Upgrading GFX card... help / advice appreciated...

[S.C.G]

Ok, so I'm planning on installing a new GFX card in my PC, it's something I've never had to do before but I've heard it's a relatively straighforward process but wanted to get some feedback before opening up my PC.

 

My PC's current specs are...

 

HP Pavillion Dual Core Pentium (1st gen not 2nd)

CPU 1 speed : 2.66ghz

CPU 2 speed: 2.67ghz

1024MB of RAM (approixmately 1 Gig)

Existing GFX card : ATI Radeon EXpress 200 series 256MB (onboard)

 

And the card I want to upgrade to is...

 

ATI Radeon Sapphire X 1600 Pro 512MB (8X AGP version)

 

I actually was initially planning on going for the PCI-E version as the PC I'm using is about 1 or 2 years old as far as I know, so I was thinking there might be a good chance that it has a PCI E slot but I can't be certain, anyways long story short I ordered the PCI E version from Play.com and they sent me the AGP version T.T

 

However I'm not sure if my PC has a PCI E slot or a spare AGP as I haven't opened it up yet so I'm guessing obviously that should be the first thing to do... I haven't opened one up in a while though but I think I still remember the basics, make sure pc is turned off at unit and at mains but still plugged in so as to make sure it's earthed, unscrew the main security screw to gain access to the machine (and void the warranty >.<) touch the outside of the case just to make extra sure of being earthed so as not to damage any components... I think those are the basics anyways, if anyone has any other tips or words of caution there please post them as I'm not 100% confident about this when I know that I should be as it's meant to be a simple task as far as upgrading is concerned so I hear...

 

Also the upgrade process as I understand it should go like this...

 

1. install card

2. disable onboard GFX card in BIOS

3. download latest driver from relevant site

 

Now, the thing is, am I right in thinking that I don't need to remove the onboard card or anything like that and all I'm looking for is a spare AGP slot if I have one in which to install the card?

 

Disabling the existing GFX card in the BIOS is something I'm also not 100% on but from what I understand is because it's AGP that once the new card is installed and I Disable the onboard GFX card in the BIOS the new card should be automatically detected and also that I shouldn't need to use the CD that comes with card?

 

Which leads me nicely onto... do I need the drivers etc on the CD? or is it better to just go to the site and get the latest driver from there and bypass using the CD? unless it's necessary of course, again I'm unsure.

 

Anyways, I realise that I may be just making a mountain out of a molehill here as like I said I have heard it's meant to be a relatively simple process... but lol in my experience with PC's even what is supposed to be a simple task can easilly turn into an epic technological quest of sorts just to get things to work :P so yeah, thats why I posted here first so erm, any help / advice is greatly appreicated.

 

Thanks for reading.

[gaggle64]

First thing's first: Crack that bitch open and see if you have a PCI-E or AGP slot, or google your motherboard. If it's only a couple of years old it probably has a PCI-E slot.

 

Stay the hell out of BIOS, you don't need to go messing around in there. Just slot it in and download/install the appropriate drivers. There are "How To" guides for practically every kind of PC component all over the 'net, so google a couple to make sure.

 

If your existing graphics are "onboard" you basically don't have a graphics card, it's all swimming around on your mother board.

 

If you need to find out what kind of mobo you have download this and that should be able to tell you.

[S.C.G]

Thanks for the feedback gaggle64, I've downloaded and run that tool, and I got the following info relating to the motherboard...

 

Board: Hewleet-Packard Asterope 1.0

Bus Clock: 133 megahertz

BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 3.11 04/10/2006

 

I googled the "Hewleet-Packard Asterope 1.0" bit but I'm still trying to accertain if it's AGP or PCI-E... not having much luck though, maybe I'm googling the wrong bit? anyways I'll keep searching for now.

 

*Update*

 

Searched a bit more and found a HP site which listed specs for Asterope motherboards and all of them have PCI and PCI-E slots so that seems to confirm that I have PCI-E and not AGP, which is good but means I will now have to wait for Play.com to replace it with the PCI-E version which I originally ordered T.T still though, will be worth it in the long run as it is supposed to be better than AGP and easier to install, oh well I guess I won't need to be opening my PC today then soon though, very soon...

[Bogbas]

First thing's first: Crack that bitch open and see if you have a PCI-E or AGP slot, or google your motherboard. If it's only a couple of years old it probably has a PCI-E slot.

Yes that's exactly what you should do.

 

Stay the hell out of BIOS, you don't need to go messing around in there. Just slot it in and download/install the appropriate drivers. There are "How To" guides for practically every kind of PC component all over the 'net, so google a couple to make sure.

 

Well this depends, new motherboards can probably sense that the pci-e slot is in use and disable the onboard graphics chip when a pci-e card is used. Some have the option of "default display adapter" or similar. You should check (there's always the option of not saving the changes) the bios if there's an option to disable the onboard chip. Otherwise it might just be reserving a part of the system memory to itself.

 

AGP has pretty much died in motherboards. When I returned my ~2 year old asus motherboard last autumn I received a pci- express motherboard in return. Nice, but I then had to buy a new graphics card.

[Blue_Ninja0]

1024MB of RAM (approixmately 1 Gig)

 

That's exactly 1 Gig, not aproximate.

