Hello. This process has been an exercise in 1 step forward, 2 steps back... So let me take a step back and explain the problem.
I have a dinosaur of a machine, the eMachines T6520. It comes with a MS-7145 motherboard, and uses Phoenix BIOS.
I recently got an ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. However as long as it is plugged into the PCI Express slot I get no video signal and it doesn't even seem like my computer is booting up, though it's hard to tell from sound alone. If I disconnect the card then it works fine again. It doesn't seem to matter if I connect the VGA cable to the integrated card or directly to the dedicated graphics card, and it doesn't seem to matter if I disable the integrated card in Device Manager or not, with the exception that one time when I did that I got no video whatsoever even with the card disconnected after Windows XP finished loading.
About the only things I have not tried are:
Disabling the integrated card in BIOS. I don't see any such option there. There was one for primary graphics display, which I set to PCI Express with no change.
Attempting to update the BIOS. Given the risks, it's not something I want to try without professional help.
The power supply. Most people, including the ones I bought it from said that it would be fine but some said 300W wasn't enough. It also says 300W and 480W in different places.
I have no idea which is the case. It doesn't seem to be booting but the power light is on and the fans are rotating. I think it's most likely one of the first two as it does seem the most likely that the problem is a compatibility problem between a PCI Express 2.1 card and a PCI Express 1.0 slot.
I have a dinosaur of a machine, the eMachines T6520. It comes with a MS-7145 motherboard, and uses Phoenix BIOS.
I recently got an ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card. However as long as it is plugged into the PCI Express slot I get no video signal and it doesn't even seem like my computer is booting up, though it's hard to tell from sound alone. If I disconnect the card then it works fine again. It doesn't seem to matter if I connect the VGA cable to the integrated card or directly to the dedicated graphics card, and it doesn't seem to matter if I disable the integrated card in Device Manager or not, with the exception that one time when I did that I got no video whatsoever even with the card disconnected after Windows XP finished loading.
About the only things I have not tried are:
Disabling the integrated card in BIOS. I don't see any such option there. There was one for primary graphics display, which I set to PCI Express with no change.
Attempting to update the BIOS. Given the risks, it's not something I want to try without professional help.
The power supply. Most people, including the ones I bought it from said that it would be fine but some said 300W wasn't enough. It also says 300W and 480W in different places.
I have no idea which is the case. It doesn't seem to be booting but the power light is on and the fans are rotating. I think it's most likely one of the first two as it does seem the most likely that the problem is a compatibility problem between a PCI Express 2.1 card and a PCI Express 1.0 slot.