HELP!!! Dell 5150 Video Upgrade Problem

[TantrumusMaximus]

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I just got one of those Dell deals: 5150 + 20" for $599

While the setup was painless out of the box... I wanted to use my spare Geforce 6800GT PCI-E board.

I realized when I orded the system and from what I read that I would need a new PS so by recommendation I bought an OCZ 450W Modstream that was said to be a perfect match for the case.

PROBLEM:
Everytime I fire up World of Warcraft and login... start to run around the world, within 5 minutes... Monitor goes blank and LED goes Amber. From another system I can not ping this system so it's definately locked up when this happens. I originally was getting that Nvidia Sentinel popup saying that there was insufficient power to the video card when using the PCI-E power connector from the PSU. So I used a dble molex > PCI-E adapter that came with the board when I bought it to use molex connectors instead. Well this resolved the Sentinel message but not the overall problem of the video blanking out.

Last night I blew away the Dell loaded OS and reburned with WinXP Pro, Same problem.

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My first thought is the PSU is bad (since the PCI-E rail was not apparentlly in spec) and am going to buy one at lunch to try out tonight.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Nobody has any ideas?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Sounds like you're having a power issue. Try board in another computer? Try PSU in another computer?

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

dbl post

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

I'm leanin psu as well because I know this vid card is rock solid. It was my main rigs card until I got the x1900xtx. Already RMA'd the PSU and am gonna pick up a psu at Compusa on the way home and try it out.

My first no brainer should have been the nVidia Sentinel reporting insufficient power on the PCI-E.

 

[Astray]

Make sure you don't have the monitor using any settings it doesn't originally support, such as a higher than rated refresh rate, or resolution.

 

[TheRyuu]

It sounds like a PSU issue as others have stated. When I saw "blacking out after 5 minutes" I also thought a heat problem but after doing some reading in the thread, I think you need a new PSU. Plus it wouldn't hurt to get one anyway just to get rid of the Dell POS one

I'd recommend a FSP or Sparkel (spelling?) one.

 

[PremiumG]

doesn't dell use proprietary PSUs?
the connectors i thought were different than standard ones

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: PremiumG
doesn't dell use proprietary PSUs?
the connectors i thought were different than standard ones

PC Power and Cooling makes very high quality replacements for Dell PC's.

 

[Powermoloch]

I'm afraid that I have to upgrade the PSU on my 5150 too (I have the same PC and screen like the OP has ). I'm planning to get a 7900GT...gosh, more upgrades again !

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Well I did put in another powersupply as stated above but chances are I got a bunk one according to the reviews at newegg there is a major concern about the QA dept. at OCZ.

I went out and picked up a cheap 500w with pci-e connector at Microcenter at lunch and will try that one out. If that still has the same prob I'll try another video board from a buddy.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

OK the power supply I bought from MicroCenter had the EXACT same problem. However the new power supply didn't complain about not enough power while using the PCI-E connector so the earlier OCZ power supply I was using above is still going back to Newegg.

Borrowing a 6800XT from friend at lunch.

If the vid card isn't it either then it may be time to call Dell.

 

[JWade]

well have you tried it with the original power supply though? You may actually be suprised about the original dell power supply. My wife has the 5100 and my daughters' system is the 5150 and i have upgraded both their video cards from the 300se it came with and have kept the original power supply in them and have no problems. I do play WoW (silverhand server) too on them occasionally.

 

[liquid51]

don't forget to check temps either. 5 minutes is a good amount of time for things to get nice and roasty.

 

[JWade]

temps is a good one, i did upgrade the heatsink inthe 5100 when i did the video card, the 5150 had a much better heatsink than the 5100 did. that may be his problem as well. even though the cases have good air flow through them. still interested if he tried it with his original power supply.

 

[liquid51]

I wasn't sure how good airflow was in that case. I guess I could've looked it up...
I recently built and amd rig in a dimension 4600 case. There was no airflow toward the bottom and the hottest running card on the face of the planet (7800gtx 512) was blistering things up in there.

Anyway, thats why I mentioned it

 

[JWade]

in my opinion the 5100/5150/9100 series, xps 400, etc have good airflow, the heatsink tot he processor has no fan, they have a duct and there is an exhaust fan at the end of the duct to pull the air out of the case over the heatsink. the front of the case and a good size opening with a fan blowing air intot he case in direct line with the processor, overall i think the airflow is better than previous models (I had a 4550 and the airflow is much better than was in it).

 

[bamacre]

Why upgrade the PSU in a 5150/E510? It should be capable of running any video card. The only barrier is the case won't allow a dual slot video card.

OP, I would go back to using the original PSU.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
I'm afraid that I have to upgrade the PSU on my 5150 too (I have the same PC and screen like the OP has ). I'm planning to get a 7900GT...gosh, more upgrades again !

Don't. The stock PSU should be just fine for a 7900 GT.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Guys the stock PSU in the 5150 that I got had "NO" extra power connectors save an extra SATA power connector. I bought mine with Dual Optical drives so both are used.

This isn't a power supply issue anymore. I contacted Dell and suprise suprise since I bought this in the Dell Business deal a couple weeks ago I had no idea that I would have overnight parts replacement service hehe sweet.

From what I told them they agreed that I had either a bad PCI-E or something else on the motherboard and sent one overnight. I should have it today.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: TantrumusMaximus
Guys the stock PSU in the 5150 that I got had "NO" extra power connectors save an extra SATA power connector. I bought mine with Dual Optical drives so both are used.

This isn't a power supply issue anymore. I contacted Dell and suprise suprise since I bought this in the Dell Business deal a couple weeks ago I had no idea that I would have overnight parts replacement service hehe sweet.

From what I told them they agreed that I had either a bad PCI-E or something else on the motherboard and sent one overnight. I should have it today.

You know, now that I think about it, you are correct. I don't know what they were thinking with this model and the PSU. The PSU in the 4700 model even had a 6pin PCIe power connector.

 

[TantrumusMaximus]

Yep. No PCI-E power on this one. So I initially bought the OCZ suggested and that actually was bum so I bought another but ended up with the same symptom.

I hope this mobo fixes it.