Is my graphics card messed up?

I just bought a new Geforce 8600 gts graphics card today and I mounted it on my computer. Automatically it seems to detect it, instead of the onboard graphics, and there is no option for disabling the intergrated graphics in the BIOS anyway. So the first couple of restarts the new card was working fine, then I reset it one time after installing a bunch of new programs, and the BIOS is all messed up, showing exclamation marks everywhere with messed up characters showing the letter "s" instead of R, etc. Is this because of a conflict of the two graphics cards, or simply because my new card has been fried and/or faulty.

Is my graphics card messed up?

Sounds like one of the new programs you installed messed something up.

Is my graphics card messed up?

I have not seen a BIOS that does not have a way to choose the integrated or external video card. Yes, I suspect this is a video card conflict. Each time the system starts you roll the dice to see which answers first and gets access to the high RAM where the video is mapped.

Is my graphics card messed up?

reflash your m/b bios to the latest version!

Is my graphics card messed up?

All you need to do is shut down,unplug,remove the side cover , find the little plastic jumper by the battery the letters clrtc will be next to the jumper, ther are three pins remove it from the 2 its on and put it on the opposite pins ie.1 and 2 to 2 and 3 for about 5-10 seconds then back to original position. this will reset your bios. replug and restart.