replacement for ATI Radeon 9800 XT

I have an old Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that
has died. I have a lot of software installed on the machine and it was
performing just fine. I would like to replace the graphics card.

I am not a gamer and don't push the graphics engine much beyond
photoshop or youtube.com.

I saw some used cards going on ebay for about $50. For that price, it
is worth not having to reinstall everything on a new machine.

Please recommend a compatible replacement card.

Thanks in advance.

Tired Techie

"Tired Techie" wrote in message
...
I have an old Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that
has died. I have a lot of software installed on the machine and it was
performing just fine. I would like to replace the graphics card.

I am not a gamer and don't push the graphics engine much beyond
photoshop or youtube.com.

I saw some used cards going on ebay for about $50. For that price, it
is worth not having to reinstall everything on a new machine.

Please recommend a compatible replacement card.

This or any other similar 128bit X1650...there's a number to choose from
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161256
Thanks in advance.

Tired Techie

Tired Techie writes:
I have an old Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that
has died. I have a lot of software installed on the machine and it was
performing just fine. I would like to replace the graphics card.

I am not a gamer and don't push the graphics engine much beyond
photoshop or youtube.com.

I saw some used cards going on ebay for about $50. For that price, it
is worth not having to reinstall everything on a new machine.

Please recommend a compatible replacement card.

Some guesses: Your system has an AGP card and you are using Windows
XP, right? My experience is that switching between different Radeon
cards is painless, at least if the driver supports both cards. If
you were still using the driver that was delivered with the machine, I
would recommend a Radeon 9250, or Radeon 7000, or anything on the
used-card market up to the 9800XT.

You can also get a newer card, e.g., an X1650 as mentioned by someone
else, but then I would recommend upgrading the driver first, which you
can no longer do. Still, changing cards is not so bad even if they
need a new driver (e.g., I recently tried out an Nvidia-based card and
then went back to an ATI card; I had no problems). I'm quite happy
with my X1650Pro (apart from not getting 2560x1600 properly in Windows
XP ).

- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html

Previously, on Usenet (Anton Ertl)
wrote:

I have an old Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that
has died.

Some guesses: Your system has an AGP card and you are using Windows
XP, right?

My 9800XT died a year ago. I don't game or do much hardcore video
stuff either. So I just went and bought another ATI card of what
seemed to have somewhat similar capacity a Radeon HD 2600.

Stupidly enough I never even thought to check if that card had drivers
for W2K, my preferred OS. So I had to "upgrade" to XP. I really miss
the 9800XT card, and W2K.

Just as a note to the OP not to make a similar mistake.
.........

I wonder what really happens when a video card goes south? Is there
any chance of repairing it?

Lars
Stockholm

In article , Lars wrote:
Previously, on Usenet (Anton Ertl)
wrote:

I have an old Dell 8300 with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that
has died.

Some guesses: Your system has an AGP card and you are using Windows
XP, right?

My 9800XT died a year ago. I don't game or do much hardcore video
stuff either. So I just went and bought another ATI card of what
seemed to have somewhat similar capacity a Radeon HD 2600.

Stupidly enough I never even thought to check if that card had drivers
for W2K, my preferred OS. So I had to "upgrade" to XP. I really miss
the 9800XT card, and W2K.


You can make windows XP look and function just like W2K!!!!


Just as a note to the OP not to make a similar mistake.
.........

I wonder what really happens when a video card goes south? Is there
any chance of repairing it?

Lars
Stockholm

Previously, on Usenet (GMAN) wrote:

You can make windows XP look and function just like W2K!!!!

You obviuously have forgotten a lot about how W2K works.

Lars
Stockholm

"Lars" wrote in message
...
Stupidly enough I never even thought to check if that card had drivers
for W2K, my preferred OS. So I had to "upgrade" to XP. I really miss
the 9800XT card, and W2K.

So which part of W2K did you miss the most? Its slow bootup times or
incompatibility with many games? :-)

I wonder what really happens when a video card goes south? Is there
any chance of repairing it?

Surface- and hole-mount PCB components can be replaced if you got a steady
hand and a powerful magnifying glass. The process is made more difficult
with cards made within the last couple of years, due to a switch to
high-temp lead-free solder for RoHS compliance. (You are more likely to burn
the component than before.)

A failed GPU or RAM chip cannot be replaced, due to inaccessible solder
balls on the inside rows.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

Previously, on Usenet "First of One" wrote:

So which part of W2K did you miss the most? Its slow bootup
times or incompatibility with many games? :-)

I have run dual boot with XP and W2K on several machines since XP
first came out, desktops and laptops. Exactly the same software
installed in both OS's. W2K is invariably faster and snappier on the
very same hardware. And I do know how to make XP look quite much the
same as W2K.

I am not a gamer really. What bothers me with XP is all the stupid
stuff where it assumes that the user is an idiot and does not mean to
do what he is trying to.

Last week I helped a friend install some software on a brand new Dell
with Vista. That was a lot worse, but still quite in line with the
differences between W2K and XP. Microsoft seems to be looking away
from people who are really interested in computers, and aiming more
for mothers-in-law.

Surface- and hole-mount PCB components can be replaced if you got a steady
hand and a powerful magnifying glass. The process is made more difficult
with cards made within the last couple of years, due to a switch to
high-temp lead-free solder for RoHS compliance. (You are more likely to burn
the component than before.)

A failed GPU or RAM chip cannot be replaced, due to inaccessible solder
balls on the inside rows.

OK, thank you. I had hoped someone would say "reflowing of the
solderings in xxx would most probably bring the card back to life".

(On Thinkpads.com there are many reports of such reflowing fixing
dead mobos.)

Anyway.

Lars
Stockholm

"Lars" wrote in message
...
I have run dual boot with XP and W2K on several machines since XP
first came out, desktops and laptops. Exactly the same software
installed in both OS's. W2K is invariably faster and snappier on the
very same hardware. And I do know how to make XP look quite much the
same as W2K.

Hmm, interesting. The W2K desktop machine I use at work boots up
significantly slower than my XP laptop, even with no network connections
configured. The laptop's is supposedly hobbled by a slower mobile hard disk,
too.

I am not a gamer really. What bothers me with XP is all the stupid
stuff where it assumes that the user is an idiot and does not mean to
do what he is trying to.

Eh? Exactly which functions are you referring to?

Then again, most users are idiots. See:
http://web.archive.org/web/200601280...FAQnum=FAQ2859

Last week I helped a friend install some software on a brand new Dell
with Vista. That was a lot worse, but still quite in line with the
differences between W2K and XP. Microsoft seems to be looking away
from people who are really interested in computers, and aiming more
for mothers-in-law.

The difference is in degrees. The bloat incurred in "upgrading" from XP to
Vista is much higher than going from W2K to XP.

OK, thank you. I had hoped someone would say "reflowing of the
solderings in xxx would most probably bring the card back to life".

What exactly do you mean by "reflowing"?

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

Previously, on Usenet "First of One" wrote:

"Lars" wrote in message
I had hoped someone would say "reflowing of the
solderings in xxx would most probably bring the card back to life".

What exactly do you mean by "reflowing"?

It means bringing the solder up to melting temperature and then
letting it cool off again.

I have only read about it. Some thinkpad mobos seems to have a problem
with some essential soldering cracking. The remedy is to take the mobo
out, wrap it in several layers of aluminium foil, make a small hole in
the foil, apply heat slowly with a heatgun, measure the temperature
and when it has reached a certain level, where the solder melts, start
letting the temerature drop, slowly again, until it settles.

Lars
Stockholm