have a password on your machine to login? If you've got the blank screen then enter the password and press return. The normal screen should come up then.
This isn't a definate fix, but I had a similar thing with my Ti4600 a while back and that worked...

Ozzy

You silly's   ,

He can't do anything! He has no image.

I know what's wrong I think.

Check the back of the PC and plug the monitor signal cord into your new graphics card instead of the onboard graphics port which is actually connected to the mainboard graphics chip!

Don't feel like an idiot, it's a common mistake.   8)

...... or your BIOS needs to be set for your AGP expansion slot as the primary video device and not the onboard chip. You will need to have the cord connected to the onboard graphics plug to see the bios screen and change the cord over to the addon card connector after saving the bios change and rebooting.

If it's not that, then you got a dead card.

Don't be surprised if you have screwed up your drivers after all this.    

Don't expect miracles from the 9600XT either, it wasn't a good card choice. A 9800 pro would have been a better choice from the "OLD" cards.

A 9600XT is slightly better than a GF4 TI4200........ relics by today's standards.

Some people had a few problems getting optimum performance from 8x AGP ATI cards on 4x AGP slots from what I've seen in the forums in the past.

Even without drivers, the PC will boot and display an image using default MS drivers. It's can only be a hardware problem. Either the card is not seated properly in the AGP slot, or the card is defective and needs to be exchanged (it does happen with new hardware from time to time).

Sushi has an onboard graphics mainboard.

That means there are two blue video out ports, one for the onboard and one on the new video card. Many people leave the video cable on the onboard port believe it or not....

If the cable is moved to the video card, they then think the card is dead. This is because the BIOS is set for onboard VGA and it won't display the addon video card's image, rather, it displays no image at all, so BIOS cannot be set because there is no screen image.

CMOS must contain the basic video driver, or we would never see an image on first boot or until an op sys is loaded. Anyone verify this?

Weatherman had a  good point as well, AGP slots have notoriously fine connectors, with only microns between the contacts. Foriegn matter in the slot or on the card's contacts can wreak havoc, and proper seating of the card is sometimes a bit dodgy due to the fine tolerances of the AGP connector. This might explain the hard drive light on continuously as the system tries to figure out whats going on with the AGP slot.

Without downloading Sushi's manual, I'm not sure if the VGA device is selected by BIOS or Jumper cap on the mainboard, so unless you tell us what you did, Sushi, we can't possibly know if all avenues have been exausted. These PC's are tricky little buggers 

Tried a beefier PSU, cleaned the contacts and ensured the slot is clear (although it should be as it works with other cards)  Next I'll try it on a friend's system.  If there's still no dice, its going back to the factory.  Thanks for all the help!