Dell Dimension 4600C no video

kidw/32+systems · Post by **kidw/32+systems** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:19 pm

Well I got this for free and its a P4 so I was happy till I test it and it has no video output. Everything is connected properly. The only odd thing is I didn't get a HDD with it so I stuck one in there with Win98 on it. Any suggestions? Do I have to replace the MB or just get a special video card? What are the expansion ports on it called?

EDIT: I geuss I shouldn't have typed this up late last night.

kidw/32+systems · Post by **kidw/32+systems** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:43 pm

Can anyone at least tell me the name of the expansion slots and if it is possible to have a video card in it?

dshacker · Post by **dshacker** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:03 pm

well if you have a dell, you can't put another HDD in it unless it has the dell xp bios, unless the computers a lot older, but I highly doubt it, and the video is the blue port that has the monitor connect to it. Any other things, the expansion ports are used for pci cards, they could be network cards, video cards, and a lot other things as well. Take a pic of the back of the card slot area, it looks like its a bit indented and has silver running across it.

Post by **bicostp** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:44 pm

dshacker wrote:well if you have a dell, you can't put another HDD in it unless it has the dell xp bios

<img src="http://www.skytroniks.com/images/databa ... s/wtaw.gif">

Do you have any idea what you're talking about?

There is no such thing as a "dell xp bios". Newer BIOS revisions fix problems, but are lettered and numbered. (For example, our old OptiPlex GX1 is running A10.) Dell made some pretty stupid moves with not adopting ATX standards, but at least they conformed to basic busses. I've swapped drives out on our GX1. Old used ones, brand new ones out of the box, and none of them had any problems. (Aside from that one that made a grinding noise.)

kidw/32+systems, I think that computer might be set to ignore the onboard video hardware. (I'm not sure if this is possible with all of them, but it is on some.) You might need to get a hold of an AGP or PCI video card to see if that's the problem.

Can you see the Dell logo on startup at all?

That 98 install might boot, but I wouldn't use it permanently. Can you hear the drive chugging like it's loading Windows?

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:46 pm

A good picture of inside the computer would help, since Dell is stupid and makes their computers incompatible with almost everything and theirs little information on them because every model is different.

EDIT:

bicostp wrote:Can you hear the drive chugging like it's loading Windows?

Just remember that it always makes the access "clicks" when you first start up, no matter what it's connected to. So if it's still clicking after about 10-15 seconds, it's loading Windows

kidw/32+systems · Post by **kidw/32+systems** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:00 am

Its kind of hard to tell if the HDD is spining with the fan but I don't think it is loading windows. Nothing comes on screen and I know it works and is on.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:28 pm

From what I can tell from those tiny pictures, it looks like it has an AGP slot. With a flat computer, you might need a low profile card.

Post by **Sparkfist** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 11:21 pm

Well first I'd like to say this, 98 wasn't meant to run on something like a P4. That being said the Dells at my college campus require a 98 graphics driver to do anything with those Dells and the video card's in them. So I would suggest trying to use something like a Linux distro (live-CD), that way you can see if the graphics card is even working, and if it is check for any other bad hardware times during bootup. However if you still don't get a screen best thing to do then would be to replace the graphics card. Even if the graphics card is good it can still act up (I have a G3 to prove that point), so be sure to test it with an alternative card and see if you get video that way.

Good luck.

kidw/32+systems · Post by **kidw/32+systems** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:46 pm

Well I do have a XP upgrade CD but I can't find so I will try to install that on the drive. Sorry about the pics being tiny I forgot to uncheck the resize. Once I'm sure it works I will probably throw Linuix/Unix on it to try them out.

Thanks