milkchaser
08-25-2005, 05:59 PM
I got a great deal on a bad computer (ha!), a Sony VAIO RA-710G running Windows XP Media Center Edition. Sony's 90-day warranty was a joke -- they had no intention of fixing any of my problems and made me re-image the PC several times (if it didn't fix anything the first time, why do it again?).
So now I have to troubleshoot the thing myself. Sometimes the PC resets itself. Sometimes just locks up. Sometimes reports that a device driver misbehaved. Now when Media Center launches, all I get is a black screen. But when I Alt-Tab to switch to a different application, Media Center appears in the background, but the borders are messed up. I click to make the Media Center a floating window (unmaximized) and everything is fine after that (until it locks up).
I'm going to reinstall WinXP MCE to fix that problem and I figured that maybe I should upgrade the video card from the Nvidia GEForce FX5200. Any suggestions as to a card that would be compatible with WinXP MCE?
Current hw:
* NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 w/TV-Out 128MB Video Memory (128-bit DDR)
TV-Out / VGA-Out / DVI-Out (DVI output: 1280x1024x60Hz max.)
8X AGP 3D Graphics Hardware Acceleration
* Giga Pocket™ MPEG2 Realtime Encoder/Decoder board with TV Tuner
The problem could be with the TV encoder/decoder, too. I wouldn't mind adding a second TV tuner (WinXP MCE supports this), but I want to get something compatible with the VAIO and MCE.
So now I have to troubleshoot the thing myself. Sometimes the PC resets itself. Sometimes just locks up. Sometimes reports that a device driver misbehaved. Now when Media Center launches, all I get is a black screen. But when I Alt-Tab to switch to a different application, Media Center appears in the background, but the borders are messed up. I click to make the Media Center a floating window (unmaximized) and everything is fine after that (until it locks up).
I'm going to reinstall WinXP MCE to fix that problem and I figured that maybe I should upgrade the video card from the Nvidia GEForce FX5200. Any suggestions as to a card that would be compatible with WinXP MCE?
Current hw:
* NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 w/TV-Out 128MB Video Memory (128-bit DDR)
TV-Out / VGA-Out / DVI-Out (DVI output: 1280x1024x60Hz max.)
8X AGP 3D Graphics Hardware Acceleration
* Giga Pocket™ MPEG2 Realtime Encoder/Decoder board with TV Tuner
The problem could be with the TV encoder/decoder, too. I wouldn't mind adding a second TV tuner (WinXP MCE supports this), but I want to get something compatible with the VAIO and MCE.