I don't know which Dell you have, but you can start here at PC Power and Cooling:

PCPower and Cooling

I bought one from here and just installed it, and it works fine. This is one of the recommened sites. It would help if you would
post your type of Dell you have so others may help you. This is the only site I know, so wait and get advice from others also.

There are several places to buy power supplies, not sure about Dell selling them.

Barb

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@bpa2be wrote:

Does anyone know if Dell will sell me an upgraded power supply?  I believe the problems I am having with my new video card are due to an inadequate power supply.

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bpa2be:

It would help others to try to help you if you would supply more computer info, i.e., model, video card, etc...:smileywink:

Review past forum postings for more information, utiilizing the forum search function, located at the lower left hand side of the forum page.

Happy holidays,:smileyhappy:

B4runo

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DIMM 4400
BIOS – A06, date 6/12/02
Win XP Home Edition, SP2
Pentium-4 2.8 GHz, 400MHz FSB, 512K L2
1 GB DDR SRAM PC2100
80GB WD 7200RPM, 200GB WD 7200RPM EIDE/ATA HDDs
Iomega 80GB USB 2.0 External HDD
Pioneer DVR-109BK, Samsung DVD-ROM SD-616R
Leadtek GeForce 6600 GT 128MB DDR 8X AGP
17”, 1702FP Digital Flat Panel Display
PCP&C Turbo-Cool 425 Deluxe Dell PSU
SIIG US2275 USB 2.0 / 1394a / NIC PCI card

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Courteous Dell Community Forum members search first, then post.

Dell will most likely tell you that you cannot upgrade your power supply because it will fry your motherboard. You will have to by from a retailer. Give us your system model with specs and your video card, something like my signature.

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________
Dimension 8200 (July 2002)
3.06Ghz P4 w/HT 533fsb---------------------------------------768mb pc800 rdram
128mb BFG GeForce 6800oc (16 pipes enabled)--------Dell 250W PSU
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS -------------------------------------Logitech Z-5300E 5.1 THX
P992 19" Flat Screen Monitor----------------------------------Floppy Drive
40X CD-RW--------------------------------------------------------80GB Ultra ATA HD
Intel 10/100M PCI Network Card--------------------------------USB 2.0 Hub

Don't worry about it.  I am through with trying to get this video card to work.  It's been a whole week of being online with Dell tech support, and NOTHING they tell me works.  I know there is nothing wrong with the card, so it must be a compatibility issue with my system.  So, I am going to drive to the nearest BESTBUY and return the card.

I spoke with another Dell tech support rep today, and asked what video cards are compatible with my system.  The guy replied "The NVIDIA GeForce 6800 PCI-E 256MB is the only card that will work on your system."  Somehow, after the week of #@$! I have gone through, I believe him.  Can you believe this, though?  I will never buy another Dell computer again.

FYI, my system is:

Dell Dimension 4700

P IV 3.0Ghz, 800 FSB

512 MB DDR RAM

Intel 82915G Express onboard video

15" Flat panel display

...and I HAD an ATI Radeon X700 Pro 256MB PCI-E.

Too bad you didn't check the forum before getting the X700PRO. Many, many folks have found a compatibility problem with that card and the D4700. Your PC will take almost any other card. Anyway, the 6800 is a much better card.

I've seen a lot of messages against using the ATI Radeon cards in the 4700s in these forums. I went through this nightmare myself tonight. A little research revealed that the solution was to upgrade the BIOS. The A09 BIOS for the 4700 is in the file D4700A09.EXE and worked like a charm. No need for a new power supply, so don't spend another dime and don't return it. The card just works and is detected automatically if you have the video set to Auto in the BIOS. Good luck!

Message Edited by shokk on 12-30-2005 08:58 PM

FYI...I just bought an GeForce 6800GS and then realized I needed to upgrade my power supply too. The Dell power supply om my E510 didn't have the minimum power requirements or the connections I needed.  I have successfully upgraded both the video and power supply, but it took a little longer and was a little more complicated than I expected.  Thankfully, these community forums provide a lot of good information if you take the time to search for it. 

I wouldn't bother with Dell Tech Support for any upgrade advice.  They are pretty much useless.

So, did you upgrade your power supply because your card wouldn't work, or because you thought you needed it based on the specs?  I have been reading posts that say you really don't need more power because Dell's way of measuring power is different from the norm, or something like that.  I am looking at getting a GS, so it is important that I find out if I need a new PSU.

The 6800GS requires a 6-pin PCI Express power connection, which I don't have.  The card also came with an adaptor, however, that allows you to use two x 4-pin molex connectors instead of the 6-pin connector if necessary.  Unfortunately, my Dell power supply only has a total of two x 4-pin molex connectors, and one is going to the CD/DVD drive, so that only leaves me with one spare connector. 

I have a 305 watt power supply, and the card requires 350 watts, so that was reason number two.  I'm not sure about how Dell measures their power compared to everyone else, but I have read enough messages in the upgrade forum to see that some people are having video card problems due to lack of power.  It could be that they have older systems and lower wattage power supplies, but since I didn't have the ability to plug in the card to try it out, I went for the upgrade.

I purchased an OCZ ModStream 450 watt power supply, and it was a tight fit, but it's working fine in my E510.  My Video card is the Evga GeForce 6800GS.  Both were purchased from NewEgg.

One more comment - I can hear some fan noise now, probably from the small, high rpm, GPU fan.  Not enough to be annoying, just enough to be noticable, where as the original power supply and on-board graphics were completely silent.  It's a small price to pay for the increase in performance!