Need help trying to get my graphics card to work?

[Lonewolf_eyes]

Hey Everyone. Hopefully someone here can help me.
I have a Dell Dimension E520 computer, running Windows Vista business 32-bit. The graphics card that came with the comptuer (256MB GEFORCE 7300LE) gave out but my friend had a spare in his closet to give to me until I could afford a good one. It's a Nvdia Geforce 8500 GT.
The onboard graphics card has allowed me to slowly navigate my computer, but i find it tends to freeze most programs or get stuck on the waiting circle. Most things (installing the 8500 drivers etc) all has to be done in Safe Mode. But I found even with the drivers installed, the computer continues to be slow and freezing alot.
I would like to be able to run Second Life, maybe Wow and Photoshop CS4.
I tried re-installing the drivers, but now it shows the account page but when I click on it, the screen goes black with just my mouse. I can CtrlAltDelete back to the main screen with the accounts but it wont show the account itself unless in safe mode.
Someone mentioned that the reason its action like this is because my E520 doesnt have enough power, only 305watts and the 8500's minimum is 350 watts. Could this be it? Is there anything else I could possibly do?
Thanks for you help :3

 

[unknown_13]

Yes it's probably the PSU
Try with diffrent PSU's (don't buy one yet) to see if the problem is psu related

 

[Lonewolf_eyes]

*not computer savvy* PSU = power source im assuming. How can i try it with different psu's when i only ahve one?

 

[deadlockedworld]

I doubt its the PSU, but your friend would probably be able to help you try it with a different one.

It sounds more like a software issue to me. Are you certain you completely uninstalled all of your old drivers and installed the new ones correctly?

Can you post the rest of your system specs? Are you running an old Pentium 4 or Core 2? Are you sure you have the card in the appropriate PCI express or AGP slot?