I haven't tried taking out the drives. That's next. I did check all connections and just tried another video card and another monitor. I used my old Matrox Millenium II video card, ca. 1996. It popped. So that wasn't a very useful exercise. I bought the new card, a Kaser AT!-9200 SE, at Frys. You never can tell if something you bought at Frys has already been opened. There's no manual in the box, only a CD. And the CD has no read me file or other documentation. The Kaser site has no real support or information, either.

I guess a useful question is - should I be able to get video when I first start up the computer, with any video card? All video card documentation I can find says a CD is needed to install a card. If so, how do you get video, in order to install Windows, in order to install a card? Get it? Looks like a catch 22. If it should just work, fine. But I can't tell if that's the case.

Thanks for your help. I'm starting to get a little frustrated. The next step is to remove all the drives and try again.