# video card question



## Guest (Apr 15, 2008)

There is really no such thing as a VGA slot. You either have a PCI slot or more likely in this case an AGP slot. If it's AGP then you need an AGP card to fit it. AGP slots are usually brown or green in color. A modern PCIe card will not work.


----------



## Hobb3s (Apr 2, 2008)

Cuwillis said:


> I have a gateway computer which I purchased in the year 2000. yeah, I know it is old. Well the video card fan burned out causing the card to fail. My PC motherboard has a VGA slot. The new video card is a EVGA card. My guestion is will a EVGA card fit into a VGA slot? I have not yet opened the package because if it is not compatible, I want to be able to return the video card I payed $69.00 dollars for. :confused1:


poppameth is correct, I think you are confusing the manufacturer of the card (http://www.evga.com) with the type of card (how it connects/communicates). The best way to determine which kind of video card your computer can support is to check the manual. Otherwise go with the colour coding as indicated by poppameth. (brown for agp, white for pci, blue/black for pci-e, also black for isa). Something else to note is that if your computer does support an AGP type card, then take note of at what speed, usually indicated in 2x,4x,8x. Most cards should be backward compatible, but just make sure that if your motherboard can do 4x AGP that the video card you buy can talk at the same speed.
Possibly even take in your old broken card with you to the store and ask for assistance on selecting a suitable replacement.


----------



## Cuwillis (Apr 15, 2008)

Hobb3s said:


> poppameth is correct, I think you are confusing the manufacturer of the card (http://www.evga.com) with the type of card (how it connects/communicates). The best way to determine which kind of video card your computer can support is to check the manual. Otherwise go with the colour coding as indicated by poppameth. (brown for agp, white for pci, blue/black for pci-e, also black for isa). Something else to note is that if your computer does support an AGP type card, then take note of at what speed, usually indicated in 2x,4x,8x. Most cards should be backward compatible, but just make sure that if your motherboard can do 4x AGP that the video card you buy can talk at the same speed.
> Possibly even take in your old broken card with you to the store and ask for assistance on selecting a suitable replacement.


 You were right, It is a AGP card (8X). I installed it on in the AGP slot, but the computer would not come up. I believe it is too fast for the mother board. I will have to search over the internet to see if I can find a card that is compatible with my motherboard.


----------



## Cuwillis (Apr 15, 2008)

poppameth said:


> There is really no such thing as a VGA slot. You either have a PCI slot or more likely in this case an AGP slot. If it's AGP then you need an AGP card to fit it. AGP slots are usually brown or green in color. A modern PCIe card will not work.


When I put in the new 8x AGP board, the PC would not boot up. The bios would not load and the HD would not load. I put in the original AGP board, and I still had the same symptoms. What do you think could be my problem? If the battery on the motherboard is dead, would this prevent my machine from coming up?


----------



## Guest (Apr 19, 2008)

No, your PC would still boot, it just wouldn't remember you settings in the BIOS. Can you hear the computer actually booting up? Is the video display just not working, or is the PC itself actually not starting up at all? If it just seems to be video make absolutely sure you've seated the card correctly. They can be tough to press all the way into place, requiring more pressure than you might feel comfortable applying.


----------



## Littlerhody (Apr 20, 2008)

Yea I would check to make sure the card is seated correctly in the AGP slot, also did you connect power to the new card? Leave the case open when you turn it on and look to see if the card's fan is spinning. If you put an 8x card in a 4x motherboard I think it will still run but just run at 4x


----------



## Guest (Apr 21, 2008)

Power to the card is a good call too. Older AGP cards didn't necessarily need anymore power than they could draw from the port itself. Most newer cards need to have a 4 pin molex power cable plugged onto them straight from the PSU.


----------



## Grimace (Jan 11, 2008)

Cuwillis said:


> When I put in the new 8x AGP board, the PC would not boot up. The bios would not load and the HD would not load. I put in the original AGP board, and I still had the same symptoms.


Sounds like the power supply is bad, especially if it is that old.


----------



## santawatt (Jun 22, 2008)

Yep, take a look a the power supply unit.

BTW, why do you want to still use that old computer?


----------



## Ash (Aug 1, 2008)

Some AGP cards are not compatible even though they phisically go in the slot (they tried to key the cards and the slots to avoid this but there were some exceptions)

The problem is that different versions of AGP cards operate at different voltages. Using wrong voltage card may damage the card or the computer

You may try to get a Voodoo 3 or another card from the same era from ebay - it is most likely to be compatible

Check if your computer has VGA (blue with 3 rows of holes) connection in the same area where the mouse and USB connections are. In this case you may plug your monitor there and it will work. It means that there is some very basic video hardware built in the board and there is no need to add video card

I am writing this message from a similar computer (Dell optiplex GX150 pentium 3) with a very simple Intel onboard video. It runs smoothly with a modern OS and 1680x1050 resolution LCD. Just does not support 3D games graphics


----------

