Graphics Card Problem

polybear

Hi,
Following on from my previous posting "Display Goes Blank" which was with regard to likely problems with the on-board graphics on my packard bell imedia 1307 motherboard, a friend has suggested I can fit a graphics card into one of the PCI slots rather than change the motherboard. The motherboard is one of these:

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?i=spec_santiago_nofw&ppn=PB13316901

- and the video is:

SiS 330 Mirage Integrated Video

The integrated video on the motherboard has the following characteristics:
DX9 S/W compliant
High performance 256-bit 3D / 128-bit 2D graphic engine
2-Pixel rendering pipelines and 4-texture units per cycle (2P4T)
Up to 200 MHz ECLK
SiS Ultra-AGPII Technology with up to 3.2 GB/s Data Transfer Rate
Successor of Ultra-AGPII Technology and double the bandwidth up to 3.2 GB/s with DDR400
AGP 8x equivalent bandwidth for 3D/2D/Video
Advanced Hardware Acceleration for DVD playback
Share Memory Size 32 MB and 64 MB

My question is this: How do I choose a suitable replacement graphics card that will be compatible please? I don't play games etc. etc. so don't need anything clever. Just a straightforward "like for like" replacement will suit me fine. Many thanks.

polybear

Sharky!

You should be able to get anything as long as it is either PCI or AGP (not PCI-express by the looks of it). AGP is recommended over PCI because it's so much better.

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?i=ml055a&ppn=PB13316901 << That shows you where it goes on the motherboard.

The main players are ATi and nVidia, and really, there's not much between them...

Does anyone know what happens in such cases please? Thanks.

( ^ from previous thread)

When my Dell PC went back to get the DVD/CDRW drive replaced, a guy came and picked it up, they did their thing, and sent it back with a packing slip stating that they couldn't perform any drive checks due to not knowing the password. (I'd also passworded the administrator acct on XP, and disabled the other ones.) Whether that means they tried, or didn't bother because of not having the password I don't know, but I'd definately take a backup of all data, if only to protect against possible drive damage in transit.

polybear

Hi,
Thanks for the reply.
I have a copy of the Hard Drive data on an external drive (using Acronis); my main concern with having the drive go away with the pc (and maybe not getting it back again) is I'm not sure what personal data (copies of letters, bank account numbers etc.) that may be on there.

Or course, checking beforehand isn't easy because the graphics are playing up, meaning the display isn't shown.....

A lesson learnt.....

polybear

Sharky!

Assuming it's not a software fault, getting a graphics card would be easier. However, in the other thread you say

If I power down the display then power up again this cures the problem.

This sounds suspiciously like it's the actual display that's gone funny.

polybear

Hi again,
I'll try the display with another pc tomorrow - hope it's that that's the problem. Much easier to fix, and still under warranty too.

I'll keep you posted of any developments.

And once the problem is sorted the first thing I'll do is trawl thru' my pc and transfer any personal stuff onto removable storage media....

polybear

Sharky!

Hope it all works out for you :cool2:

polybear

**UPDATE**

I tried another screen today and everything was fine. After talking to the screen manufacturer (Digimate) they suggested the screen mains adapter is faulty, so they're sending another out to me under warranty. I'll keep you posted.

polybear.