AGP card works in one machine but not another

[JonRB]

I've got two machines that need new graphics cards.
One has a decent LCD screen with DVI (my machine) and the other has an analogue-only LCD monitor (my son's).

So off I trotted to eBay and picked up two GeForce4 MX440's - one a Leadtek WinFast A170 Pro VIVO dual monitor with DVI and VGA (£13 - bargain) and the other a XFX with just VGA (£15 - also a bargain).

The Leadtek arrived today so I put it in my venerable Dell Dimension 8100 and the bloody thing didn't work.
Thought I'd better check it on another system before declaring it DOA and so put it in my son's system and it worked fine.
Very disappointed as I really fancied having DVI and VIVO.

So why did it work in his machine and not mine?

Here's the card that came with my machine (an nVidia Riva TNT2)


Here's the Radeon Rage Pro 128 my brother-in-law gave me to see if it was any better at playing games than my TNT2 (it isn't). This also works fine in my Dell - I'm using it as I type.


And here is the Leadtek, which as I mentioned doesn't work in my Dell.


I'll spare you studying them in detail - the pin count on the AGP connector appears to be identical on all 3 cards, as does the spacing and configuration.

Here is the AGP slot in my Dell


And here is the AGP slot in my son's machine.


I know the slots look different, but I still can't understand why the Leadtek doesn't work in my Dell.

>>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 4th April 23:40

[thepassenger]

I'm clutching at straws as I've had the brain drainer of night shifts but.

If the Dell came with something old like a TNT2 then it could be that it only has a 1x/2x (or a 2x/4x) AGP slot and not the more modern 4x/8x versions.

I belive that the earlier iterations of AGP used a different voltage (5v?) and that modern cards/slots supply a lower voltage (3.3v?), whilst a 2x/4x could supply either voltage I belive modern cards won't work in this socket either. Someone feel free to correct me obviously

One way to try is to plug the TNT2 in to the newer system, if it fires up then I'm talking rubbish... but if a little led lights up and nowt happens; your scuppered.

[JonRB]

I suspect you could be right. The whole AGP thing is a bit of a minefield.

I'm finding it a bit hard to get tech specs on the Dell, but it looks like it has an AGP 4x slot, or at any rate there are Knowledge Base articles on intalling 4X cards in the Dimension 8100 and also which cards support DVI on that system and there are a number of 4X cards mentioned.

I've just posted a message on the Dell Support Forum, which on reflection is probably a better place to post a question like this, so we'll see what that turns up.

[Plotloss]

You should be able to set the AGP bus speed in the BIOS

Set them both at 2x (to test, commonality) and try them both again.

[JonRB]

Plotloss said:

You should be able to set the AGP bus speed in the BIOS Set them both at 2x (to test, commonality) and try them both again.

Thanks Matt. I was hoping you'd call in to this thread with a pearl of wisdom at some point.

[squirrelz]

Does the XFX one work in your PC?

[JonRB]

squirrelz said:

Does the XFX one work in your PC?

Don't know yet. At the time of writing it hadn't arrived but has just turned up now.

If it does work then that will be something, I guess, but not really optimal.
The XFX card is single output and that is analog VGA. Fine for my son's machine whose (cheap) LCD monitor only has an analog VGA input.
My LCD monitor has both VGA and DVI, and I also have a spare VGA monitor. That's why I got bought a dual head card with DVI and VGA. I also fancied playing around with the VIVO.

Anyway, I'll have a play around with both cards tonight and also with settings on my Dell. I believe there may also be a BIOS upgrade for my Dell so I may upgrade that too.

[MickC]

JonRB said:

squirrelz said: Does the XFX one work in your PC? Don't know yet. At the time of writing it hadn't arrived but has just turned up now. If it does work then that will be something, I guess, but not really optimal. The XFX card is single output and that is analog VGA. Fine for my son's machine whose (cheap) LCD monitor only has an analog VGA input. My LCD monitor has both VGA and DVI, and I also have a spare VGA monitor. That's why I got bought a dual head card with DVI and VGA. I also fancied playing around with the VIVO. Anyway, I'll have a play around with both cards tonight and also with settings on my Dell. I believe there may also be a BIOS upgrade for my Dell so I may upgrade that too.

Good article [url]here:www.playtool.com/PT/AGPCompat/agp.html[/url]

It's quite probable your aging dell only supports 3.3 or 1.5V, and if the new cards are AGP8x running at 0.8V, then they won't work. MX440 can be either a 2/4x card or an 8x card. The 8x card can be 0.8V only.

[JonRB]

MickC said:

Good article here

Good link. Thanks for that.

[JonRB]

Well, my Dell appears to have a 1.5V AGP 2X/4X port and the card appears to be a 1.5V 4X card, so they should work.

I installed the XFX card on my Dell and it worked straight away.
To be honest, I think I'll leave it at that as I've discovered that the Leadtek can't drive my flat panel at its native 1600x1200 under DVI anyway, removing that advantage straight off.

I now have 2 machines both with upgraded GPUs, which was what I wanted. The fact that the cards destined for each machine ended up in the other is a minor thing really.