The computer boots to WIN XP Home, sometimes, but then the screen is covered in pixellated boxes so it is impossible to do any sort of visual test. Cannot even get to ‘Safe Mode’
The fact that the first display gets to windows suggest that video card must be alright but within 2/3 seconds it has gone haywire, this suggests it IS the video card, I think.
When it hasn’t got to windows the creen is blocked with large squarish monotone blocks with traces of, well, colour (Sorry, I’m English!)
If the screen is obscured by the maze that developes, then I cannot see to download anything!
I am writing this on another computer that has no CD writer so cannot utilise this, but even then the problem would be to command the the faulty computer because I can ’see’ nothing

Try removing the card then boot up if this runs windows with on board graphix install the drivers for the video card or download the latest drivers from the cards maker http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp if its nvidia that is also check that the pc to monitor cables are secure i had this problem just 4 days ago i installed new drivers from nvidia everything is sweet (touches wood) good luck and i know how annoying this is

My desktop is a an E Machines T31043 running Windows XP Sp 2, AMD Sempron Processor with 1.80GHz, 1.5 gig RAM. It has an integrated VIA/S3 Unichrom Pro and I installed a ATI Radeon X1850 into the AGP slot. Already went to comp BIOS to changefrom integrated to AGP.

Did you install the video drivers.

I’ve removed my 8600 gt for replacement, until it comes back from the shop, i was hoping i could use my onboard gfx for basic gaming. Its an intel e4500 core 2 duo. The computer works normally, but even extremely old games wont run, because the drivers are either absent, or old. Under hardware in device manager, there is a yello mark over "Unknown VGA device". How do i update my drivers? Intels website doesnt detect my card :/

just because you have intel cpu doesnt mean your onboard video card will be intel, it is going to be either ati or nvidia, you can find out by running this small program called cpu z

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

should show on your mainboard tab

I am thinking of getting 2 graphics cards but i am unsure which 2 to go for?

My budget is £550 to spend on 2 graphics cards..

What 2 cards shall i go with within £550?

Its best to go for ATi 5770 in crossfire. Its performance exceeds ATi 5870 and is almost about 5890. If you can purchase a single 5870 or 5890, then that would be also very good.

I have an nvidia geforce 8200 which sucks for gaming. We have an old geforce 4 sitting around the house and I was wondering if I could support them both with 220W power supply. I ahve an extra slot in my tower for another one.

hi mate
no,however theres two reasons,and the first is that you need the same two cards to run together in "sli"(dual video card configuration) and second a 220watt power supply wouldnt support most single card solutions,never mind two cards
also the geforce 4 was only ever released in the older "agp" interface which does not support "sli" and finally the geforce 8200 is actually a onboard graphics card(built into the motherboard)
however its not all bad news….the geforce 8200 supports nvidia,s new technology called "hybrid sli" which involves running a onboard graphics device with a specific geforce graphic card to enhance your gaming experience
that said you need to ensure you buy a supported geforce card that will run in "hybrid sli" with your geforce 8200 onboard set up,you can find a list of these at http://www.nvidia.com/object/hybridsli_notebook.html
however you still have the issue of your power supply,and to safely run a hybrid sli based pc i would recommend a 400watt or more psu.however this depends on which card you choose,for example if you use the geforce 9800gt a 500watt psu would be more suitable
then again i have a strange feeling from the specs you have mentioned that your pc is a acer x3200 small form factor pc..( http://tech-lines.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/acer-x3200.jpg ) …and if this is the case your pc will only support a small form factor graphics card like one of these ( http://images.nvidia.com/products/quadro_nvs_420/quadro_nvs_420_3qtr_low.png )
however if i am wrong i apologise…but you still need to upgrade the power supply and check for avalible upgrades
there are motherboards that support dual pci-express slots and with the newer x58 motherboards(intel core i7) there are some that support up to 4 x pci-express slots
if you can give more specifications i can give you a more detailed answer
i hope this helps
good luck mate !

I run wow on a windows xp that accepts 512 mb of ram in each of 4 slots, im upgrading my ram but i think a new graphics card would work great, what graphics card should i get?

see link

I have an eMachines T3410, which comes with an nVidia GeForce 6100 PCI-E card installed. I recently purchased another monitor and want to create a dual monitor setup with my integrated card. Is this possible? And if so, how? I have tried everything in my knowledge and nothing has worked.

I agree with the other answer…go and buy a second video card. Or better yet, go and buy a video card with dual DVI outputs.

I just wanted to do a little test for myself and anybody else who wanted to know. As far as I’m concerned, the Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 – NVIDIA SLI is the best dual graphics cards. Please get back to me on this! I’m highly interested.

Currently the best video card, in my opinion, is ATI 5970. ATI 5970 runs at GDDR5 while GTX 295 only runs at GDDR3, this arguement alone decimates GTX 295. Also, 5970 runs DX11 while 295 only runs DX10. See the link for a detailed comparison.

Regarding motherboard, the best I know in terms of overclocking is Gigabyte but then again I’m a fan of Gigabyte.

I have my hands down on Zalman and CoolerMaster for cooling. Although Antec’s 1200 is the best casing out there.

If you have your motherboard manual you can look in there. Chances are you don’t so you will need to identify the name and model of your motherboard. You can:

1. when the computer is booting it will sometimes list it pretty much on the first screen of your boot – unless you have a splash screen then you won’t see it at all

2. if you don’t have a splash screen you can write down the bios string numbers and search the internet to identify the motherboard – the bios string is the last numbers on the first splash screen and looks something like 0001-2002-38974-8vK-01

you can go here to identify the bios string number and this site will also tell you what the numbers mean, etc.
http://www.wimsbios.com/index.jsp

Once you have identified the make and model of your motherboard then you can search the net for the motherboard manual which will tell you the maximum capacity/type of video card you can use.

If you have a splash screen you can enter your bios and disable the splash screen so you can see the first screen in the boot.

Good luck

Hello I currently own one of the old motherboards and don’t intend on buying a new one so I might as well upgrade it. It’s a Gigabyte GA-8I915G-MF (rather old) and I was wondering if it can support these graphics cards:

Nvidia GeForce 7 Series
Nvidia GeForce 8 Series
Nvidia GeForce 9 Series

Thanks in advance.

You should be able to buy any PCI X 16 video card. Any of these would work if they are PCI X or PCI Express 16. I believe all of these nvidia card should work fine.