"Eric Klaassen" said:
I have bought a Ati Radeon x1600 pro 512Mb graphics adapter.
It wont run on my Dell Dimension 4550, probably because the power supply is
to light (300 Watt)
Can I buy anywhere a more power full power supply or doesn't those fit in a
Dell computer.
Hope someone can help me out.
Eric Klaassen
(e-mail address removed)
The pinout of the power supply, looks to be standard ATX.
The question would be, whether the dimensions of the power
supply are smaller or the same size as a standard ATX supply.
Before buying a new power supply, make sure the outside
dimensions and mounting hole pattern matches what Dell is
using. While cable lengths should not be a problem, if the
Dell has longer cables than normal, you might also want to
check that the new supply has generous cables (some cheap
but usable Fortron supplies have short cables).
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/techov.htm#1101565
I hope the problem is as easy as you have concluded it to be.
It could be that the problem is not the power supply, but
something else.
There is a picture of a Sapphire X1600 AGP card here. There
is an Aux power connector in the upper right hand corner of this
picture (white, four pins):
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/14-102-039-03.jpg
(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102039 )
The Aux power connector needs to be connected for full operation
of the card. Some ATI cards can display a warning message
if the Aux power is not connected, but perhaps this card
doesn't have that feature, and the card simply doesn't output
anything without the Aux power.
If you've connected the Aux power (by stealing the necessary
power plug from somewhere in the computer), then another thing
you could try, is to completely disconnected the hard drive(s)
or any other loads that are easy to remove. This would be to
see if less load on the power supply, would make it work. Hard
drives draw about 13W each.
Xbitlabs has a power measurement for the X1600XT (a more powerful
card than yours, likely with a higher clock setting) and it only
draws 24W at idle - somehow I doubt the idling video card is squashing
your power supply at POST. When gaming, the card will draw a bit
more power.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gpu-consumption2006_7.html
Some motherboard BIOS will beep the computer case speaker, if
they detect a video problem. If the video card was not operating
properly, you'd expect to hear some kind of beep pattern.
Another thing you could try, is to verify the voltages on the
main 20 pin power connector, while the system is powered. With
a multimeter, you would connect the black lead to some metal on
the case that is grounded. (An "alligator clip" is handy for
making connections with the black lead.) The red lead would be
used to probe the exposed metal on the top of the 20 pin nylon
shell of the power connector. Usually you can probe inside each
hole on the back of the connector, and pick up the voltage on
the pin. If the voltages all read reasonably close to their
3.3V, 5V, 12V as is appropriate, that might show you that the
problem is not power. If the voltages are sagging, or if the
supply is not outputting any normal voltage levels, then that
would add further weight to your theory that the problem is power.
Paul
