Hi everyone, I'm looking to upgrade my neighbor's video card in their Inspiron 620 (Full sized Desktop).
The reason is to enable the use of 3 monitors (not looking for eyefinity or gaming support, just extended desktop across 3 monitors). I did some research and found that Radeon 5400 series cards should be able to support 3 at a time (https://support.amd.com/en-us/search/faq/151)
So, we purchased this, thinking it would be fine: http://amzn.com/B007B5YUMQ
I received the box, and it said that it supported one or two displays. I figured that's fine, there's built-in D-Sub on the mobo and I can use DVI / HDMI from the add-on card for the other two displays.
I connected the vid card and the system wouldn't post. I re-seated the card, made sure things were tight and tried several more times. Never got a beep or a post on any of the monitors, even if I had the monitor plugged into the on-board video. As soon as I hit the power button, the system would shut off so I know it wasn't actually booting properly.
So after reading the box and seeing that it recommended a 400w power supply, I brought the card over to my house to test in my system. Card startup up just fine so I knew the card worked.
I yanked a 450w power supply from one of my old systems and plugged it into the Dell. It worked fine so I tried putting the card back in, and again I got the same no beep, no post no nothing issue.
I pulled one stick of RAM and tried again, still nothing. Pulling out both sticks, I got beep error codes but still nothing on screen.
I started Googling around and saw people stating that Dell locks their BIOS down so that only some video cards / manufacturers can be used. Since I've been building systems myself for a long time, I forgot that you might need a certain brand in order to make an OEM computer work with an off-the-shelf video card, but I refuse to believe it.
Anyone know of something else I can try to make this card work, or a comparable one that I can buy instead? Oh, BIOS rev is latest as well, A10.
Thanks!
The reason is to enable the use of 3 monitors (not looking for eyefinity or gaming support, just extended desktop across 3 monitors). I did some research and found that Radeon 5400 series cards should be able to support 3 at a time (https://support.amd.com/en-us/search/faq/151)
So, we purchased this, thinking it would be fine: http://amzn.com/B007B5YUMQ
I received the box, and it said that it supported one or two displays. I figured that's fine, there's built-in D-Sub on the mobo and I can use DVI / HDMI from the add-on card for the other two displays.
I connected the vid card and the system wouldn't post. I re-seated the card, made sure things were tight and tried several more times. Never got a beep or a post on any of the monitors, even if I had the monitor plugged into the on-board video. As soon as I hit the power button, the system would shut off so I know it wasn't actually booting properly.
So after reading the box and seeing that it recommended a 400w power supply, I brought the card over to my house to test in my system. Card startup up just fine so I knew the card worked.
I yanked a 450w power supply from one of my old systems and plugged it into the Dell. It worked fine so I tried putting the card back in, and again I got the same no beep, no post no nothing issue.
I pulled one stick of RAM and tried again, still nothing. Pulling out both sticks, I got beep error codes but still nothing on screen.
I started Googling around and saw people stating that Dell locks their BIOS down so that only some video cards / manufacturers can be used. Since I've been building systems myself for a long time, I forgot that you might need a certain brand in order to make an OEM computer work with an off-the-shelf video card, but I refuse to believe it.
Anyone know of something else I can try to make this card work, or a comparable one that I can buy instead? Oh, BIOS rev is latest as well, A10.
Thanks!
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