(Resolved) Vostro 200 Integrated graphics issue - DirectX

Power Supply Most Often Asked Question......

Dell's power supply is normally underrated, to read the mean average. Reason for this is that Dell wants to be on the conservative side for those that may over do things with their systems. The peak is much higher, and a Dell system can handle many cards that the card manufactures suggest a higher required power supply. Card manufactures list a higher wattage number than is really necessary for their cards, to be more liberal for those individuals that overload their systems with additional hard drives, optical drives, pci slots filled up. This is normally not for those that have a stock system.


This has been an ongoing topic for many years, with the same answer on this forum. Your systems stock power supply will handle many cards just fine. Others have this same system, same power supply and upgraded their cards without issues.  You will notice on this forum that this question has been asked on a daily basis.

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Cards you can install without a power supply upgrade...

 

1.  Lower ended but a good performer  7600 GT PCI-Express

 

2.  Better performer will be the 7900 GT

 

3.  Better still would be the 7950 GT

 

4.  If you want a directx 10 card, than the 8600 GTS card would be a nice choice

 

Dell systems are at times very finicky about the memory you install as an after market.  Unknown which brand you got or how much you paid but many of use long termers us www.crucial.com for our memory upgrades since they do hand hold you in the process in finding the correct memory for your Vostro system.

 

You will need a 6 pin molex power cable if you go with the 7900 GT  7950 GT or 8600 GTS card. 

 

6 pin molex connector, which eliminates the need to connect two 4 pin power connectors and only need to connect one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201004

Or…..

A link to an adaptor to convert those unused SATA connectors on your PSU to the 4-pin Molex connector instead.

http://www.performancepcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=164&products_id=20580

 Before you buy the new and more powerful power supply for your Vostro. I know the motherboard runs much smoother by using the all same modules 1GB, 1GB, 1GB, and 1GB for the four sockets of DIMM's/XIMM's. It should solve the problem that you are facing from PC that freeze its video game played. Believe me it will stop doing the problem.

Thanks for the feedback. I did read the other posts about upgrading video cards, but thanks for summing it up here. It's nice to have a list to choose from right in my post :) That is my backup plan if stabilization fails for integrated. Dell certainly is conservative. The less they have to support for a couple of up front dollars saves them a lot. I've never had a stability problem with a Dell, well until this integrated video chipset issue, and I've loaded them to the teeth with cards and drives.

 

Also, thank you for the memory config suggestion. That was one of test goals, it's just getting the the additional "like" DIMMs with which I can test. I would preferring testing before shelling out another $60 for 2GB only to find out that it still crashes with integrated video and my 32-bit XP only uses 3GB-3.5GB of the 4GB anyway; part of the reason I choose 3GB as my magic number. Still trying to come up with a machine that I can temporarily pilage.

 

OK, tried the previously posted suggestion of same memory for both pairs and it still locks up the box while playing a DirectX game (COH). So, 4x1GB 5-5-5-15 won't stabilize the machine any more so than the previous 3GB configuration; 2x1GB + 2x512MB.What was even worse was the machine only recognized 3GB of the new 4GB setup running 32-bit windows. Grins all around :)

 

Well, unless intel or Dell fix the problem with BIOS or graphics driver update, unlikely since I appear to be the only interested in running DirectX games on an integrated graphics chip, it looks I'll be shopping for a new PCI-e card.

 

If anyone has any further input about this issue, it would be greatly appreciated!

Problem resolved. For some reason, I never took the wireless USB dongle out of the testing question; lack of wired connections in my office. DirectX/Intel, graphically speaking, was not the problem. The Microsoft WHQL drivers for the Hawking USB wireless card in combination with the system configuration of 4 occupied memory slots caused period failures only while running an intense DirectX application. Oh what a tangled web we weave. The Vostro 200 now runs great on 3GB of memory (4slots filled) even while playing COH/COV.

 

Especially now that I have the external XBOX360 USB HD-DVD drive with which to play.

 

Thanks to all who contributed with ideas.

 Oh then the problem is solved by removing the USB Dongle and the different and more powerful graphic and video PCI-Express card were tools as well as simple PC testing by removing the add on hardware down to basic Voltrox and your diagnostic were problem removal so that your PC notebook is working in excellent condition. Well, good for you. The 4 times 1 gigabytes modules were made as part of the task and but nothing good came out. Then your Voltrox was return back to 3GB system memory. Well, in some case, I have misunderstood you because I thought that there was no USB dongle in your Voltrox but it was my guess and I did guess it wrong.

I probably did forget to mention that in the first post; I basically forgot that it was back there after a while. I also did not mention the USB mouse and keyboard, since I felt that any of those USB drivers would not likely lock up the system at the level that I experienced; especially WHQL drivers for the wireless card provided from Microsoft. I had at one time dragged the network cable from the printer to this machine after removing the wireless adapter in one of the many stripped down testing attempts. I was probably blinded by the fact that I was sure that the video lock was a directx video or sound issue, but I neglected to take into conideration that DirectX probably has a network component as well. A little narrow minded since so many drivers now run at ring 0 for preformance reasons. It's remotely possible that removing, moving, and reseating the memory the 18th time was the charm to finally make full contact for all four modules; although I doubt that. I will have to make one more test with the wireless USB card plugged in just to confirm. So far, it's been quite a few days of failure-free gaming. So a test now would confirm. I'll try that tonight. 

  I am not able to resolve and help me, I am not very expert on Vostro and some electronic wizards did try to upgrade the Vostro PC's power supply with 400 watts and replacing the Vostro's 300 watts. Assume , to the guess I am guessing is the point is if the power supply is a switching unit which means it act like a circuit breaker and whenever there is an overload because of add-in cards and many more RAM's. It seems to a common sense that the original configuring of the Vostro was that it has designed to accept the basic set up of hardware as like this original Vostro but at least when a person did add in extra loads such as video card or software and it tends to use more power. It can jump to a power "OFF for temporarily then it was back to the last state of software's application called Return to power "ON" immediately depends on the BIOS where you press for either stay "OFF" right after the power surge or black out and another check box option is return to the last state also named as Turn it "ON" again after the power cut-off because of telephone power line fell and broken the connection.

  About the PC health and overheat prevention, you did set the temperature at 50 degree Celsius so it will shut off if it goes beyond the 50 C in CPU's heat with its Pentium 4 Hyperthreading or higher costs called Intel Confidential mobile processor. It sounds good as long it is water cooled with running fan. Usually, it works with 5 degree or 10 degree higher than the actual temperature of the CPU.

  I came to tell you for a real reason, it is about the Video card stability test. May I have it so it may be download to my folder called "My Download" and I would be running my ATI video card with this test because it took me three time turn power "OFF" and "ON" including at the back-switch the power supply to an "OFF" then back "ON". Then the Radeon video card has it running. I did swap the video card and it was only once to power "ON" and video monitor was normal. That is how how found out the Video card have small problem. If the video card's problem can be repair but I didn't think it will be repaired.