thanks for your suggestions.

I bought the card and an additional stick of ram a couple of weeks ago only to discover my power supply was insufficient. I had a small box and the bigger power supply was expensive so, I replaced the case, the board and updated the processor too.

I have a feeling the video card may be the problem ... just a feeling. Before realizing what was wrong, I ran it with insufficient power for the new card for a little while right after buying it. I wonder if that could ruin the card? Device manager showed no problems. Anyway, I took it to a shop today. I'll post as to what the problem was if anybody is interested.

Thanks,
John