nvidia AGP on Dell XPS-T

On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 16:03:30 GMT
"oodler" wrote:

went ahead and purchased an Nvidia GEForce2 MX-400 for my semi-old
system. The problem became, once the card arrived, I
realized it wasn't the right _type_ of AGP card; apparently, cards
made for newer AGP slots in newer computers won't physically fit in
slots from 1999 motherboards; it has somethiing to do with the way
different "speeds" of AGP card are manufactured- something about how
cards made for 4x won't physically fit in 1 or 2x slots. I only read
this warning after purchasing the card.

When I angrily Returned To Sender the item and asked www.tcwo.com to
send me a compatible card, they informed me that "the age of your
motherboard is the issue" and that there was nothing they could do
except recredit my account and let that be the end of it.

I'm forced to accept their decision but I still think it's bull****. I
know several people with computers two or three years older than mine
who are able to use Nvidia AGP cards. So it boggles my mind that TCWO
would not have the proper type of AGP card in stock.

I've got a Dell XPS-T600. And no, I'm not getting rid of
it and getting a new box; thanks anyway in advance. According to the
Belarc System Profile Advisor, my motherboard's an Intel SE440BX-3
AA722396-108.


What's the proper "speed" of GeForce2 MX-400 to get for my computer?

Did you try to put the board in? If so, what didn't fit--was the
connector too long, shifted to the front or back, the crosspieces in the
connector didn't match the cutouts in the board, something was sticking
up blocking the skirt in front, what?

I've got a (dead--I have no idea why I put it in the attic instead of
tossing it) SE440BX sitting here in front of me right now and every
video board I have fits right into the slot.

As for boards fitting into slots, a board that is 2x-only will not fit
into a slot that is 4x-only, but any non-PCI GF2MX400 should support
both 2 and 4 and fit either slot.

Instead of tcwo, go over to http://www.newegg.com and look at the boards
and find one that has a connector that looks like the one on your
existing board--count contacts if you have to. When you find a matching
board, if there is something special about it there should be some
indication in the product description. An extra cutout in the connector
is OK, as is an additional skirt with no contacts on the end away from
the card bracket, but the connector should be the same length (in terms
of number of contacts) and the slot toward the card bracket end should
be the same number of contacts from the end.

Thanks


--
--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)