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UnusualHomeUser
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June 22nd, 2007 03:00
SC1430: any video card experience?
I need to upgrade from the embedded graphics in an SC1430, but I'm having a spot of bother finding something which will work. Of course, Dell don't officially support doing this, so they're not giving me any useful advice, but perhaps one of you might have had some relevant experience.
I don't need dramatically-powerful state-of-the-art graphics, but I do need 3D support (which the onboard ATI ES1000 can't do). I tried plugging in a GeForce 6200 PCI card, but got no joy at all: blank screen even during POST and even if all other cards are removed, so it looks like it's fundamentally incompatible with the motherboard. (It is being detected, though, since installing the GeForce does successfully auto-disable the onboard graphics.)
Does anyone have any concrete experience of successfully adding a graphics upgrade to an SC1430, and if so what did you use?
- When I read the Specs on My SC1430 I thought I read PCI express and PCI-X slots, I went on and bought a decent PCIe card and it doesn't even fit the board!!! fortunately enough I was able to get my money back. I'm trying to build a media server from my SC1430 and I'm really confused the PCIE slots are the large ones and conform to what archtecture? The PCIX Slots are the small ones, I have seen some video cards from Matrox with that kind of slot but the specs of the cards are not very impressive. So what do I have to look for in order to fit my server with a decent video card? Please help me I'm lost.
usmc_mario
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Posted August 1st, 2007 19:00
i'm in the same boat. looking for a video card for the sc1430. the 8800 gtx is pci-e 16x and probably won't work with our 4x/8x slots- Trying my ATI Radeon 9200 in SLOT4_PCI did not work. I just got a blank screen when I booted up. However, after reading the post from above, I was able to use a second card, my ATI Rage XL card from my 400SC in SLOT6_PCIX. A normal, old style PCI card won't fit in that slot, but the Rage XL had a PCIX-like configuration with the three connector sections. I did this as a test, just so that I could verify at least SOMETHING worked on the box. Now to find out if better PCI cards will work. Who knows? Maybe even PCI Express!
Message Edited by cacasodo on 09-29-2007 07:45 AM - I tried a second card, a BFG NVidia 6200 OC 256MB PCI. I tried every trick in the book (changing IRQs, disabling one thing at a time in the BIOS and then everything in the BIOS and then switching to a different PCI or PCI-X slot on each change), but it did not come to life. However, I need to get an NVidia card working on this thing for Cinelerra, as ATI has an incomplete OpenGL implementation on Linux.
On the bright side, the VisionTek x1550 mentioned above did work for a buddy of mine.
Here are some other possible non-VisionTek PCI Express options discussed in another thread:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069620108&name=PCI+Express+x1
Message Edited by cacasodo on 09-29-2007 08:01 AM - Thanx to MSL for sharing his experiences. Here are my results using his suggestions.
I bought the SC1430 to be a high powered desktop, but didn't know about the video & other add-on issues (my lack of due diligence). Tried various nVidia PCI cards in the lone PCI slot, but they produced only black screens at POST. Emailed an A+ Dell hardware tech who had helped me with an unrelated issue. He replied with the bad news that the 1430's onboard controller can't be explicitly disabled in the BIOS because Dell servers aren't designed for desktop graphics.
Bummer! The unit was worthless as it was & I'd missed the return date by one day. An expensive, time consuming mobo replacement was looking to be the only option, but a more-tech-savvy-than-me friend sent me the link to this thread.
I installed a $40 VisionTek Xtasy 9250 PCI card (128mb RAM, ATI Radeon) in PCI-X Slot 6 & it booted right up! The VisionTek-supplied drivers & Catalyst Control Center software installed smoothly & the card's now driving a V7 22" flatscreen at 1680x1050 with only one issue (see below).
I run Win2K Pro with SP4 (.NET v1.1), so there's probably hope for other Windows 2000 Professional users. (A Creative Audigy SE sound card (PCI) is also working in PCI-X Slot 5 but those details are for another thread.)
My only problem with the new VisionTek card is that I can't play DVDs. I can play clips but not movies. Putting a DVD in the drive produces an error about insufficient video memory, another app using the resources or the display adapter being incompatible with the DVD decoder.
Googling produced a suggestion to install DVD player software. Tried PowerDVD but it won't install due to an installer issue (installer says "error in transforms" & fails). Still working on it. Have installed ATI's v6.2 drivers to no avail. Will try another card with more RAM (both PCI & PCI-X) & post any positive results here, but hope someone will reply if they've resolved this problem with PowerDVD or different DVD player software.
Regards to all & thanx again to MSL,
Dilly
Message Edited by tdilly on 11-21-2007 09:24 AM - hi tdilly,A number of us have been through the ringer with the SC1430. But we've made progress. A number of more cards are now confirmed as working in the box. Read my blog entry and the comments thread for the latest info:'sodo
Message Edited by cacasodo on 11-21-2007 08:33 AM - 'Sodo!
Thanx so much for the reply & link! Thanx also for all the stuff you & other have posted in your blog thread. I'm off to the store today to buy some cards with more memory & an 8X-to-16X adapter. At least one card will be nVidia based. Will report results here & in your blog.
What about movies? Can you watch DVDs on your rig? Any info from others who've tried?
Thanx again,
Dilly - I bought a PCI-X16 video card for my SC1430, but it doesn't fit. Didn't know the notches were different for X4/X8 slots.
Would like to try a PCI-X1 card but none of the big box stores sell them & I'm not willing to pay an online vendor's return shipping to experiment. But the PCI card I have works adequately for nearly everything I do.
I finally got movies to play by installing Cyberlink PowerDVD v5.0 (5.0.0.1107 specifically). There's a little stutter in the dialog, but I hope to sort that out soon. Please post here if you have suggestions.
I posted my success at installing a sound card at http://tinyurl.com/27ywfc to keep the thread clean.
Regards,
Dilly - tdilly,Glad to see you're making progress, I'm still running 64bit on my desktop at work, which has given me trouble on the video end, but I like the SC1430 so much I bought one for myself at home. I'll post the full specs later but I ordered it with dual 5335 procs and 8 gigs of RAM. I have the VisionTek x1550 in it running on Server 2k3 Ent sp2 x86 without any problems. I've installed a number of Server 2003 variations over the past week without to much trouble in regards to the video. Had to double reboot after installing CCC in order to get everything fired up, it seems the drivers load on the first reboot and CCC loads on the second.In regards to a sound card, installed is a SIIG SoundWave 5.1 PCI. It works fine for general noise but I haven't tested it for any high end stuff.Interesting on your DVD problem, some time should be available over the holiday and I may be able to test DVD play and let you know what I find.Cacasodo,At first glance your link looks interesting and at any rate thanks for making the space available. It was late and I was unable to give the focus it deserves but I do look forward to going back and seeing what I can learn.Marc
MSL
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Posted June 24th, 2007 20:00
I was able to add a VisionTek X1550 PCI grapics card to my SC1430 when running 32 bit Server 2003 Standard right out of the box. It did require .Net 2.0 installed but was fully recognized with 3D support. After much research it appears a ATI Radeon or RageXL card will work with Windows 2K3, this may be due to the ATI 1000 chip used in these cards. I had the same problems you experienced when attempting to install a nVidia based 5200 series card. I have moved to a 64 bit installation for the time being in which the VisionTek works but the 3D support is absent after an update to .net 3.0. Also worth noting is that I have the PCI card installed in the lower PCIX slot and not in the PCI slot.
Marc