Graphics Card Advice Please.

[Dave Kendrick]

Hi Guys (and Gals ),
First can I wish all members and lurkers a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
My main PC is a Vaio VGX-X201 MM PC and my TV/monitor is a 40" Sony LCD. Despite them both being Sony products the MM PC does not have a 15 pin D-SUB output whilst the TV does have such an input. At the moment I have them connected by a component video lead (3 x RCA) but recently the red ouput socket on the PC video card has come loose such that, more often than not, the red component of the screen image is significant by it's absence.
The card concerned is a PCI card (NOTE not PCI-E). Can anyone recommend a good but not ridiculously expensive PCI Graphics card that is compatible with Win 7, with 15 pin D-SUB and/or component video output please. I am not a gamer so all the latest bells and whistles are not required - all I want is faultless operation, doesn't have to be high speed etc but must give good colour rendition. New or second hand would be acceptable.
NOTE: according to the PC manual the PCI card must not exceed 16cm in length which may limit potential candidates.
Any polite suggestions? - thanks for any help,
Dave.

 

[Paul Lange]

Hi Dave, Does it not have any other output connections for video/graphics?

 

[Pete Askew]

Hi Dave,

I may well have something in my Elephant's Graveyard of old PC cards. I'm in Germany for another 2 weeks but will look when I return if you can wait that long. No cost involved, I'd just be pleased if they found a good home!

 

[Dave Kendrick]

PCI Graphics card.

Hi Dave,

I may well have something in my Elephant's Graveyard of old PC cards. I'm in Germany for another 2 weeks but will look when I return if you can wait that long. No cost involved, I'd just be pleased if they found a good home!

Hi Pete,
You sir, are a gent!! If you do have anything that meets the criteria (and I suspect the max length of 16 cms may well be the main problem ), I would be more than happy to cover all your P&P costs + a contribution to your favourite charity,(or even your favourite beer fund ). Talking of which, you're not in Munchen enjoying an extened Octoberfest are you? - I once had an invitation to visit a business contact there at that time but was unable to accept.
Thanks again,
Dave.

 

[Paul Lange]

Hi Dave, if Pete has a card that does the job that's great, if not I think your PC has a HDMI connector which your TV may also have. If not your TV may have a DVI connector and you can buy a HDMI to DVI connector for around £10-15 maybe less.

 

[Dave Kendrick]

Hi Dave, if Pete has a card that does the job that's great, if not I think your PC has a HDMI connector which your TV may also have. If not your TV may have a DVI connector and you can buy a HDMI to DVI connector for around £10-15 maybe less.

Hi Paul,
Thanks for your contributions. You are correct in that my PC does have an HDMI output BUT unfortunately it is not connected at the inside end. A long time ago I had a conflict problem (Win 7) with the original graphics/TV card which could only be resolved by putting in a new card. So now, although the HDMI output socket is still in situ it cannot be used. ATM my picture is normal (full red component) so I guess that, if Pete is not able to help, my best plan may be to try soldering the intermittent red component socket as there's obviously not a major problem with it.
Problem is that my soldering skills are very limited.
Cheers,
Dave.

 

[Paul Lange]

Ahhh, Makes sense, I thought it odd that you missed the HDMI socket. Windows 7 is great when it ships with a new PC but its the same old storey as was with changing to XP and then changing to Vista, people often found some of their hard and software didn't work any more.

How do you find Windows 7, Everybody says its faster than Vista but I've found that Vista with a lot of the fancy features turned off was quite fast and slick and very reliable. I now have 2 PC's with 7 and to be honest I've had much more agro with Win 7 getting it to run how I want it.

 

[Dave Kendrick]

Paul,
I know what you mean about migrating from one OS to another. My Vaio VGX-XL201 was supplied with XP MM Edition but I did a deal with the local Sony Centre that they would upgrade it to Vista. Many e-mails and threats of returning it later they eventually supplied me with new Vista system discs but many of the drivers were missing ( but promised to be forwarded as they became available - in several cases it never happened). I then got an eBay offer of Win 7 Home Premium original disc which turned out to be for a clean install on an Acer OEM PC. With a bit of help from the seller I managed to get it up and running (fairly) smoothly.
So I'm not the best person to give you any impressions on Win7 save to say that I don't really have much trouble with it but also I don't work it hard either.
One problem I do have is that all the other PCs in the house run XP on an XP constructed wireless network and although the Win7 PC will connect to the internet wirelessly via the modem/router on that XP network, connecting with the other PCs on Win Explorer is more miss than hit, which makes dragging and dropping across the network a bit of a problem.
Apart from that it's not bad .
Dave.

 

[Hamish Gill]

my main problem with windows 7 is how many screens it seems to want me to be ablt to run ... it wont allow more than 1 graphics card unless they are exactly the same ... which is no good when you have a matx mobo with only one pcie slot ....
other than that i think its the best windows since 98