Graphics card failure

Robisere

Check out Gumtree:

http://www.gumtree.com/search?q=Graphics+card&search_location=United+Kingdom&category=all&search_scope=title

That link is for whole of UK, look at LH side and find your location, for a Card near you. Do not pay more than £20 for one. If you find one or two that you fancy, come back with the links and I will take a look at them and make a recommendation.

Which model of Inspiron do you have? There are several: 530/530a/c/b/d.

This is your Manual:

http://downloads.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-530_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf?c=uk&l=en&cs=&s=gen

If you can download that on another machine, you could find out whether or not you have onboard graphics, which would prove that the problem is your card. To properly clean the card, I would not in the first instance, remove the fan. From the images of this card I have seen, it does have a chip under the fan, with copper underneath it, which would require the old thermal paste cleaning off and new applied. Use a few cotton buds with some isopropyl alcohol, to clean between the fan blades and anywhere else you can reach. Blow off as much dust as you can and replace the card to see if it works. If not, time to remove the fan and clean of the old paste, then apply new: but is it worth it? Why not find a decent second-hand card and fit it, until you can afford a better computer?

hemophobic

No model number on the back so must just be the 530. It does have on board graphics.

My graphics card is DVI so I've unplugged the monitor and plugged it in the the on board VGA. I get a message saying not configured to use it but I pressed continue and it works just the display seems to be too large for the screen.

I opened the PC up earlier and was a little dusty but the graphics card was barely dusty at all. I gave everything a clean since I was there but hasn't fixed it (didnt think it would but worth a try!).

Thanks for gum tree link I will have a look.

hemophobic

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ATI-Radeon-HD3650-High-speed-Graphics-Card-256mb-ATI-102-B38201-B-/251224770165#vi-content

I found the exact same card as mine on ebay £25

Apparantly the card which I was using required a 400w PSU and mine was 300w. It was an added option when I bought from dell so I never thought to check!

Lasted 4.5yrs though so I'm sure the PSU can handle another

Johnmcl7

Wattage isn't necessarily a good indicator of power with PSU's so the manufacturers tend to opt quite generously on the safe side with their recommendations and also Dell tend to underrate their power supplies so you'll be fine as you've said.

John

hemophobic

Well no one in Kent selling a suitable graphics card so I bought this from DABS

http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gt-620-700mhz-pci-express-hdmi-84S9.html?refs=11&src=3

It's PCI-Express 2 but was couldn't really find any 1.0.

I thought this would be better than the one from eBay since this has a 3yr warranty and is new.

Just hope it is compatible with my PC.

Buy first, ask questions later - that's my motto :rotfl:

tom15387202

It look fine. Good little card for the price.

hemophobic

Hope so I just had a horrible realisation that I never checked PSU requirements.

Turns out it needs 350W but if my old ATI needed 400W I'm sure it will be ok

tom15387202

Unfortunately, you will need to downgrade your PSU, otherwise the un-used power may cause the unit to explode.

hemophobic

Nice try. :T