video card troubles

[bmacgurk]

hello everyone,
                   i had jst read tanith's post about his video card troubles and it sounds like what i have.I just bought an 19" acer lcd flat panel monitor for my dell otiplex gx150 with xp pro,996mhz,512mb of ram and a 200gig hd.I also bought a pny nvidia geforce fx 5200 graghics card to upgrade my graghics.This is a pci card that i'm putting in to replace the s3 trio 32/64 that i have in there. I followed the instuctions that was in the booklet that came with it.Did everything that it said and pluged back up everything and it went throught the startup screen.When it got to the logon screen nothing same as TANITH (hope i spelled his name right).Blue screen was all i got.Could hear everything going but no display.The instuction said to put the card in the same slot as the old one and boot up the system.I would see an installed new hard ware screen.It didn't appear.MY power supply is 250 watts and the specs requirements says that thats whats needed.Any ideas you could give me would be grateful.

                                           bmacgurk

[street1 (RIP)]

You should go to the control panel and uninstall old video
drivers.

[bmacgurk]

good morning street1,
                        its good to here from you.Thats a problem when the display won't come up.So do i uninstall the drivers before i install the other card and that will do the trick.I'll try that and let you know what happens.Thanks hope you've been well.

                       bmacgurk

[Joe_Flanagan]

With the old card in the machine uninstall its drivers through Device Manager.
This puts the machine down on Generic Drivers.
Shut the machine off.
Physically remove the old card and install the new.

Start the machine.

Windows will go into the "Found New Hardware" mode on start up.
Have your new card's driver ready (CD) when asked.

Sometimes parts of old drivers hang around and cause problems.
For that you can use a utility called Driver Cleaner.
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=745

Play it safe and set a Restore Point before doing any of the above and if you use Driver Cleaner triple-check what you are about to remove.

A common error with DC is to mistakenly remove mobo chipset drivers along with graphics drivers.

[bmacgurk]

hi jflan,
         i tried that and it didn't work.all i get is a blank screen.what it looks like is that i have to upgrade my power supply.have been to the pny site and everything points to that so.It's beening a pain in the *censored* to improve my graghics on a 19"acer lcd flat panel monitor.If you can help me it would be great.A link to more info or something that i can understand.Pny is confussing at the most .so i've been at this for 3 days any help is grateful.
                        bmacgurk

[soybean]

Could you temporarily install that card in other computer to test it?

If, indeed, you need a new power supply, I suggest you visit newegg.com if you live in the U.S.  I bought this one two months ago and like it:  FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN, RoHS, 12cm FAN, version 2.2, 2 SATA, 20+ 4 pin, PCI Express, 400W Power Supply - Retail.  Or, you might get a 350W unit.

[Joe_Flanagan]

From the info given, here's what I've deducted.
 I Googled your rig and if I have the model # correct it has integrated video.
It also has an AGP slot for upgrades.
You are trying to use the PCI slot for a video upgrade.

With the above on the table, here's what I would do:
1. Disable the on-board GPU if the Dell BIOS allows for this.
2. Remove the old PCI video card drivers
3. See if I can return the new PCI video card for an AGP version that is compatible with AGP 4x
If you can dig into the Dell archives, see if you can find the options list and see what AGP cards they were offering for your rig.
You know going in that those cards have been tested in your rig.
That would have been my Step One

The only reason to turn to PCI for video is if you don't have an AGP slot or you have a problem with your AGP slot.
AGP was designed for video.

The 5200 PCI may be wanting more power than your PCI bus can deliver. You will have a better chance using the AGP slot.

[soybean]

Good research there, jflan.  Yes, AGP is the way to go.  Now, if he can't return that PCI card, he may want to go ahead with trying to use it.

I see you're assuming he was using onboard video.  If so, I agree he needs to disable it in the BIOS.  His original post gave the impression he had removed an older PCI card to install the new one.  I'd like to see him clarify that.  Or, did you find info indicating that s3 trio 32/64 that he mentioned is the onboard graphic chip on that motherboard?

Your post implies that an AGP card may be less likely to have a power issue.  Are you sure about that or are you somewhat speculating on that point?  

[Joe_Flanagan]

Good research there, jflan.  Yes, AGP is the way to go.  Now, if he can't return that PCI card, he may want to go ahead with trying to use it.

Yes, if stuck with the PCI card, might as well try to make it work.

I see you're assuming he was using onboard video.  If so, I agree he needs to disable it in the BIOS.  His original post gave the impression he had removed an older PCI card to install the new one.  I'd like to see him clarify that.  Or, did you find info indicating that s3 trio 32/64 that he mentioned is the onboard graphic chip on that motherboard?

No, I didn't see anything on that s3 trio 32/64 .
I was going on the PCI card theory, also.

Your post implies that an AGP card may be less likely to have a power issue.  Are you sure about that or are you somewhat speculating on that point?

Speculation based on experience, I suppose.
It would be interesting to see what video options Dell offered for that rig.
 

[bmacgurk]

hi guys.
          yes it has a 30day returnpolicy with it from bestbuy. The s3 trio was in the computer when i bought it. It has an agp slot so now i can maybe take the pci back and get an agp.The fx 5200 still won't work.and i ordered a 500 watt power supply so.
the s3 trio 32/64 was a pci card in a pci slot so i assumed that that was what i was to replace.i to would like to see the video offering.i was at the dell site today and as like all the other you have to wade through everything to get to something to find out little or nothing so i will tryall of your suggestions and see what works.
                         return the card is what i'll do tomorrow and let me know if you find anything else on the video offers on the optiplex gx150

                                                         bmacgurk

[Joe_Flanagan]

From what I gather you have an AGP 4x slot, so make sure that your new card is compliant with AGP 4x.

You have a "slim" tower so you may not be able to use "full-height" cards. The alternative is "low-profile"

You have a Dell that may require a special proprietary power supply.
If this is so, PC Power and Cooling make special Dell Replacement power supplies but they are not cheap.

I would not invest too heavily in a Dell "slim tower" they are limiting as you can see.

[bmacgurk]

good morning,
               I saw your poat about a "slim"  tower this thing is crazy,but if it weren't for liking it so much i woud have gotten rid of it but...... I found a dell replacement power supply at www.pcpower.com for 114.00 US. but alas i had to go cheaper than that because money is tight this time of year.I was reading in the dell forums on video cards and ran across a lot of referance to agp cards in the optiplex gx150 which is what i got so i'll let you know what happens   all for a flat panel is what my wife said and i'm beginning to agree,but they are nice .thanks

                                                        bmacgurk  

[bmacgurk]

hello jflan,
              went today and got a agp card and it came up just fine It did what the pci card wouldn't do was work .It works great. Many thanks to you and your helpfor getting me through this.Now i can enjoy clear graphics and a nice clear pictures.Once again thanks to all.I knew that i could get help from THIS forum because of past experiance with the people here.My questions have been answered and i have been greatly satisfied with the results.

                                                                    bmacgurk

[soybean]

Thanks for that follow-up info.  Glad to hear it all worked out well.

[Joe_Flanagan]

What soybean said