ATI All In Wonder 9800 Pro not recognized

Hello. First time post.

I have a Dell Dimension 4600 with the above card for about 4 years now. The card has had its ups and downs for sure.

My biggest headache with the card has been how it isn't recognized sometimes on a cold boot. Turn on the computer and it completely boots, but for some reason I get no video. This is a sporadic problem and I have yet to find a root cause. For the times the card does work and I get video, there are no noticeable problems, all functions work. Even warm reboots work fine.

For a while I thought it was overheating, but even after letting the card cool down for several hours, the problem still happens, sometimes. I have installed an Arctic Cool fan on the card when the OEM fan blew out.

I have a 250w power supply (original) and read somewhere that this card may need a 300w supply to run adequately. Could this be part of the problem? Only other devices installed included DVD-RW drive and sound card.

Driver version: Catalyst 6.2 as recommended by ATI for my setup and the problem. Did not help though. MMC version is 9.0.16 I believe. I've tried different drivers as well, never seemed to help and I at least feel this is a true HW issue.

Thanks for any help.

I forgot to mention your going to need a decent 450w power supply. I highly recommend getting the corsiar 450w unit from www.newegg.com

(1) As previously stated, could be unreliable power (PSU)
(2) Card could be failing.

Might try reseating the card several times, 3 to 5. Older cards ( 3 to 5 years) sometimes develop slight oxidation on the contacts, card and socket. Multiple reseating "rubs" the oxide off. Had an old ATI card that this happend to. Subsequently had to do this about once a year. At work had a rack with 10 plus cards which interfaced with rack mounted computer, every year it would be come intermittent and reseating the cards restored it to operational. Probably not your problem, but worth a try.

Is the floppy power connection plugged into the 9800 PRO?

You may need one of these, when upgrading your PSU, if what you have is proprietary:

Dell to ATX Power Supply Converter
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/ [...] lconverter

As stated before, try re-seating the Radeon 9800. Might as well clean out all the dust inside the case and on the card itself.

My Radeon 9800 Pro still works to this day. I gave it and the rest of my old PC to my cousin about 18 months ago.

nukemaster - thanks for the backup, just a side comment.

Ref pencil eraser - a no no if contacts are gold plated. I use to use a eraser, until I found out that in the long run it aggravates the problem. The pencil eraser is to abrasive and rubs the gold plating off and the base metal then oxidizes at a faster rate. They make a solution ( don't remember the name) that you put on a soft cloth. There is also a spray for where you can not get at. A "Soft gum" eraser might work.