Upgrading eMachines T2682

Hi everyone


I was curious if I should xpect problems about upgrading my one and only PC(eMachines T2682) Here are the specs I hope to get after my upgrade:

Processor: Intel Celeron 2.60 GHz
Motherboard: Intel 845GV
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9200 PCI
Memory: 768 MB
Sound Card: Realtek AC'97 Audio

Will installing the graphics card drivers result in a system wiping where I lose all my game saves and things like that? Thank you for replying

It shouldn't cause anything like that to happen.
You'd just put the card in an open pci slot, plug your monitor into the new card, boot up, then (hopefully) you'll be able to see your windows desktop, if you can, then you'd go ahead and install the graphics drivers either off the cd with the card, or off of ati's website.

Hello


Well, I really don't like to install 3rd party drivers from websites; even from ATI. They sometimes have viruses and a cannot risk that.


Well, anyway thank you for replying

Thanx
sw123

I also like to play games. If the ATI radeon 9200 PCI isnt good for games, do you have any other reccomendations?

These two could be better choices.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133134
http://www.chumbo.com/Info.aspx?id=304966

A 9200 isn't too bad though(I don't think it's a native direct x 9 card though), just I haven't seen any for sale for a long time, most pci cards are either 9250's or 9200 se's, a 9200 would be better than either the 9250 or 9200se though.

thanks for your help vnf4ultra :wave:

Hi

I was curious because I am also installing RAM in my system. Can anyone give me pointers on installing it?? Are there any drivers I have to install?? If anyone can help, please reply! Also will I encounter any problems with Direct X 9 and the ATI Radeon 9200?? Any pointers or tips are appreciated!

If you have an open memory slot, and have compatible memory(right type, speed, capacity), then you should be able to just put it in the slot(make sure both clips lock into the notches on the sides), and it should recognize the additional memory on reboot. You shouldn't have to do any thing to configure or set it up. I don't think you'll have any issue installing direct x 9, the card you have isn't fully 9x compliant, but direct x 9 will still work on it. For more info on this, have a read here. (it's about a 9250, but a 9200 is similar)
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-36247-Is-ATI-Radeon-9250-DirectX-9-compatible.html

Well, I really don't like to install 3rd party drivers from websites; even from ATI. They sometimes have viruses and a cannot risk that??

Err you can get viruses from just viewing websites if they've been compromised (I've seen this happen), if you have the latest updates for your AV and spyware protection I wouldn't worry too much about this.

If you want to have better performance in games update your ATI drivers, if you don't play games and are not having any issues with your graphics leave them as they are.

Well thanks for your help everyone, but i was needed to know a couple things:

1. Does the ATI Radeon 9200 PCI have pixel shader support so that i can play Battlefront II and Lego Star Wars? Also..

2. My computer would crash often. It would(during startup) tell me i'm missing a boot record or master boot record file. They would be like HAL.DLL and other files :hotbounce It's happened many times. I have found a way to fix it, but it wipes my harddrive clean of my savegames and other files. Is there a way to fix my computer without wiping my whole system?? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW!!

thank you once again, Paulla and vnf4ultra!!

sw123

It should run battlefront II, a 9200 is a supported card in the system requirements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Battlefront_II#System_requirements_.28PC_version.29


Lego Star Wars requires vertex and pixel shaders 1.1+, the 9200 supports 1.4 pixel shaders and 1.1 vertex shaders, so it should work.
http://www.legostarwarsthevideogame.com/flash/player.cfm?lang=us
http://www.ati.com/products/radeon9200/radeon9200/specs.html

Not sure what your crash problem is, maybe a hard drive that's going bad, which loses info, causing problems?

Well first windows would kind of be really slow on startup and then in windows itself..after that it just, you know, dies. I'm not sure about getting a new harddrive; it costs alot. I bought this computer from my uncle and he says that when he used it, he didnt have problems. Maybe a setting or virus? I have no clue...perhaps maybe because I have an eMachines T2682 and when it dies like that i use a C2881 recovery disk. It still works

Well i just view LEGO Star Wars site. It should work after upgrade. I got it first when i had the weak integrated graphics from Intel. It had the pixel shader problem. But enough about that. All i wanna say is Thank you very much Paulla and vnf4ultra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys helped me a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :angel: I still need the problem about the crashing. I gotta find something!

I'd try a repair install of Windows XP, this should leave your data alone (game saves, etc.) and fix any inherent issues that have ocurred with the OS. You'll need to re-install any specific device drivers that were updated since you installed your OS as Windows will reset these to it's default ones.

I dont have windows XP cd

Also one time, my computer crashed and i didnt even set up the internet. I got message at startup, saying these huge file segments were corrupt, and then it said 'an unspecified error occrued' then restarted. Same thing. Can you explain why?


Thanx
sw123

What when are you guys gonna reply?

Also, I need to know if the monitor that comes with the eMachines T2682 compatible with my shiny new graphics card??? PLEASE SOMEONE REPLY!!!!!!!!!!

Firstlt, for your hard drive issues I would first recommend using a drive diagnostic utility. There's pretty much a different drive diagnostic utility for each brand of hard drive. What make and model is your hard disk (you'll find it on the label on the top of the hard disk)

Secondly, what make and model is your shiney new graphics card? ATI Radeon 9200 PCI? Because if that's it it should be absolutely fine - It's a fairly low end card, but may well be sufficient for you depending on what you want from it

Ya I'm getting an ATI Radeon 9200 PCI from eMachines(they let you buy that stuff), but I dont quite know what the harddrive make and model is. I'm going to open the back today to plan where I'm going to put my RAM and PCI card. While I'm at that, I'll look at the top of the harddrive


Thanx for replying

sw123