Problems with a Zotac 8800gt in a Dell

[ASHGOON]

Hey all

I'm having problems getting my Dell 530 setup with a new 8800gt. Its nearly there, but I put in a new 650w silverstone psu and am now trying to install a zoltan 8800gt graphics card - only problem is, it just won't recognise it. the card is powering up and have connected it up with additional power, its spinning away, but not recognised in windows.

because the Dell bios is quite restrictive, i've tried disabling the onboard graphics via device manager and then installing the card and powering up - still not working. if i then put the cable back into the onboard, its still working quite happily (although shown as disabled in device manager). concerned that it doesn't even recognise it, would have thought that would have been automatically detected as new hardware.

is this likely to be a duff card, or or is it likely to be just an update of the bios of the board - only bought the pc 3 months ago and the bios is pretty up to date (think its sept 07 - haven't checked if there is a later version).

any ideas?? thx in advance.

 

[singingigo]

Hmmm...I work on those Dells a lot...I know there is a setting in the Dell menu, but the default is to auto select pci-e or onboard. You can toggle it to force PCI-e mode, but if that doesn't do it, I would say this issue is most likely with the card itself. The fact that it is not auto detecting inside windows has to be a concern.

 

[roadrunner197069]

You definately need to get into bios to make it work.

 

[delluser1]

You definately need to get into bios to make it work.

No you don't, as was explained by singingigo the setting in the bios is Auto select by default and does not require the user to do anything when installing a new card.
There are many users of the same machine who have upgraded with EVGA, XFX and other brand 8800GT's without problems.

 

[rosu9801]

Sad to say, that lots of Dell and especially Lenovo computer HW aren't recognized by windows when you do a clean install.
The trick is to have the drivers nearby on a USB memory or something.
You said Bios was up to date what about your GPU drivers?

 

[roadrunner197069]

No you don't, as was explained by singingigo the setting in the bios is Auto select by default and does not require the user to do anything when installing a new card.
There are many users of the same machine who have upgraded with EVGA, XFX and other brand 8800GT's without problems.

If its set to auto and it detects onboard first then you wont get to use the new card. Its not hard to manually put it at pcie to rule it out.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Although I don't have a dell, on my Biostar board, it's the auto setting. I just have to make sure the automatic setting is on and then plug in my card. IE, if it's set to automatic, it should pick up his 8800 first.

 

[ASHGOON]

thx for the replies guys. it is set to auto already.

as stated, my main concern now is that i've tried it in another machine with a pci slot and the same things happens - powers but nothing else, no display at all. this machine has a 7900gs and when i put that back in all is ok.

and re the drivers - is there any point to having drivers available when the bios/windows can't see it? installing drivers isn't going to achieve anything is it?

thx again all.
rang zotac support who were really helpful - not! said it could be a compatibility issue, but not sure - best to talk to your supplier!!

before i go down this road, how can i test that this isn't just a compatibility issue - could it be that the 2 m/b's can't support it? is there any way i can prove this?

 

[kpo6969]

At the boot screen F2 it, and dis-able the on-board graphics
Or the problem may be psu compatibilty.
Or the card is DOA.
Just my 2 cents
I run a Dell E521 and an eVGA 8800GT SC and ran into no installation issues.
Good luck