I have a new Dell Vostro 460, that has onboard video, and an Dell-added a PCIe video card. It has 1 16x PCIe slot and 4 1x PCIe slots.
When I plug in a PCIe gigabit network card (link. lspci: 'Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)') in one of the 1x slots, the computer won't boot. At all. No error beeps. The power comes on, and then nothing. If I remove the add-on video card, and put the NIC in its slot, the computer, and network card, works fine.
The card 'seems' to be 1x PCIe, and its socket size also seems to suggest this.
Any idea what could be wrong?
Best Answer
With a 350W PSU, a discrete graphics adapter, and the symptoms you're describing, it sounds like you may be over-drawing with both add-in cards in at once.
We generally use 425W as a minimum for any computer with two hard drives or one HDD and a video card, as the 350W's are always too borderline. So as "tiny" as that NIC may be it still might be enough to tip the scales and prevent POST, at least in my opinion.
The first thing I'd do is hook up a 500W PSU and see how it goes.