schrieb:

I have a HP Pavilion I bought last March. I just upgraded my card to a
GeForce 6800 128mb AGP. I opened the case and discovered that my power
supply is only 250W, and the GeForce needs 300W minimum. I contacted HP
and they tell that I cannot upgrade my power supply because I could
damage some components, and that it is "unsafe" to use the GF 6800 in
this system.
Does this sound right to you??

Yes (at least to some extend), but there are other things to consider...

First, Your Pavilion uses a generic PSU (it uses generic components in
all areas). Your Pavilions PSU has 250W. But this doesn't mean it won't
run a GF6800, because the Geforce doesn*t _need_ a 300W PSU. It's
however recommend by most card manufacturers since most standard PSUs
aren't very efficient. There are 250W PSUs that deliver more power than
a 350W el-cheapo power supply. What's more important than the Wattage
rating is how many amps your PSU can deliver on the single rails (12V,
5V, 3.3V etc)...

If I were you I'd put the card in the computer and ran a few gfx stress
tests (i.e. 3Dmark 2005 in loop mode). If the computer runs stable
everything is fine, if not just get a better PSU...

Benjamin