How to tell if a video card is compatible with your PC? 3

[qwert85103]

Hi,

I have an old ASUS V3800M 32MB AGP VIDEO CARD, and was trying to install it to Compaq Presario 7594, but the card wont fit!!

Is there any web site which could tell if the above video card is compatible with my PC or not? If not then which ones are?

Thanks.

 

[paparazi]

qwert85103
From what I have been able to research, you have:
Intel Celeron 533 based PC 10gig 64mb ram and are trying to fit an Asus TNT M64 32mb graphics card.
Now I'm not going to go on about AGP1.01 and later AGP specs because I suspect that that this card should work with motherboards of that era (1.01, 1x 2x 4x)
I think this is a simple case of your motherboard not having a dedicated AGP slot? and the card you have is the more common AGP type.
If you this slot: (this upgrage slot is situated above the normal white PCI slots and is often brown in colour, also it is set back a little on the motherboard)
If this turns out to be the case and you definately want to upgrade from the onboard graphcs you will need a PCI version to work.
Please appreciate that I am only guessing at the moment based on the limited information I can find.
Please post back with more info
Martin

We like members to GIVE as well as take
Don't just do the asking, do the answering when you can.

 

[qwert85103]

Thank you!

You are very close in your description of the hardware. I cannot see any brown slot, all I see are the white PCI slots and I guess is the reason why I am not able to fit the AGP in there!

So, what do you say I should do to upgrade the graphic capability of my PC? I would really appreciate your suggestion.

Thanks.

 

[cdogg]

You could buy a cheap GeForce4 MX PCI card for under $40. Look on

http://www.pricewatch.com

~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[qwert85103]

ok..but how do I find that which card will fit in my PC. For example, when buying RAM, sites like Crucial, let you find the right match for your system. Is there any similar site like this, which lets you know the cards that are compatible with your system?

thanks.

 

[paparazi]

qwert85103
From my own experiences I would say cdogg's suggestion of a PCI Geforce 4 MX440 is a good one.
Possibly a Radeon 7000/7500 PCI
Maybe a second hand Geforce 2 MX400 PCI
All the above have a better than 95% chance of working. in my opinion.
Martin

We like members to GIVE as well as take
Don't just do the asking, do the answering when you can.

 

[cdogg]

qwert,

Nope, there's no real trick here. Just grab any PCI video card that is compatible with your version of Windows. As long as you have 98 or later, you should be OK with any GF4 card.

A common problem you might encounter is if your system has a lot of PCI devices installed. You might find yourself moving the video card around to different slots to avoid IRQ conflicts (but that's another issue we can wait to deal with).


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[qwert85103]

Thank you guys!!

 

[AckNack]

I just read this thread a couple of days after it was posted, and thought I'd throw this into the mix.

I'm not 100% sure, but aren't Compaq computers proprietary in the pin-out of their expansion slots?

If so, then you'd have to buy a video card that is compatible with that.

AckNack

 

[cdogg]

AckNack,
Normally the thing about Compaq's is proprietary memory. In this case, he's referring to the video card and PCI slot which is standard.


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[AckNack]

cdogg,

Thanks,
I wasn't 100% on that.

AckNack