noob installing graphics card

[Quomor]

I have a Dell Inspiron 530 slim running Vista and have acquired a cheap graphics card so I can utilise a second monitor.

It is a Nvidia Geforce GT220 128bit D2 512MB LP (and most of those numbers and letters mean nothing to me... I know what 512MB is in relation to hard drive and know the magnitude of 128bit but no idea what they actually means in real terms).

I have no idea of the power requirement of either the card, or my own individual output.

Then I plug in, the screen shows the basic Dell logo, then the BIOS notice 'Boot from CD...' but then goes blank.

I am a whiz with Excel and not bad at HTML but know absolutely zero about chipsets and bus controllers etc.

Anyone have the patience to give me a hand please ??

 

[mzw]

1.does yo pc work when u use e onboared graphics
2.have u tried that card on another machine to see if it gives same issue


3. u can try reinstalling windows

 

[Quomor]

On-board graphics is fine. In fact thats the only way to get on - with the F1 'Continue' option when I get the message regarding 'Unsupported Video Config Detected' because Ive reconnected the monitor to the onboard socket, not the add-on socket.

Im resistant to disable on-board it in case I end up with no graphics at all and no way to re-enable it if something still doesnt work.

I dont have another machine. Will have to see if a friend will let me open theirs up (and hope I dont ah heck theirs up somehow).

Reinstall windows?? Now that Im perfectly comfortable with, but its a cow reinstalling all the other progs too.

Had my 2nd monitor for a week and been waiting delivery of this card so was hoping to just plug in and go

 

[mzw]

what windows are u using....

1.get a bootable copy of windows 7
2.insert it in yo rom
3.bootup with e disc and yo moniter pugged in yo addon card
3.press esc when yo pc gives u e dell logo crap
4.boot via cd dvd rom
4.shud say press any key to boot from cd
5.might work

 

[Kisianik]

On-board graphics is fine. In fact thats the only way to get on - with the F1 'Continue' option when I get the message regarding 'Unsupported Video Config Detected' because Ive reconnected the monitor to the onboard socket, not the add-on socket.

Im resistant to disable on-board it in case I end up with no graphics at all and no way to re-enable it if something still doesnt work.

I dont have another machine. Will have to see if a friend will let me open theirs up (and hope I dont ah heck theirs up somehow).

Reinstall windows?? Now that Im perfectly comfortable with, but its a cow reinstalling all the other progs too.

Had my 2nd monitor for a week and been waiting delivery of this card so was hoping to just plug in and go

What is your on board chip AMD or NVIDIA? Did you uninstalled old drivers, it doesn't seems so judging by your responses - you must do this first prior to inserting new card! Also, disable on board GPU in Device Manager, report back.

Reinstallation of Windows might not be necessary!