gotwacks?

Hello, all. First post here, I must confess Im quite new to troubleshooting computer problems and do not have much experience with these issues. I would appreciate any help you have to offer. Im having trouble with the graphics card Ive installed just yesterday. Heres my story:

So I received this computer from Brother in law, as they were gettin a new one. This one didnt work so well anymore they said. I used it for awhile and boy was the damn thiung slow. Finally I started to mess with the performance settings and such. Sure enough this thing was runnin at 80% CPU and 100% system RAM just sitting there idle, no programs "opened". Well there were lots and lots of bloatware programs running at windows startup so I fixed that. I ordered me up some RAM from NewEgg since the stock specs claimed it had 1gig. I installed the RAM and this thing is running great now! I had plans to plug this sucker into a newly purchased samsung LCD TV. The TV will take a standard VGA plug too, awesome. But alas, I want to take advantage of its full 1080p potential. I decide to get a video card next. The MSI N9400GT arrives and I went to install it in the PCI express slot. The box says it needs 300w minimum power supply. Dang, my presario spec sheet I downloaded says this guy is only 250w. shucks. I went online and ordered up the ATX 630w in a flash. Fast forward a lil bit and Im installing the power supply( a little intimidating for someone who has up til now known diddly about computers, let alone unplug parts inside them) as well as the new video card. I did a little research and it sounded like I could just snap that sucker in and away we go. The manual mentioned needing the SPDIF cord to the motherboard, but my mobo doesnt have those pins. I read a few forums that said it was just for sound, I figured if I had to I would get a soundcard from Santa, christmas is coming up after all...

anyways this thing isn't working like I thought it would... the resolution sucks through an HDMI cable to my TV. the screen gets slightly smaller, the resolution wont go over like 1024x800, what the hell? I tried going through the VGA cable and what do you know, I can get 1600x1200 resolution, but no HD, which was somewhat the point, along with the much needed RAM capabilities of the vid card itself, allowing me to watch HULU and Netflix with no freezing, choppiness, etc..

It is also doing some other weird things like wont play DVD's now, I get an error about needing to make the resolution smaller. Confusing though, Vista was letting me take the resolution up to 1920x1080 before the new video card. Thing would freeze up when streaming hulu and such though.

I am trying to download MSI Live Update but not having much luck. does anybody have any suggestions? Im a complete noob. System specs:(bulleted are the upgrades Ive made so far, nothing serious just basics)

Compaq Presario SR5030NX Desktop
Pentium4 641 (C) HT 3.2 GHz, 800 MHz front side bus


Socket 775

Chipset: Intel 945GC

Motherboard: ECS 945GCT-HM
HP/Compaq motherboard name: Livermore-GL6

* 2GB PC2-4300 DDR2 RAM
160gb hard drive
* ATX 630WPS PSU
* MSI N9400GT MD512 vid card
Vista 32bit home basic
Im runnin AVG 9.0


Should I return this graphics card and get another one? I bought it mostly for the native HDMI plug it has and the reviews on NewEgg were pretty good... Is it a driver issue? BIOS issue? Is it because of the SPDIF plug thing? I feel like I should be able to get as good of grphics as before(if not better) and gain the ability to stream videos better and get true HD to the LCD. Help!

Thanks,
gotwacks

emosun

This machine sounds like it simply needs a reinstall of the os and your simply "bandaiding" the problem by adding more hardware.

I can try to help you get the computer running smoothly and displaying the proper resolution on the tv. But note , with only a pentium 4 this machine doesn't have enough cpu power to actually run 1080p movies via the internet or locally. You need a decent high end dual or any quad to get HD running decently. HD video requires a lot of cpu power.

What I'll need is the make and model 630w power supply you bought. Also the make and model samsung lcd.

gotwacks?

thank you! I didnt realize I would need dual or quad core for HD, crappy.

My TV is a samsung 40" 530 series, brand new just got it from costco like 2 weeks ago. you can see specs here:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product...ang=en-US&Sp=C

the power supply is this one:

http://www.atxpowersupplies.com/630-...WPS-ATX-350S-H

I am thinking about buying a copy of windows 7, will that help at all? I do not have any recovery disks or vista install disks.

dai

the psu is low quality you need to be up here

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...corsair%2b550w

on both of my samsung hdtv the computer has to go through the vga port according to the manual