Installed Graphics Card Failure

2

I just bought a refurbished Radeon HD 4650

My power supply says 250w and according to the Radeon website - "400 Watt or greater power supply (550 Watt for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode) is recommended"

I didn't notice this until I ran into problems and started looking for a solution (bad approach I Know...) Anyway, I installed it and this image is what I get for a short time before the blue screen.

enter image description here

So my question is, will upgrading my power supply likely fix this issue? Or is this caused by something else. Thanks!

Meowbits

Posted 2012-05-24T13:12:30.180

Reputation: 135

What computer do you have? – Shevek – 2012-05-24T13:17:29.847

2Lucky for you, the power supply is one of the cheapest and easiest things to replace/test. – kobaltz – 2012-05-24T13:26:36.747

It is a dell studio 540 slim – Meowbits – 2012-05-24T14:14:24.083

Answers

2

You aren't going to be able to find out if the card is functioning properly if you are never supplying it with the required power. The results of underpowering a card can be artifacts, no display, visuals like you are showing, and sometimes even appearing to work fine until you put a load on the card where you get crashes. etc. But if there is a problem with the card, you'll never know it if you can't meet the requirements. And by "you'll never know" I mean the card will always appear to have issues while your power supply is too small.

WILL upgrading your power supply fix the issue? No Idea. In fact, no one out here can know if it WILL fix your issue. But, until you get a 400 watt power supply, you will never know if it is the cause or not. You will need to upgrade your power supply to eliminate it as a suspect.

EDIT after seeing your comment about having a Dell Studio Slim (540s) you will need to look for a TFX power supply for that unit. Something like this one, or this one. I actually pulled the link for the first one out of the Dell Support Forums.

Bon Gart

Posted 2012-05-24T13:12:30.180

Reputation: 12 574

@Meowbits this way, at the very least, if there proves to be an issue with the current card, you will have the power supply to use with a replacement. Although, the type of computer you have does change the price range of the replacement possibilities... as well as the number of PSU replacement possibilities. – Bon Gart – 2012-05-24T14:17:07.353

Right, it will be needed either way. Appreciate the reply. – Meowbits – 2012-05-24T14:20:58.613

@Meowbits added a bit to the answer for you – Bon Gart – 2012-05-24T14:31:59.333

Asked: 2012-05-24T13:12:30.180

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Active: 2012-05-24T14:33:46.427