Hey great forum!I need some tech help

[z-runner]

Hey all, this is a great forum. I've been reading a bunch of posts and you guys obviously know your stuff!

Anyway, my currrent situation is this.

I have a rather SLOW system, but it has operated basically troublefree for the last three years ,so I decided to upgrade a bit.
Oh NO that's always where the trouble starts!! LOL

I just bought an Xtasy Nvidia GeForce2 64 MB 400MX PCI video card after their website computer scan told me I would have a 590% increase in video quality over my present system, but unfortunately what their website scan failed to tell me was that I can't use the dang card due to my onboard video on my current motherboard.

I currently have the following:

PCchips Slot 1 M748mr motherboard
Intel Pentium II 400 MHZ processor
Seagate 8.3 Gig harddrive
AWE Soundblaster 64 card that works off an ISA port
44X CD Rom
312 RAM

Now, what I want to be able do is play Need for Speed III in a decent grapics mode, but my crappy motherboard has onboard video and I have no way apparently of disabling it.

I've tried going into the BIOS ,but I haven't found a setting that will disable the onboard video and allow the card to initiate the monitor.
With the new card installed the computer stops booting up and the video monitor starts to click rapidly. I turned it off after 10 seconds or so and took the new video card back out. I tried this 4 different times in different ways with tech support from the video card maker VISIONTEK, but nothing helped.

So, what I am thinking of doing is buying a cheap new motherboard that doesn't have onboard video, but does have an ISA port so that I can retain my old AWE 64 card that has a connection for my V4 Forcefeedback steering wheel.

I went on tigerdirect.com and found a SOYO 7VEM PLE133 Socket370 MATX motherboard for only $69 that has an ISA port and three PCI slots and will support a Pentium III processor and has NO onboard video.

What I was planning on doing was buying this board and getting a Slot 370 to Slot 1 converter so that I could retain my current Pentium II chip if it will work.

I know I would have to buy a new tower case as well.


So, what I am wondering about is if this will work ,will I end up with a system that will work with my new Geforce 64 MB PCI video card?

I know an AGP slot would work better, but I already have this PCI card now and would rather just keep it if you guys think it will do the trick.

I am only shooting for good graphics and smooth gameplay on the 1024 X 768 level ,so would this help me get what I want or I do I need to just go ahead and send the new video card back to the online distributor that I purchased it from and forget about it ?

Thanks a million for all your input!

later,norm

[bigparsnip]

if yor current chip is a slot one type (which it must be if it is a PII 400MHz) there is no way you will be able to get it to fit into a socket 370 motherboard. You will have to find a slot one mobo if you want to keep your chip (try looking on ebay, they are normaly good for these things). Howeverm, you should be able to dissable the vidio on your current board. If you still have the manual, see if there is a jumper setting to dissable the video (if you don't have the manual, try hte web). You should find this, as it would be pointless the board having an AGP slot on it if you can't use it. Hope this helps some. Andrew

[muchmark]

Hi z-runner,

I agree with bigparsnip it would be pointless to have an AGP slot if you can't use it. If you can't find onboard video disable jumpers then try this: go to device manager remove display adapter turn off system, clear CMOS, install PCI card.

Good Luck, Mark

Welcome to SysOpt we are happy to have you here :)

[z-runner]

Can someone else read thru my post and answer some of the questions in greater detail please.
I know its pointless to have an AGP slot that you wouldn't use and I really don't know where that issue came up from. I wasn't asking about an AGP port.
What I was wondering is if the above setup would work out. I can always get a new Pent III chip if there isnt such a thing as a slot 370 to slot 1 converter.
I tried your suggestions to get the video card working , but the computer still wouldn't boot up with the new card.

Thank you for at least trying to help me out!


Later,norm

[D`Sypher]

There is one thing you should NOT do and that is to install a ISA
card in your computer.
Because if you have a ISA card in your computer it will slow down
your entire PCI Bus to 8 bit, as opposed to 32 bit when you only use PCI cards.

This is because you only have one bus in your PC, and that is the
PCI bus and the ISA slot is connected to that PCI bus.

If the onboard video card is AGP you could try changing the bios setting to PCI first on the init display setting as yor new video card is PCI.

[z-runner]

Thanks for the heads up on the ISA card D'Sypher.
BTW, I tried changing the video from the AGP setting in the BIOS to the PCI setting but it still wont work.
I have decided to send the new video card back and just wait to upgrade to a good motherboard and a Pentium 4 in a year or so.
Thanks again for your input.


Later,norm