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[Solved] Studio xps 8100 video card issues

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I have the dell studio xps 8100 with an ati 5770 in it and I have been having problems with the card and drivers since I bought it. The display driver has stopped responding and has recovered is the error I kept getting. Updating to the latest driver package solved that issue, however in world of warcraft the game freezes for 8 to 10 seconds at a time, the screen will go gray and then it will recover. This happens every couple of minutes. I was wondering if anyone had anything like this happen to them? I was thinking the anemic power supply may be to blame, afterall ati does say that 450 watts is required and the dell only shipped with a 350 watt supply... but then I thought the engineers can't be that dumb, they must have throttled the card down to meet the power requirement.... or made some other tweaks. Anyone have any insight on what could be the problem? I am at my wits end here..... I just want to play my games. I always built my own systems and I guess i should have kept doing that..... lol I feel like buying a beefier power supply and an nvidia card.... I've had wayyyy to much trouble with the ati drivers for my taste.

Reply to trecool88

Best answer

no, they didn't throttle down the power requirement of that card, I do not think they are even allowed to do so, anyways...
the Dell power supply is actually a 350-watt LiteOn and rated very highly.
a lot of XPS 8100 are even shipped with the HD5770.
my first educated guess is that the card is probably bad.
as an alternative Dell also recommends a nVidia GTS450 card with that unit as well.
the GTS450 also calls for a 400-watt system so that's nothing to worry about.
cards that require 450-watt would be something to reconsider.

so try another video card and see how the detect/install/performance is
RMA it if you can or borrow one of your friends for a moment.
and if it's still messed up then try power supply.

Message edited by malmental on 12-16-2010 at 09:48:32 PM

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental

nVidia refers to a program that 'clean sweeps' all of it's drivers completely off the system and then upon a reboot the correct drivers (updated) are installed.
certainly there is a way to perform this act with ATi.
i never have had the need to (knock on wood..) so i do not exactly know about a possible ATi 'sweep'.

------------------------------ A+, Net+, MCDST, DSCE (Dell)
Reply to malmental