If your new video card has a minimum power supply requirement, it will be stated. Assuming your PSU is adequate, suggest you uninstall all video drivers and reinstall the ONE video driver for Matrox... always a risky proposition to have more than one video driver installed. [Go to Driverheaven and download their video driver 'cleaner' to try to remove all remnants]. If that doesn't work, try reinstalling the OS from scratch. (Yes, I know it's a pain to do so, but hard drive schmutz is a major reason for video trouble.)
Thanks Gnome for the advice. I bought the Matrox G200 used off of E bay, I guess I could contact Matrox for power requirements, it doesn't have it's own plug in for power or fan. I disabled the onboard drivers but didn't remove them. The OS yes, that would be a pain, but I have considered it.
Matrox G200 does NOT require additional power. Your problems lurk elsewhere. Did you tell your BIOS to (1) make PCI the primary video for the G200, (2) disable the onboard video?
Yes Gnome I did do that and I disabled onboard video under device manager. Thanks for the feedback on the PSU and your help. Dan
Thanks Landis82, but my coputer power supply has already been upgraded. What i need help on is finding some quality video cards for no more than 180$. If any knows of some good video cards that aren't out of my budget please let me know. just thro some out there . Have in mind that i'm a hardcore gamer and i love FPS (first person shooters for those who don't know what it means) so the card has to be able to handle them at decent frame rates. I Don't care about them being able to play the games on thier highest settings but i would like to be able to play games like F.E.A.R. at meduim settings. My Computer is a celron 3.06GHz with recently upgraded 1Gb Ram. The motherboard has a AGP slot so the card must be an AGP. If Anyone knows of some cards that would suit my needs or have any helpful information please send a reply as soon as possible. Any Help Would be much appreciated.
Kerry, hereâs a list of AGP v-cards with price range $100-200. Read through the specs and User Reviews. Good luck
I've been looking at the site you posted. I've Found a good a canidate. i found a Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT for 175$ its perfect. I've also considered the 6800 Ultra though the performance isn't too much more. But its more than 300$ so the Gt is alot better for the price to performance ratio. I'm going to look so more to see if i can find something else thats good. if someone could tell me if these are good for a celron. They are pretty crudy so you need a better video card to compensate. if anyone knows of good video cards for celron or if the cards mentioned are good for it please let me know. By the way the Gt takes only 350 Watts of power and runs alot cooler than the Ultra since it has only one connector instead of to so you don't use up a pci slot.thanks again.
I found a Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra for a little of 200$ about 240 I think. I have a celron 3.06 Ghz and 1 Gb of Ram. i also have found a Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT. From what i've read and reading reading reviews it runs alot cooler than the ultra and other video card is fine with 350 Watts. it also only has one connector so it doesn't take up a pci slot. If anyone knows if these are good for a celron please let me know if they aren' please tell me what card would be good for it.
i also found a ATI All-In-Wonder X800 XT Radeon for 169.99$ they will run games on high settings but they run hot takes 350 watts of power. though from what i've read its pretty good, i've never liked ATI cards i've always preffered the Nvidia Geforce cards. If this would be better for celron than my past post Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT & Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra. I'd prefer th Geforce but if the Ati is for my setup please let me Know. I have a celron 3.06 ghz and a 1Gb of Ram memory. please let me know if the cards i mentioned are a good choice. if not please let me know what is good.