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ATI Radeon HD 4850 and Inspiron 545 woes ...
When I first purchase this dell, I bought and installed the ATI Radeon HD 4850, along with a Thermaltake TR2 RW-450 Power supply. Everything worked great for several months. I played a few graphically intensive games and was very happy with it.
Recently (4 days ago) I began installing all those Window's Updates that I had been putting off. My PC rebooted, and my DVI output basically stopped working. Even though my PC boots up (i can hear the window's chime through the speakers) the monitor remains in 'power save mode'.
I switched from DVI to the VGA cable, and the onboard VGA works.
My graphic card's fan continually runs at maximum speed (it's quite loud, relatively speaking), even though it's not outputting anything graphically.
I've followed the instructions at outlined in this forum to update the drivers for the ATI graphics cards. Uninstalled the old, did the driver sweeper, installed the new, disabled the onboard graphics. I'vedouble checked the bios to make sure the PCI slot took priority upon boot over the on board graphics.
It seems nomatter what I do certain things remain constant: The graphics card is completely undetectable, the fan on the graphics card runs as fast as it can. I've checked all connections to and from the 4850 and all appear to be properly installed. When i'm in the Device Manager, the only display option i see is the onboard Intell G33.
When I initally installed the 4850, I didn't have to jump through any hoops to get it working right, and now I can't get it to work at all.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in Advance!
-Tekiez
Window 7 64-bit
RobinBredin
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July 27th, 2010 03:00
Hi, What I would do, is to restore your system to a time before you had any problems with the downloads, Ie when your card last worked OK. To do that, Open Control Panel, then Recovery, then click Open System Recovery. As for your updates, you can Go into Control Panel, then Updates, then check Download Updates and Let me Choose whither or not to install them.
fireberd
9 Legend
9 Legend
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33.3K Posts
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July 27th, 2010 04:00
I have a HD4850 video card.
I would first try reseating the card and see if that makes any difference. Reseat- with the PC powered off, open the case and remove the Video card, then reinstall making sure it's fully and correctly reseated.
Although I like the System Restore, if the BIOS is not detecting it, the System Restore won't help as that is for Windows.
Tekiez
4 Posts
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July 27th, 2010 07:00
I've removed the vid card several times, rebooted PC, then uninstalled/ re-installed the card several times, replaced vid card then and booted PC with DVI cable hooked up. Nothing seems to work.
WIndows simply will not recognize the vid card (device manager).
I'm wondering if it's a Power Supply failure, a Vid Card Failure, a PCIe slot failure or just a MS Update failure or maybe I just haven't heald my mouth right when i pushed the power button.
Also, I noticed once as I currently have the case open and the vid card fan gets really annoying, I physically disconnected it's PCI-Express power cable from the vid card, the fan on the Vid Card continued to roar, so it makes me think maybe it's not getting any note-able power from the Power supply, maybe the default 'wiring' on the vid card says "if you don't get power from Power supply, make fan spin at max speed to avoid overheating.
It's so frustrating, as thing thing worked fine for months, then one day it just......didn't.
Also, when I installed the MS Updates, MS creates a Restore point. I have tried returning to that restore point, and the vid card is still non-responsive, yet fan is continually zipping along.
DELL-Chris M
Community Manager
Community Manager
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54.2K Posts
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July 27th, 2010 07:00
Remove the 4850 video card and install the original Dell video card with that Thermaltake power supply.
If you still have issues, the fault lies with the Thermaltake power supply.
If you do not have issues, the fault lies with the 4850.
Tekiez
4 Posts
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July 27th, 2010 08:00
The 'original' vid card is simply the onboard vid card that came with the system (the Intel G33 express), which runs just fine and doesn't require the use of the Thermaltake's PCI-e power cable.
Tekiez
4 Posts
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July 27th, 2010 15:00
I called tech support with Xfxforce.com, and they said the vid card was in fact still under warranty, so they issued me an RMA to ship it back to them. While on the phone, he told me the fan runs like that when it doesn't recieve enough power, and he said it would be nice to swap out the power supply first, to see if that was in fact the problem.
Well one trip down to the box store and I have my new higher-powered power supply installed (Antec Earthwatts 650). When I turn on the computer, the same symptoms persist (card has no video output, and fan is running at max speed).
I don't know if it's the vid card or PCI slot or both. Maybe another trip down there to buy another PCIe Vid card and test it will do the trick. If it works, then the card is to blame. If it doesn't work, then the slot is to blame(???)