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Old May 7, 2003, 12:23   #1
Worthingtons
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Another one for you Tech dudes
My Girlfriend has recently inherited my Old Computer.

It's got Onboard graphics (**** ones) that take 8mb of the RAM, and there is only 128mb Ram on it anyway. She's told me she wants TV on it.

I've seen a good ATI graphics card at just over £20 with 32MB graphics and TV OUT. So I presume this can be used to watch TV easy enough, but is there anyway i disable the onboard graphics prefferably so that she can get that 8mb of Ram back

Also, having seen a special deal on DDR Ram, I'm tempted to double my RAM from 512 to 1mb , does anything think an average gamer would really need 1mb, and also can i mix and match memory speeds or does it all have to run at the same.
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Old May 7, 2003, 12:26   #2
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Yes. You should be able to do it through BIOS.

You probably don't need 1GB RAM. W98 doesn't support that much anyway IIRC.
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Old May 7, 2003, 14:29   #3
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Cheers for that, could you also answer me something else...
I'm trying to figure out what the ports/slots are on the Motherboard

At the top there are 3 memory slots
Then there looks to be 4 PCI (Cream coloured) slots

and there is an isolated one at the bottom, it's quite long (double the length of the PCI's) and is dark (probably black) coloured. Anyone have any idea what this slot is? AGP perhaps?

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Old May 7, 2003, 14:30   #4
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That's an ISA slot. It's obsolete and you won't need it.
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Old May 7, 2003, 14:31   #5
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That an ISA card (isn't used anymore)
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X-post, 2 for the price of one
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Old May 7, 2003, 14:34   #6
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BTW, I just realised something. The fact that the graphics card has a TV-out on it won't allow your girlfriend to watch TV; it only allows for the output of your computer's display onto a TV screen. You'll still need a TV card if she wants to watch the telly.
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Old May 7, 2003, 15:33   #7
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Quote:
Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Yes. You should be able to do it through BIOS.

You probably don't need 1GB RAM. W98 doesn't support that much anyway IIRC.
Actually, at least for certain stuff it does (AFAIK)... it's just that it becomes even more unstable than normal .
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Old May 7, 2003, 20:06   #8
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--"It's got Onboard graphics "

Be careful, then. From the sounds of things, you don't have an AGP slot (it'd be the one closest to the CPU). If this is true, make sure you're getting a PCI video card. They're getting hard to find these days.

That particular graphics card may not be what you're looking for, either. You need TV in, not TV out.

--"does anything think an average gamer would really need 1mb,"

You sound like the old Bill Gates and his "no one will ever need more than 640K of RAM"

But assuming you meant 1 gig, then probably not at this point. 512 should be plenty.
You can mix and match speeds, btw, but they'll all run at the speed of the slowest, so it's not really a good idea.

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Old May 7, 2003, 21:11   #9
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"Yes. You should be able to do it through BIOS.

You probably don't need 1GB RAM. W98 doesn't support that much anyway IIRC."



To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:
1) Use these MaxFileCache setting in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum amount of memory that Vcache uses to 512 megabytes (524,288 KB) or less.
2) Use the System Configuration utility to limit the amount of memory that Windows uses to 512 megabytes (MB) or less.
3) Or, you can reduce the amount of RAM to 512MB or less.
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Old May 8, 2003, 08:39   #10
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All you really need is a TV adapter card - as previously started, a card with TV in. Then an aerial to pick up the signal and plug it in. You can get ISA versions of these, but the PCI one's are much better, and only cost about £40 or less brand new.

These cards are usually called TV cards. The onboard graphics you have should work fine with such a TV card. In the UK most units are made by Hauppage - an older PCI will be fine, so long as you get the software with it.

You'll need a TV license for it too.

And if the Govt does switch off analogue TV broadcasts in a few years and goes digital, it will need to be replaced.

If you want better performance from your PC, I suggest you invest in a fast SCSI-3 hard disk and controller card. It's all very well having more memory, but the data still has to go to and from the hard disk. I fitted such to my 550 K6-2 with 128 mem, and Civ was about 3 times faster. Cost me about £50 total (Ebay and qxl.com).
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Old May 8, 2003, 08:49   #11
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Why the (extra) tv license?
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Old May 8, 2003, 08:54   #12
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All equipment that can receive TV signals - even video recorders - need an expensive license in the UK. It's to pay for the BBC - the Brisish Broadcasting Company, who never run adverts (except for their own products). Only exception is equipment with an internal battery compartment like a handheld LCD job.

As you may have guessed, I don't have a TV.
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Old May 8, 2003, 08:57   #13
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Ah, we now can more then 1 tv on one license, we used to have the same system but since noone paid for the second one anyway, they changed it
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Old May 8, 2003, 09:01   #14
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I bet the yanks are looking at us and thinking "WTF?, TV tax?! "
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Old May 8, 2003, 09:04   #15
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We soon won't have to pay for it either. cable for free
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Old May 8, 2003, 09:07   #16
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cable for free? Wow.

how would they pay for all the crap TV shows, then?
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Old May 8, 2003, 11:04   #17
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--"If you want better performance from your PC, I suggest you invest in a fast SCSI-3 hard disk and controller card. "

That depends on what you're doing. Most desktop applications aren't going to give you an appreciable difference with this, although there are excpetions.

