New Monitor E228WFP, New Video Card too?

My 2005FPW went dead 2 years into the 3 year warranty. Dell did the advance
exchange in about 5 days total time, from the first e-mail I sent, to
getting the new unit to the doorstep, and this included a weekend.



So I decided to upgrade an old 17" CRT on a Dimension 4400. I moved the
replaced 2005FPW unit over to the 4400.



I bought a new E228WFP to put with an XPS400 I bought two years ago. After a
few days of "living with it", I like it but don't love it.



I'm not sure I can blame the new monitor though.



When I first hooked the new E228WFP to the XPS-400 with the original ATI
Radeon X600 video card., the new monitor immediately went into "powersave"
mode. The only action that would bring the computer to life was to power
cycle the computer using the front power button. Any keyboard action was
totally ignored.

Also, after reboot, when I cycled the monitor between, Auto-Select, VGA, and
DVI, it would immediately go into powersave mode, until hard power cycle
reboot.



So then I tried the new monitor (E228WFP) on the older 4400 with a
Geforce3TI200.

It worked perfectly.



So I put the new monitor back on the XPS-400. I then reinstalled the Dell
Video Driver. I had been using the retail ATI drivers.

After the reinstall of the Dell drivers, the new E228WFP works fine.



I think it is time to "upgrade " the video card.



I'm thinking an NVidia upgrade. I think anything will be an improvement over
the original ATI X600 card.



Any thoughts on this? I don't do PC gaming too much, just a very seldom
Flight Simulator X.



BTW, I haven't shared any of this with Dell. Would it do any good? I would
think their standard response would be to use ONLY Dell drivers.

"Bluegoose" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> My 2005FPW went dead 2 years into the 3 year warranty. Dell did the
> advance exchange in about 5 days total time, from the first e-mail I sent,
> to getting the new unit to the doorstep, and this included a weekend.
>
> So I decided to upgrade an old 17" CRT on a Dimension 4400. I moved the
> replaced 2005FPW unit over to the 4400.
>
> I bought a new E228WFP to put with an XPS400 I bought two years ago. After
> a few days of "living with it", I like it but don't love it.
>
> I'm not sure I can blame the new monitor though.
>
> When I first hooked the new E228WFP to the XPS-400 with the original ATI
> Radeon X600 video card., the new monitor immediately went into "powersave"
> mode. The only action that would bring the computer to life was to power
> cycle the computer using the front power button. Any keyboard action was
> totally ignored.
>
> Also, after reboot, when I cycled the monitor between, Auto-Select, VGA,
> and DVI, it would immediately go into powersave mode, until hard power
> cycle reboot.
>
> So then I tried the new monitor (E228WFP) on the older 4400 with a
> Geforce3TI200.
>
> It worked perfectly.
>
> So I put the new monitor back on the XPS-400. I then reinstalled the Dell
> Video Driver. I had been using the retail ATI drivers.
>
> After the reinstall of the Dell drivers, the new E228WFP works fine.
>
> I think it is time to "upgrade " the video card.
>
> I'm thinking an NVidia upgrade. I think anything will be an improvement
> over the original ATI X600 card.
>
> Any thoughts on this? I don't do PC gaming too much, just a very seldom
> Flight Simulator X.
>
> BTW, I haven't shared any of this with Dell. Would it do any good? I would
> think their standard response would be to use ONLY Dell drivers.
>

Update:
I stumbled across a PNY nVidia 8400GS at Best Buy yesterday on clearance for
$40.79.
I could have got it cheaper at Newegg after $20 rebate, but would have had
to pay $6.58 S&H.
Just about even, didn't have to wait for UPS OR rebate.
Not a killer graphics card, but this computer is not the killer Desktop it
was two years ago.

Bernie