Inspiron 530 restarts when booting

[angel0fmars]

Hello. I've had an Inspiron 530 for a couple years now, and have just recently upgraded the graphics card. Here are the current specs:

Intel Q6600 2.4GHz
nVidia GT 240 DDR5 512 MB
2x1GB DDR2 800MHz RAM
500GB hard drive
350W power supply

Whenever I turn on the computer, it spins up the fans to max speed like usual, but then it would last longer than usual. After 2 or 3 repeats of the fans spinning up, it boots into Windows as usual, but nothing would appear on the screen if I have the VGA cable hooked to the GT 240. The screen would just go into power saving mode. If I plug the VGA cable into the integrated plug, it works perfectly fine. HELP!!

 

[soulbrotha80]

I've read that the GT 240 has a minimum power requirement of 300W, but I would still suggest trying to upgrade to a higher wattage power supply to see if that helps with your problem. Also, have you tried to use the video card in a different computer to rule out that it's not the card?

 

[angel0fmars]

Thank you for the power supply idea. I haven't tried the card in a different computer yet as my old computer only has AGP slots. So do you think it's a graphics card problem?

 

[soulbrotha80]

It is possible that it could be either the power supply isn't enough or the graphics card is bad, but I suggested to check the video card just to do some sort of process of elimination. I am leaning towards the power supply not being sufficient, but I could be wrong.