Unofficial eMachines Forums

Hello, I found this site after franctically searching the web for a solution to my problem (And the sites search feature). I have a Emachines W3107 and want to upgrade my video card. My current Video card is a NVIDIA GeForce 6100 with 512 MB of Video RAM, I have 1.4 GB of RAM on my computer as well.

My Computer Specs
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn6/ ... rspecs.jpg

Heres where my problem is... I bought a PNY - XLR8 NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card from best buy and it didnt work
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 7029964973

When I put it in my computer it didnt work, I had no 6 pin connector to power the card, so I took it back up to best buy and they suggested I get a bigger power supply so I did from Frys. (Upgraded from 220-300 to 500volts) and I plug the video card and new power supply into it. I turn my PC on and after about 5 minutes of loading the computer automatically shuts off, and I smelt some burning coming from my computer. At this point I was freaking out thinking I lost my entire system, only to realize that I only fried the video card (Thank God). I take it back up to Best Buy and they exchange it no questions asked (Great service). I plug this one in and everything runs fine on my system, (Mustave been a faulty card), The only downside is my system doesnt reconize the card is in my computer, (I uninstalled all drivers and changed the BIOS to the PCIE slot) and whenever I entered in the CD the software said the card was there but the adaptars in my system were not compatable with the video card. I returned it after taking my computer up there and the Best buy guys tell me the same thing. They also told me my video card is built into my motherboard.

I really want to play Team Fortress 2 on high settings with ATLEAST 30+FPS settings. I really am at a wall here because I have NO clue what card is compatable with my computer, please any help about a card compatable with my system would be appriciated, Thanks

Well I presume your rig has a PCI e x 16 slot if you were able to physically connect the 9800GTX to the motherboard (since PCIe x 16 cards do not fit a PCI slot though they do fit PCIe x 4 and PCIe x 1 slots). The PCIe x 16 slot should be about 5 - 6 inches long. If its only like 2 - 3 inches long, you probably only have a PCIe x 1 or PCIe x 4 slot, which would not work with the 9800GTX.

If you have a GeForce 6100 onboard graphics, you probably have a NForce 410 chipset motherboard. Typically, these chipsets have the ability to put in PCIe x 16 connectivity. My son has a similar chipset, as does my daughter in their motherboards. The ability to connect would depend on whether the manufacturer of the motherboard utilized the PCIe x 16 capability for your motherboard or did they take this out to cut cost. Do you know the manufacturer of the motherboard (it often says on the motherboard itself). If its a NForce 410, it is not Intel since they dont make motherboards using NVidia chipsets. It may be companies such as ECS, or MSI since they have often provided motherboards in the past.

If your PC has a PCIe x 16 slot, in general, you should be able to connect any PCIe x 16 capable card. The built in vid card should have nothing to do with the ability to expand to an outside card. The ability would depend mostly on the chipset (does it give the capability to control the graphics card socket (AGP, PCIe, PCI etc)?) and the motherboard to physically be able to connect to the card (ie did the motherboard manufacturer take advantage of the abilities provided by the chipset). If so, and you have a PCIe x 16 slot, for the most part you should be able to connect any PCIex16 card. If not, then no you will not be able to. From some of the people who talked to you, it seems there may not be an PCIe x 16 slot if they said it does not have an adapter. However, I would double check on this since the people who work at these places (ie Best Buy) may not always know (you would be surprised who they hire at these places).

As stated before, if it has a PCIex16 slot, it should for the most part run any PCIex16 card out there. Unlike CPU socket, PCIe sockets have standards that all vid cards have to comply to, to ensure compatibility. This is also the case for things like SATA and USB connections. So if you have a socket, you should have the capability as well. It is true that the world is moving on the newer, faster versions of connections all the time (ie SATA 3G vs older SATA 150). However, at this time I have not heard of compatibility issues of newer PCIex16 cards with older PCIex16 slots. However, I may be wrong on this.

By the way, did you get rid of the old video drivers before adding the new card? Since both the 9800GTX and 6100 are both NVidia graphics chips, the new card may default try to access the older drivers. Of course the drivers for your 6100 won't drive the 9800GTX. If you have not tried to uninstall the NVidia 6100 drivers, you may want to do this to avoid driver conflict. Then instead of using the drivers in the CD, go to the NVidia website and download the drivers for the 9800GTX. The gpu manufacturer always has the most updated drivers for all cards and in general (though not always) these drivers work better.

If you have a PCIe x 16 slot and are not sure how to remove the older drivers, you may want to try an ATI card instead of a NVidia one. The ATI card probably won't mistake an older NVidia driver as an ATI one (maybe). If so, you can try to get something like a 4830, 4850 or 4870 for your rig. If you are going to get the 4870 make sure your power supply is absolutely a good one since 500W is borderline for that card. What power supply did you get? Hopefully its something good like an Antec Earthwatts, Corsair, Thermaltake Toughpower or something like that. The 4830 runs on par to the 9800GT, the 4850 is slightly below a 9800GTX, and the 4870 will outrun a 9800GTX. You can find the 4830 now below $100 and sometimes for as low as $80 after MIR (the ASUS one went for this price recently as did the Powercolor.) at NewEgg. The 4850 can be had for about $125 or so again at the Egg. The 4870 can be had for as low as $175 or so, again at the Egg. I presume your case can hold these cards since a 4870 is about the same size as a 9800GTX. Again, go to ATI to download the drivers instead of using the CD.

To be honest, the 9800GTX should work so if you have a preference for the NVidia products, you can see if swapping out drivers will let you run the card. Re reading your post, it seems you did uninstall the 6100 drivers. If so, I am not sure what is causing the issue. I would still try getting the latest drivers from NVidia vs using the CD.

Hope you get your rig running soon so that you can play the Orange Box at a decent framerate. Good luck.

I have a W3107 and yes, it does have a PCI-e slot. A few years back I put in a 6-series Nvidia card. I don't recall doing anything in the BIOS as it is supposed to load PCI-e before any onboard video. You should remove the old video drivers before installing the new card and drivers. In my case I didn't and it worked fine. Just lucky I guess. In your case I can only suggest uninstall and try again. (Remove the card, restart, uninstall the onboard drivers, shut down, install new card, start, install new drivers)