Pentium 4 and PCI/PCIE video cards

[thomasbandy]

Howdy - I just got an eMachines T5020 from Circuit City, which has a Pentium 4 motherboard and is, according to the website, "PCI-Express ready". Being trusting, I also got a PCI-Express video card. Upon opening the case, I saw that there was no PCIE x16 slot (a blank spot with empty soldering), just a PCIE x1 (useless for video cards, I think...). So I got a regular PCI video card (there are 2 PCI slots, the other has my wireless internet card). Windows started, but after the black screen the hard drive ran continuously for 10 minutes and nothing happened. In BIOS, I changed the onboard video to "PCI" and rebooted; nothing; and tried "PCIE", nothing. Is there another way to disable onboard video, and can I even use a PCI video card if PCIE is semi-built into the architecture (even with no actual slot)? Thanks!!!!
Thomas in Ann Arbor

 

[moonfruit]

I had the same problem, I bought my emachine 5250 from PC World where the sales guy said "Yeah, its compatible with all graphics cards...". I decided to have a look around for a graphics cards and emailed PC World to check if my pc was PCI Express. I got an answer "Yes your PC has a PCI-E x16 slot". Great, I thought. Before buying a card I had a look inside the case. Same thing, a blank space where the PCI-E slot should be. Bastards.

Now I am going to have to get a slow PCI card. Grrrrr.

 

[DragonFury]

i would return it on the basis of false advertisement u should have read the box a lil more thoruoghly it will state its expansion slots or look up the product # on emachines webby .