Military AI Works

Hi guys,
I would really appreciate some help from some one who knows even a little about graphics cards/pc's in general, as they would definately know more than I would.....

I am a computer hardware dummy and please don't assume I know nothing - I'm saying I really DON'T know anything about this subject.

Today I bought a GeForce (and this following bit is directly from the box)

9400GT PCI Express 512mb DDR2 128bit DVI-I+DVI-I+HDTV-out

card; when I got home and went to install the card I found the following problem

The, I assume, "PCI" slot



The Card



As you can see, the peg don't fit the hole.....where did I go wrong? I thought if I was buying a card that said it was PCI, it would fit into my system - which is a home-built (NOT by me). But as you can see - it doesn't.

The machine specs are

AMD Athlon (TM) XP 2000+
1.25 GHz 1.00 GB Ram
240 GB internal hard drive on two separate drives
80 GB external hard drive
Nvidia RIVA TNT2 Model 64 (replaced the old GeForce card - can't remember which one but it died)

Basically - what can I say to the shop person tomorrow when I take the card back and need a replacement?

Many thanks in anticipation

PCI is NOT PCI Express, they are different cards with different connectors and are not interchangeable.

OK it looks like your motherboard has an AGP graphics card slot which I think went out with the Nvidia 6xxx series, The card you have has a PCI Express connector.
So whilst it is a PCI card, it will not fit in a standard PCI slot.

How old is your motherboard? It may be that you will find an AGP card or by a new motherboard.

Anybody care to confirm this?

I think this PC was made up about 18 months/2 years ago - and I think the last card was a GeForce 5600 (somewhere around there)

The easy thing to do is this...

Take the old video card with you to the store. The salesperson will/should recognize the type of slot you are making available.

Note/write down on a piece of paper and bring to the store with you, which other connectors will be vacant - white, green, brown.... The colors tend to relate specifically to the type of card connection. (White-AGP? or is it old-PCI, Green-old,old,old, Brown-new (PCI-Express I think), for example).

((Alternative - take 2 pictures like you posted here using a digital camera and bring THAT with you to the store.))

With that, the sales/tech guy ought to be able to help you with less chance of error than anything any of us say here.... IMHO.

Steve is correct... the motherboard has an AGP slot and PCI slots but no PCI Express slots, at least based on the photo. Your choice is to either upgrade your motherboard to one containing PCI-Express slots or exchange the graphics card for an AGP one.

Ford Friendly wrote: ((Alternative - take 2 pictures like you posted here using a digital camera and bring THAT with you to the store.))

With that, the sales/tech guy ought to be able to help you with less chance of error than anything any of us say here.... IMHO.

I will be doing that as I don't have the old card any more - many thanks for everyones help here - one day I shall grasp the subject with both hands, once they're free of everything else.

Cheers

Got it sorted, now have a soopa-doopa wizzy-wazzy GeForce 7300GT and its working a treat, thanks to those helpful guys at PC World and my feat at departing with another £14 on top of what I paid already - but hey, got a free copy of Company of Heroes with it.........thanks again for the advice chaps.

Brown - AGP
White - PCI or PCI-X (Newer boards PCI-Express)
Black - ISA (remember them?)