New video card won't work need help!!!!!!

I just purchased a new video card the BFG 7800gs card. I followed the directions and first updated the bios on the pc then deleted the driver of the old card. Then after taking the card out I put the new card in. When I powered the pc up I see the blue light of the card and can hear it running. The monitor stays black and does not do anything. With the first card before I took it out it worked then with the new card it did not work but when I put the old card back in it still worked. Its a dell 4300 and I have a 300watt power supply. The card says it wants a 400watt though.

 

well theres your problem, no power = no video. Go and purchase a better power supply. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 550-620 watts.

 

It seemed to power the card though it was spinning the fan and the blue light came on. If I ran duel power supplys the 300 watt just to the video card and another 145 watt to the rest of the pc do you think it will power the card?

 

How are you planning on turning on the second power supply? Its not a good idea. Just do yourself a favor and go buy a 550watt ps. btw just because the lights and the fans go on doesn't mean it has enough power.

 

I would just use one power supply the 300 watt into just the video card then the other 145 watt power supply I have to the rest of the computer. Do you think just as an experiment would a 300 watt power supply power just the video card?

The case would be open and one power supply would sit on top of the case.

 

Yeah, but your problem is you have no way of turning on the power supply not connected to the motherboard. Also I'm not sure how safe it is to have two power sources. Just man up and buy a better one. Quit beating around the bush. You need to buy a new ps, end of discussion.

 

The 145W Small size PSUs that come with Dell Optiplexes probably aren't good enough to run your current PC anyway, hence it coming with a 300W power unit. You will need a more powerful unit, and do yourself a favour, don't buy a cheap one, or you'll end up with more trouble, a LOT more trouble.
If you're in the US, I'd recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128002

 

The 300 watt power supply is an after market. The power supply the dell came with is a 250 peak watt but ran at 150watt. I switched it out and I dont have the 250 anymore. The 300 watt power supply has an on off switch. The 145 watt does not have a on off switch. I also found another 200watt power supply from a really really really old computer(it has turbo mode) with an on off switch but I don't know if it works yet.

 

The 200watt works I ran the 200 watt just to the video card and the 300 to the rest of the computer but it still does not work.

I have another computer an hp with a 400 watt power supply so im going to try that one next.

 

The 400watt did not work because it did not have enought amps. I'm buying a new power supply a 500watt with 28 amps. I need a 400watt and 20 amps for the card. The power supply is a DYNAPOWER USA EP-50X.C563-BX ATX12V. from newegg http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817255010

Do you think this will work with the card? its a BFG 7800gs

 

Yeah It should work great.

 

It should work alright, but I can never recommend the use of cheap power supplies...

 

It got good reviews and my pockets aren't large after getting the card.

 

Good reviews are nothing on newegg, they're usually posted shortly after the item is purchased. They never give the rating they're quoted for and often damage your hardware. No matter how good a cheap Power supply seems, I can't name one case when a cheap power supply has worked happily ever after.

 

I'm going to get this one and ill post back how it works when I get it.

 

Fair enough, good luck though mate, you'll probably need it.

 

Actually...i may pick up one of those Hipers for myself...that thing looks sick!!!

Thanks for the link sammorris

 

I got the new power supply pluged it in powered it up and the power supply is working fine but still no images are coming up on my monitor. I called BFG and they said exchange the card its probally defective. I just took the new card out and put my old card back in and noticed that the old ati 16mb rage card has 3 places were it connects to the agp slot were the new card only has 2 slots. Both fit in I don't know if that has anything to do with it. The old card is in and the computer is working fine right now. Do you think I have a defective card?

 

Does one of the three place not have any metal on it? I'm speaking about of the card itself.

 

It has 3 metal parts the old one and the new one has 2 metal parts.