About Chris Morrison Expertise Installation of cards. Difference between card types. What card is best for your purpose. Driver problems. All video issues.
Experience 15 years experience with building, repairing and upgrading PCs. Technical support experience.
Organizations Help on the Net
Education/Credentials Associates Degree in Information Technology
A Certified
Expert: Chris Morrison Date: 4/6/2008 Subject: Video Card for Dell Inspiron 530s
Question QUESTION: I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 530s with Vista and only the integrated video card. I then purchased a VisionTek Radeon X1650Pro 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express Low Profile Video Card from newegg.com to install in it.
I followed the directions by disabling the integrated graphics card in the device manager before installing the card and starting the computer. Everything started up fine and I downloaded the latest driver from the VisionTek website. During the installation process, the screen starts to go black for a second (which the installation wizard says is normal) and then comes back. However, before the driver installation is complete (I think it does not get fully installed), the screen goes black (with a white underscore blinking in the top left corner) and the computer is not responsive.
After my first failed attempt, I removed all of the ATI drivers in safe mode and started over. But I got the same result.
I know that Windows is recognizing the card because I have to cancel the 'found new hardware' alert after I install the card, so I am not sure why the driver installation is not work. Any ideas? What is the best way to find out if the card is compatible with the motherboard, if that is the problem?
ANSWER: Don't even bother with the Visiontek driver. Go right to ATI website and download their driver. http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/common-vista32
that a direct link to the driver
download the complete catalyst software suit and install that. that should fix ur problem.
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QUESTION: Thank you for the help so far, but unfortunately it did not work. I delted all of the old drivers (also used Driver Cleaner 1.5) and started over. I even updated the Dell bios to version 1.0.12, but I end up getting the same result. The ATI download completes the driver installation, but once I start up after the install, the monitor receives a signal for the Dell logo and then goes black and I get the display that no signal is detected. Any other thoughts as to what it might be?
Answer Video driver will usually set the display settings to the highest setting possible. This setting is not always supported by the monitor you are using. Unsupported settings can result in the monitor actually telling you the problem or telling you it is not getting a signal.
Before windows boots keep pressing F8. Choose safe mode. If safe mode hangs while loading the desktop, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL.
In safe mode go to the display settings and back them off. i would set them to around 1024x768, thats a good setting supported by most monitors. I would also open the catalyst software and check the settings there. If the video card has two out puts (VGA and DVI) make sure the correct one you are using is set to the default.
