looking4trth

Hello all:

I recently purchased Caesar IV (Caesar 3 was great!) and thought my system met all of the requirements. After troubleshooting everything I knew how to I called the games' tech support. According to VU Games I have an onboard video card. What I need to play this game is: 64 MB Video Card (with hardware T&L, including pixel shader 1.1 or higher support). I can accomplish this with an External Video Card, but this is out of my area of knowledge. I just upgraded my memory and that was so easy I could have done it blindfolded. Can someone please advise me of a "good" external video card to purchase, and how to install it? I have a Dell Dimension 2400, OS XP,
my current video card is VGA 64 MB, but not enough to play this graphic intensive game.
Thank you,

Looking4trth

blackduck30

well I had a look at your model and from what i seen it does not have a graphics expansion slot ( AGP or PCI-E ) so you are very limited in what you can get. Basically you have one option, a pci video card. Something like this,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814143032

this will go into one of your PCI slots, being a pci card you may have to go into the bios and disable onboard graphics

looking4trth

I was afraid of that. I can do the bios thing, but, is this pci video card difficult to install? This is something I haven't done yet on my computer, everything else was no problem. When you say you "had a look at my system" did you see a skematic (sp) of it? If you did, can you tell me where to see it too? I am a visual person and if I can "see" it, I can "do" it.

BTW, this is a great site! I'm glad I found it.

Looking4trth

Deleted090308

Hi,
Here's the manuals for your computer: http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...m_en/index.htm
There's a drawing of your motherboard and instructions how to install a PCI card.

Nicholas

blackduck30

well eneles kindly saved me the trouble of posting the manual for you. If you are worried about the PCI card install, well if you can handle the bios the card it will be a piece of cake. I'm sure you won't have any trouble.
One tip tho, while you still have your computer up and running and after you buy your video card go and download the latest drivers for it
www.nvidia.com
and use those driver instead of the ones supplied with your card

looking4trth

To eneles and Black Duck:

You guys are amazing! Can't thank you enough for the info, and the manual. This was way too easy (I'm making a donation)

One last question: I went to the nvidia site, to download the drivers for the video card you recommended. It listed drivers for the "7" series, is this the correct driver for the 7300 GT card?

Thanks again,
Looking4trth

Deleted090308

That's correct if you downloaded forceware version 93.71. If you have problems with that driver - try version 84.21. Remember to disable the onboard graphics in BIOS. Before you install a new driver you have to uninstall the old one. After that - reboot to VGA mode, disable antivirus and install the new driver. Reboot again - this time to 'normal' mode.

**edit** There is no PCI version of the 7300GT (you can't use PCI-express). I think the GeForce5500 Blackduck recommended is one of the best PCI nVidia cards you can get - maybe there is PCI version of GeForce6200.

looking4trth

Hello:

I was confused at first but I did it to myself. I went back to the link Black Duck provided for the PCI card and the 5500 came up. I don't know where I got the 7300 series number, maybe on another search I did for PCI cards. Anyway, I figured it out and have the correct driver downloads and the correct PCI card ordered. Now, I can "Play," well when it gets here.

Both of You guys are terrific! (And I did make a donation)

I'll be back to let you know how it all works,

Looking4trth

Deleted090308

Good luck! Please post back, telling us about your progress.

blackduck30

Just a quick note, when using the Nvidia site you select

1. Graphics Driver
2. Geforce FX SERIES ( This is the correct driver for the card I suggested )
3. Your operating system ( be it XP or Vista, ect )


And yes if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask

looking4trth

Hello Guys:

I got my new PCI Video card today and I sat and looked at it for about an hour (afraid to go install it). Finally got in here and shut down the computer so I could get into the Bios and disable my onboard graphics. Well......There is NO option to disable anything! Nor is there an "advanced settings." I thought about crying and decided not to. I went into the device manager and disabled the onboard video there. Installed my video card, used the downloaded drivers, from Nvidia, as suggested, installed the drivers, rebooted and................Am I a happy camper!!! It all works just like in the movies, even my new game that I wanted to play so much. I am just thrilled with this. And, it was easier than a piece of cake. In fact, it was so easy it scared me when I clicked on "play" Caesar IV, and it DID!
I couldn't have done it without you guys! This Video card was worth every dime I paid for it, and it got here pretty fast too.
Not sure about how I disabled the onboard stuff, but it works so........Any suggestions, or leave well enough alone?

thanks again,

Looking4trth

Deleted090308

Great news (most likely your motherboard automatically disabled the onboard graphics when the PCI card was installed)