Help with ATI Radeon 4650 & Dell Inspiron 580

[slash9dotnet]

I just bought an ATI Radeon 4650 PCI-Express graphics cards for my Dell Inspiron 580. I looked up the information on the Dell site to figure out what BUS I needed and discovered it was this x16 Express PCI so that's what I ordered. Well I'm not SUPER new to computers, but new to Dell machines. I tried first to boot to BIOS and disable onboard video, but there's no option to do so. So then I tried to boot the computer back up with the old video card and disable the onboard video through the Device Manager. I re-installed the new card and whenever the card is in the PC, the computer powers up but doesn't boot and nothing appears on the display... Regardless of which video port the monitor is plugged into... Maybe the 300w power supply isn't enough for the video card? I'm confused... Any ideas?

 

[purple stain]

You can't disable it through the Device Manager.For some reason it just doesn't work that way.Have another look in the BIOS to disable the on board GPU.Most of the time companies label is differently.It could be somewhere you haven't looked yet.

The 4650 only consumes 50watts and Dell PSU's are good so power is not an issue.

 

[slash9dotnet]

I swear I rooted through that BIOS about 5 times and see nothing that has to do with onboard video. I found the onboard LAN and assumed it would be in there with that, but nothing there. I found a setting for the onboard PCIE or something like that and tried enabling that thinking it was the slot for the card I put in, but it made no difference. I'm away from home right now, but when I get back, I'll be checking again, but I still don't think there's anything in there...

 

[purple stain]

You might need a BIOS update.

 

[slash9dotnet]

You might need a BIOS update.

Yeah, I'm going to check on that, too, as soon as I get back. It's been forever since I've had to do a BIOS update on a machine.

 

[slash9dotnet]

I know it's been forever since I posted this, but I had given up on this... Until now. I'm getting frustrated that I bought this $100 video card that was recommended by Dell and it's not working. I downloaded a BIOS "update" from Dell and it was the same one that I have installed. Apparently it's up-to-date... Any other ideas?

 

[87ninefiveone]

There seems to be rash of these posts recently with Dell/HP machines not detecting PCIe video cards.

My recomendation...

1. Make sure the card is seated firmly in the PCIe slot closest to the processor.
2. Plug the montior/screen into the video card, not the motherboard video port.
3. Report back if you are able to get video or not.

If no, then hook the monitor back up to the onboard video port and enter BIOS where you will need to set the primary display to PCIe or something similar. Reattach the monitor to the new video card and attempt to boot again. Video or not? If not, move monitor cable back to onboard video port, boot into Windows. Check Windows Device Manager for unidentified or flagged hardware which will appear with an yellow triangle and an exclamation point next to it under Display Adapters. If the card does not appear then something is wrong.

You could also try clearning the previous drivers via the Windows uninstall process and a utility like Driver Sweeper afterwards then rebooting. This will cause Windows to boot without the appropriate display drivers so things will look funny, but sometimes clearing out the old drivers will allow the new hardware to be properly detected afterwards (this is rare). After this, repeat steps 1 through 3 above.

 

[slash9dotnet]

1. Make sure the card is seated firmly in the PCIe slot closest to the processor.
2. Plug the montior/screen into the video card, not the motherboard video port.
3. Report back if you are able to get video or not.

Well, I just tried giving this a shot. I opened up the case, seated the card in the PCIe slot and tried to boot with the monitor plugged into the new card. No video. I then turned the computer off and plugged the monitor back into the onboard video, tried to boot and still nothing. The computer will not boot with the video card seated in the motherboard. I decided to further investigate the possible power supply issue and I did notice on the box of the video card that it says under the System Requirements that it requires a 350w or greater power supply. My Dell has a 300w power supply... Seriously, 50w?

 

[87ninefiveone]

Dell power supplies are usually of pretty decent quality and are typically underated, I wouldn't normally think that it could be the cause of the issue as your GPU is fairly easy on the power draw and it's unlikely that the system is exceeding the maximum draw during start-up and causing a problem. Your machine also isn't that old, so I wouldn't expect that the PSU has degraded much which would cause it to perform under it's rating. I've also run a Geforce GT 240 in a Dell machine with a 305W PSU when a 400W was required with zero issues. So, seeing as the situation is similar I still doubt that's the issue.

At this point, if I were you I would seriously consider returning/exchanging the card. Also, you mention that Dell recomended that card to you...if you bought it from Dell just return it, there's a 100% chance you got ripped off. An HD 4650 is a very weak card by today's standards and shouldn't cost more than $40-50. For another $25 you can pick up an HD 6670 which is 2-3x better and has the same power requirements.

 

[slash9dotnet]

Dell power supplies are usually of pretty decent quality and are typically underated, I wouldn't normally think that it could be the cause of the issue as your GPU is fairly easy on the power draw and it's unlikely that the system is exceeding the maximum draw during start-up and causing a problem. Your machine also isn't that old, so I wouldn't expect that the PSU has degraded much which would cause it to perform under it's rating. I've also run a Geforce GT 240 in a Dell machine with a 305W PSU when a 400W was required with zero issues. So, seeing as the situation is similar I still doubt that's the issue.

At this point, if I were you I would seriously consider returning/exchanging the card. Also, you mention that Dell recomended that card to you...if you bought it from Dell just return it, there's a 100% chance you got ripped off. An HD 4650 is a very weak card by today's standards and shouldn't cost more than $40-50. For another $25 you can pick up an HD 6670 which is 2-3x better and has the same power requirements.

Well, I purchased the video card off of a seller (with good rep) on eBay for about $65, but that was back in August of 2011, so I'm doubting I can get a refund or exchange. Maybe I'll just list it back on eBay as an untested card. It was brand new in the box when I got it and I've tried it twice. If the HD6670 work with my machine, I'll look into that.

I appreciate your help!! Thanks!