I'm stuck!

[goncrazi]

I would love to know if anyone else has had this problem and if they got around it, I'd love to know how.

I bought a Ti4200 card for my HP Pavillion and as many of you know, the GeForce 4 cards require a 300-350W power supply. I didn't know what HP put in my machine so I called them up and (finally) found out that it has only a 200W power supply. I checked for a PSU at a local computer shop but was told none of theirs would fit because HP makes theirs proprietary (assamably to fit in the case. At that point, I called HP back and asked how much an upgrade PSU was and they told me they could only sell me a replacement part not an upgrade, meaning I was stuck with a 200W unit. I mentioned the possiblity of buying a different one and "fixing it" somehow to work in my system and the HP tech said that I would run the risk of frying the mobo and other parts if I did. (I still don't think that's right, but anyway...)

What I don't get is that the PC is only about a year old and the "high end" video cards of that time required more power than HP's providing, so why would they not put more power in them? Grrrr!

Has anyone else discovered this problem and have any of you found a way around it?

Thanks!

 

[Teq]

It appears you now know why so many people advise against purchasing HP or Compaq computers.

Best I can advise is that you sell the thing and pick up one built to standards (i.e. with replaceable/upgradeable parts) from a reputabe local shop... or better still, do the homework and build your own.





--->It ain't better if it don't work<---

 

[lhgpoobaa]

no... only dell makes truly propriatary power supplies where the connectors are completely incompatible with normal ATX.

though it may be that a normal atx psu wont fit in your case or the screw holes are in different places etc...

anything to get you to buy EXPENSIVE replacements from them.

So what you can do is get rid of the dumb case, and construct a standard ATX computer where everything is nice and compatible.

<b>Damn War! I'm too young to watch other people die!</b>
<A HREF="http://members.iinet.net.au/~lhgpoobaa/images" target="_new">My Images!</A>

 

[TKH]

I'm not sure about HP but for Compaq, you can purchase PSU brand "Logic" for it. Or you can just get another case with 350W PSU and put everything from your HP inside, this won't void your warranty if you keep the original case and put them back once you have to send back for servicing. You don't need a fancy or expensive one, any normal generic case + psu will run better then your HP.

You never know how stupid you are until you have done something stupid enough for you to realize it.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[goncrazi]

I'm a Canon printer rep and I hate everything HP, so I never would have bought the HP had I not gotten such an outstanding deal on it. I only paid $300 for it and the shelf price was $1300. Kinda hard to pass up.

I have thought about buying an ATX case and transferring the parts, but I have no guarantee that I will not run into more propriety parts and actually feel certain I will. *sighs*

Anyway, thanks to each of you for your responses. I'm currently trying to guilt HP into at least finding a way for me to buy a part from them. Wish me luck! ;-)

 

[upec]

The connection on motherboard that need to be connect to the case might also be proprietary.

 

[svol]

I think it is an MiniATX PSU... atleast I repaired an HP Pavillion once and it had one.

And maybe someone has experience with this but I think your PSU is underrated (which is mosty done with MiniATX PSUs, the ones in those mini Barebones are also 200W and can work with the latest videocards) and that it would run without problems with a Ti4200. Can you tell me which max amps are written on the PSU lable?

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on