A much better option from a price/performance POV right now is SATA.

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Old May 8, 2003, 11:12   #18
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Video encoding
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Old May 8, 2003, 11:15   #19
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Quote:
Originally posted by Azazel
cable for free? Wow.

how would they pay for all the crap TV shows, then?
Hight taxes and we still have to pay royalty IIRC.
Note that this doesn't include any Pay-tv channels/movie-channels(those channels you usaly need a decoder to see them)
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Old May 8, 2003, 11:15   #20
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cruddy
These cards are usually called TV cards. The onboard graphics you have should work fine with such a TV card. In the UK most units are made by Hauppage - an older PCI will be fine, so long as you get the software with it.
Sure? Since the output of the TV card needs to go into the video card, otherwise you won't be able to see any TV shows on screen.
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Old May 8, 2003, 13:31   #21
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Having read Happauge's website, I must agree that the onboard graphics must support DirectDraw. If they don't, an additional graphics card that does is required.

As a suitable 32Mb card would cost about £10 or less, I wouldn't consider it a huge burden. Rothy might disagree.

And to Rothy's additional question about reclaiming the 8Mb of memory the graphics used - PCI graphics cards typically need a shadow portion of the system memory. I fiddle about with these settings but it doesn't make a great deal of difference, to be honest.
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Old May 9, 2003, 11:38   #22
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Just wanted to add, on the SATA/SCSI3 debate - at least we both agree that a fast hard disk is desirable, even if all it does is make Windows boot faster.

The problem is that Serial ATA is one step beyond vapourware on this side of the Atlantics, wheras SCSI-3 can be got secondhand pretty cheap. You can mail order SATA drives and controllers but it's not on the high street yet.

Also, there is no way I am ever going to buy first generation of a new technology, no matter how good the specification is. Sell me something that's been around for a few years and where the pitfalls are known. I am not an unpaid beta-tester.

Finally, the improvement in the performance of Civ3 (which does chuck files on and off the hard disk every time you open an advisor screen) is partly due to how slow and unreliable my old hard disk was.
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Old May 14, 2003, 13:55   #23
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Thanks for all the information guys. I went out and bought a Happauge TV adapter card as Cruddy Suggested, a basic card, and the onboard graphics seem to work alright. Quite happy with the results and i might even get one for my own PC, although i want to wait till I can pick up digital TV and get all the free channels, that'd be ace.

One problem with my gf's PC however is that i cant get the damn thing bright enough... it's just too dark even when i turn the brightness on the monitor to 100%!!

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Old May 14, 2003, 14:04   #24
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I have this problem with my monitor as well, HOWEVER by using the Settings/Display/Advanced options I can boost the gamma output. This boosts my Windows brightness but doesn't help with DOS or non DirectX games...

If you don't have a set of drivers for that onboard graphics set (and, more to the point, a set of utilities to go with them) you won't see the option - windows does not let you play with brightness settings, that is down to the gfx card manufacturers to sort out the software themselves.

In other words - if you can't find a set of utils to adjust it with from the onboard gfx supplier, you will need that extra graphics card anyway. I make do with a TNT2 - it can't do regular DirectX games very well but it's fine for everything else.

EDIT: Either that or a new monitor. NAH, that's a dumb idea. Maplins are doing a digital card for about £80 - but as noted above, I give new tech a few years to get reliable before I buy.
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Old May 14, 2003, 14:04   #25
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Try adjusting the gamma settings, if there are any.
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Old May 14, 2003, 14:33   #26
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Quote:

Hight taxes and we still have to pay royalty IIRC.
Note that this doesn't include any Pay-tv channels/movie-channels(those channels you usaly need a decoder to see them)
What do you mean "taxes"? is the cable TV government owned in Beligium? I guess you euros are a bunch of godless commies, after all!

oh, and I bet our taxes are higher. But we use them to build tanks.
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Old May 14, 2003, 21:11   #27
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Cheers again Cruddy.

We use the taxes to pay for the Refugees running from your tanks.... we like to give them enough of an allowance so that they can probably buy a tank themselves :/
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Old May 14, 2003, 21:12   #28
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Quote:
Originally posted by Azazel
[q]

oh, and I bet our taxes are higher. But we use them to build tanks.
Beats me how you have the fuel for them. Or do you get that as part of the "biggest aid receiver on the planet" package?

I'm just reciting what I heard. You may well not be the biggest aid receivers on the planet.

But it would be a shame to build all those tanks and not be able to race them.
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Old May 14, 2003, 21:14   #29
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Quote:
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That's an ISA slot. It's obsolete and you won't need it.
I actually use an ISA slot.
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Old May 15, 2003, 00:04   #30
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