klon122 Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 NJPapi, a word of consideration: There's always ONE AGP slot per computer, even for Dell computers. I've never, ever seen a computer with two or more AGP slots as they don't exist; however, your computer has multiple PCI slots. Whoever told you that gave you misinformation. Also, brick-and-mortar stores (Best Buy, CompUSA) are some of the worst places pricewise to get computer components. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJPapi1977 Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 Looking at your system, my advice is to get a cheaper card and a stick of ram for the $79.99 you'd plan to spend at Worst Buy. so a cheaper video card and some ram for that price should be good... but what cheap video card can i get that will give me solid graphics and what is RAM..... is that memory space.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eber Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Just get something like what was suggested in the other thread for ~$60. And yeah, RAM is system memory. You currently only have 256 MB and that is probably the bare minimum you should have if you're running Windows XP. You'll have a much better overall performance (in-game and out of game) with at least 512 MB of memory. I think Circuit City or Best Buy has some great deals on RAM right now. ~$20 or so after rebate for 256 MB or a 512 MB stick. I'm not real sure about it, but just be on the lookout. And if you need advice on the type of memory you need, check out the memory configurator (already pointed out in one of your threads) at crucial.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klon122 Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 From Cyberwalker: RAM - RAM is short for Random Access Memory. This is also referred to as simply "computer memory". This is where the computer does short term tasks. When a program runs, a copy of it moves off the hard drive and into the processor. Then when the processor wants to accomplish special calculations or do specific tasks, it sends the task to the memory where calculations are made. When that's done the task is wiped out of RAM. If you "run out of memory", it means that there are too many tasks in RAM to fit any more. Sometimes these tasks use the same part of the memory and this causes a computer crash. A crash means the computer stops working. When you switch off the computer and restart it, the RAM is wiped clean and the computer should operate normally again. A hard drive is not wiped clean during a restart. It retains all information even when the computer is switched off. I don't think 256MB will be satisfactory for your computer unless you run very few programs. RAM upgrades are always good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eber Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 If you don't mind eBay, I'd even suggest something like a GeForce 4 Ti-4600. It'll kick the **** outta the 9550 for less than half the cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJPapi1977 Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 ok guys I bought the e-geforce fx 5200 last night but could not get it to work on my dell... i removed the lid from the pc and where the pci cards go there are 3 beige slots and then 1 green smaller one on top of that.. the 3 beige slots is where i beleive the card should go since that is where i put the sound card last year. but there is no other card there to remove to put this new video card. there are 3 slots and 2 are taken.. 1 by the sound card and the other by a small green one that came with the pc that connects the phone lines for dial up... the only bieng slot left is at the bottom and when i put the card in and start my computer the desktop image i have of my ny giants is all black but with a shade of white where the ny log goes... i can see the ny decal but the rest of the screen turns black... when i remove the new video card it goes back to normal..... dont know why... one last thing... the new video card came with a black cord that looks like an s-video cord.. it is short and on both ends it has s-video outlets.... it also came with another small beige thing that conects to the card from the outside and it has a blue colored slot on the outside to plug something in from the outside... i dont know what to do.. please help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdaz Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Your best bet is to try Dell's support site and see if that doesn't help. I don't know if you have integrated video on your machine or not. I doubt you do. But you need to remove your old card before installing the new one. But go to Dell and see if that doesn't help. There isn't enough info provided in your postings to know what specs are in your computer. But one thing for sure, you should really get another stick of ram for your machine, if you get the card running. 256mb of ram is barely enough to run the OS, not to add an application on top of that. And ram is pretty cheap. Dell's site will be able to tell you what kind of ram you need too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APR Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Sounds like you have 1 AGP slot and 3 PCI slots. AGP being green, and PCI being beige. If you do have integrated graphics, you just need to turn that off in your bios, and then the card should work. Call Dell first to find out how to get into your PC's BIOS, because getting there is different on nearly every computer. Once in your BIOS, there will be a couple of 'tabs', and you can just scroll thru looking for the integrated graphics, dis-enable that, then Save and Exit. Open up the PC again, plug in the card, and you should be good to go. If you have any more problems, go to www.tweakguides.com, register on the forums, and they can help you out tremendously, more than I ever could. That little beige piece that has a bunch of square holes on one side and where the other side is blue - that thing is solely dependent on what kind of monitor. Since you bought a dell, you probably have an analog monitor, and you have the litle blue plug with the screws on either side. If not (for some reason) you probably have a digital monitor, in which you will have to screw that adapter into the card, then plug the monitor into the adapter...make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJPapi1977 Posted February 6, 2006 Author Share Posted February 6, 2006 Sounds like you have 1 AGP slot and 3 PCI slots. AGP being green, and PCI being beige. If you do have integrated graphics, you just need to turn that off in your bios, and then the card should work. Call Dell first to find out how to get into your PC's BIOS, because getting there is different on nearly every computer. Once in your BIOS, there will be a couple of 'tabs', and you can just scroll thru looking for the integrated graphics, dis-enable that, then Save and Exit. Open up the PC again, plug in the card, and you should be good to go. If you have any more problems, go to www.tweakguides.com, register on the forums, and they can help you out tremendously, more than I ever could. That little beige piece that has a bunch of square holes on one side and where the other side is blue - that thing is solely dependent on what kind of monitor. Since you bought a dell, you probably have an analog monitor, and you have the litle blue plug with the screws on either side. If not (for some reason) you probably have a digital monitor, in which you will have to screw that adapter into the card, then plug the monitor into the adapter...make sense? you my friend are the man.... you hit it right on the head.. the video card i got goes in the green slot and the monitor is for the blue plug since mine is analog... it works fine now and the graphics are much nicer... now if only i can learn to down load the latest rosters.. i know how to do the stadiums and so other things like potraits but the damm rosters is complicated for me at least Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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