Wanted to upgrade on board graphics in Acer power FV tower unit and read it had PCI-E socket. Bought card to discover wrong type of socket, more than one type, 

Once I had the right one, would it be the same as upgrading with AGP etc. turn off on board in BIOS and let PCI-E take over? :think:

Yes

Ta very greatly, mon amie.

Non!

With the workstations we have at work, we simply plug in the new graphics card and this automatically disables the onboard video.

Have had go at getting it going, long and short of it is it doesn't like the nVidia drivers as the screen is blank, unless it is booted with MS basic drivers.

Just a thought - does your graphics card require power to it? You'll see either 4 pin, 6 pin on 8 pin connectors on it... it may be that as soon as you install the drivers it enables the additional features and falls over. What model card is it? Thanks.

Just a thought - does your graphics card require power to it? You'll see either 4 pin, 6 pin on 8 pin connectors on it... it may be that as soon as you install the drivers it enables the additional features and falls over. What model card is it? Thanks.

I think it as you say - if the power supply is insufficient, the card will simply fail to run and with BIOS seeing that an external card is running it bypasses the onboard.

 

Either that or it is possible the card is a dud or not properly seated.

Thanks for the input guys. No external power supply on the card. It is an nVidia Quadro NVS 290. When in device manager, it shows as running only 14MB of the 256MB on board. It names the card correctly when on another tab in device manager. I have a mind to revert to XP (running Vista) which the machine was designed to use. 

PC dosen't like the Hercules Prophet XT4000 i got either, and that is normal PCI. That shows only 8MB of it's potential 64MB!

Edited 28 February, 201412 yr by Guest

Is the PCI memory address space located in 32 or 64 bit space in your bios?

Hi Cheeze. Give me a pointer where to look and I'll tell thee, ta.

It's a bios setting. Named differently in each bios, but should stand out when you look through the options.

Been in the BIOS a number of times and don't recall seeing 32/64 bit architecture options. It is an older system now, was going to extend it's life by sympathetic upgrade (porn runs so slow, lol). MoBo is Intel 915 GL Xpress chipset based, 775 socket Celeron D. Have reinstalled XP Pro now and had the devils own job getting the WiFi running   but all is okay now. Downloaded the Hercules driver again but it needs to see the card and stalls. Put graphics card in and when the Windows splash screen comes on, screen is lit but no image  . Tried palette snoop on and off, no difference.

How much RAM has the system got?

A gig and a half.

Hmm i doubt it's that then.

Another thing worth looking at is if you have the memory hole set and if so where to.

Thanks for everyones input on this one :beer: , but I'm just    with it and going to get something a bit newer. Some cheap base units on eBay with fairly good spec.