Sorry, just wanted to be an ass. :p

 

Yes, it's as you said. Usually you just have to put the card, and after that disable the onboard one on the bios. And go for the official site instead of using the drivers on the CD, as the ones online should be more up to date.

[Choze]

x1600 is very crappy. Look closely at AGP cards and see whats better. ATI have the absolute best AGP right now but in the x1600 category have a look at the 7600gt. It kills the x1600.

 

To check if your existing card is AGP or PCIE check you display driver in windows.

[S.C.G]

Ok so I know I created this thread ages ago but it's taken me that long to get the right GFX card (play.com screwed up 3 times) anyways, it's installed now, I just opened up the machine and put it in, didn't need to disable the old onboard in BIOS or anything as that didn't work once the new PCI-E card was installed.

 

The card works, it's an ATI Radeon Sapphire X1650, but I went to the site and choose to download the latest driver from the site as advised and the main driver works, but on the site it gave me two options, one was just the driver and the other came with the latest "Catalyst control centre" software? and that didn't install when I opened the exe file, just all the other drivers etc did the message I got regarding the Catalyst software was...

 

" .NET Framework Initialization Error "

 

" To run this application, you first must install one of the following versions of the .Net Framwework

 

v2.0.50727

 

Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate version of the .Net Framework."

 

am I right in thinking that I just need to go to the site, find that version that it has stated, download that, and then try downloading the latest version of the catalyst software again as a seperate download? (even though I already have it as part of the package download I choose)

 

any help / advice is appreciated...

 

Thanks,

[Guest Jordan]

Easy, go to the MS site and search for .Net Framework.

Also, i don't really recommend the software as its a bag of shit, Catalyst Control Centre that is.

[Twozzok]

Yeah, most software packages you can get weith graphics drivers are a bit crap.

[=NukeBlaze=]

I personally would not stick with the anemic power supply HP installs in all of their systems. They are sufficient for what the company placed into the case and are usually rated at peak wattage, not continuous.

 

That card will add another 40-50 watts during 3D, which which place the supply into saturation analogous to running an engine at peak levels, decreasing lifespan and amplifying the possibility for malfunction. In addition, you have other issue that are attributed with running at near watt saturation, like additional electrical noise, and worse voltage flux...Not good for all the devices attached to it, HDD especially. Power supplies can die in a number of ways, you just always are hopeful that the damage is limited to the supply and not everything attached to it...

 

Enermax, Seasonic are nice. Enermax is quite good and has some 350-400 watt continuous power in the 40$ USD range.

 

Please get a decent power supply if you do not already have one.

[S.C.G]

Easy, go to the MS site and search for .Net Framework.

Also, i don't really recommend the software as its a bag of shit, Catalyst Control Centre that is.

 

Thanks Jordan, I did the above and installed .Net framework version 2.0 but now I have a new error which appears when I boot up...

 

"Could not load file or assembly "MOM.implementation, Version=2.0.2589.34834, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e" or one of it's dependancies. The system cannot fine the specified file."

 

Erm... thats my reaction, if anyone has any idea of what I need to do now to fix this, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

[=NukeBlaze=]

I agree, Catalyst is currently bulky.

 

The error is a figment of catalyst not finding various files, because you installed ATI components before .net 2.0 framework. The easiest way to fix this problem is to enter Add/Remove, and remove all ATI card drivers, and ATI card utilities. I also recommend, as good practice, running this driver cleaning utility to ensure everything was removed to avoid any future issues. After both are done, restart your computer then reinstall your ATI suite.

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Driver-Cleaner-Professional.shtml

 

 

Gaggle 64 :

 

 

If you need to find out what kind of mobo you have download this and that should be able to tell you.

 

If you like Belarc, you may want to try Pc wizard as it gives you more information, and has additional hardware support apart using windows mainly for interpretation.

 

http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

[S.C.G]

I agree, Catalyst is currently bulky.

 

The error is a figment of catalyst not finding various files, because you installed ATI components before .net 2.0 framework. The easiest way to fix this problem is to enter Add/Remove, and remove all ATI card drivers, and ATI card utilities. I also recommend, as good practice, running this driver cleaning utility to ensure everything was removed to avoid any future issues. After both are done, restart your computer then reinstall your ATI suite.

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Uninstallers/Driver-Cleaner-Professional.shtml

 

 

Thanks for that NukeBlaze, I uninstalled all ATI software / drivers, checked that they were gone, rebooted, no error, went to the ATI site and this time selected "Drivers Only", installed the drivers, rebooted, no error.

 

The silly thing is, I guess i could have avoided all this if I'd just gone for the driver only option in the first place, as I certainly wouldn't have bothered with the Catalyst software had I known before that it's "a bag of shit", Thanks for that Jordan btw.

 

So yeah, erm everything relating to the GFX card on my PC is working fine now, so I guess the next thing I should do is maybe have a look at that "anemic power supply" of mine, though I have no idea of whats involved in the replacement of that part and wasn't even aware that it might be a problem, still worth researching though I guess.

 

Anyways thanks to Jordan, NukeBlaze, gaggle64 and anyone else who's given helpful advice in this thread.