Norm Why wrote:
Thanks Paul, I did not find my GA-EP45-DS3L until Dec. 16, 2008. Back then
they recommended ATI. I used WBM to find www.ati.com. That was worse. ATI
was acquired by AMD so MBW was very confused.
One kind gentle whom I may have unfairly roasted suggested I check power. I
checked the ATX power cable and it was not tight, so I tightened it. I can
check +5, +12 and -12 (if present) on a SATA power cable. It is hard, and I
haven't gotten there yet, but it should be good, given a new 400W PSU. This
is the fourth PSU. The 3rd I sold because I falsely diagnosed a sympathetic
(harmonic) vibration. NOT the PSU but a bad bearing in the CPU fan. It is
good to sell good parts, one finds new friends. The first 250W PSU failed in
the manner described by kind gentleman I roasted. Using a multimeter I
showed the +12 rail had drooped. Then went to 400W. Now I will go backwards
and recheck the various boards offered me.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was not able to test voltages on SATA power cable, but did so on PCI
connector. Of academic interest: I have an USB/SATA adapter. With 3.5 HDDs
solution to drooping power was to buy new PSU. For 2.5 laptop HHDs my
USB/SATA adapter delivered +5V to power drive. Drill is: put non spinning
drive in freezer. Warm. Then use USB/SATA adapter to recover files. Discard
drive. +5V is sufficient power. However this trick does not work with SSD
drives. Requirement of +12V may be security measure. Hence: 1. this is one
more example of hardware specific hardware and 2. this is a reason I need to
make my new build work.
PCI voltages: Only +5V is present . I was able to find +5V and COM on some
pins shared on side A and B. Using probes on two PCI slots, I confirmed +5V.
First it peaks and then falls back, consistent with smart power management.
I may be able to confirm +5V on an old Fax/modem adapter but that would
require solder leads onto board. Useless idea.
Gigabyte does not make video adapters but does recommend ATI, now AMD. I
found that in 2008, ATI released ATI Wonder in a decades long series. In
2008 ATI still supported AGP. ATI Wonder evolved through CGA, MGA and VGA
for IBM compatible PCs. Apple is different. EVGA is now current. In 2008,
ATI even offered an ATI Wonder VGA with composite video for TV. Long ago I
may have owned an ATI Wonder, they were common.
Google search revealed such prices through the roof. Why would a low tech,
decrepit adapter appreciate in value? Supply and demand and hardware
specific hardware. There are many people trying to rescue old
hardware.Plug-n-Play only works in Microsoft Windows.
My task now is to fund a 2008 ATI Wonder PCI VGA adapter nearby and not to
pay hundred$ of dollars.
Ideas? eBay and Amazon are clip joints. Does any reader of this newsgroup
have a 2008 ATI Wonder PCI VGA adapter?
Thanks.
The difference between an ATI Wonder and an ATI card,
is the Wonder has a TV tuner. This does not materially
affect the problems you're having. You don't need the
Wonder part to solve a technical problem. Specifying
Wonder just adds to the card price and that's it.
Any old PCI based card would do, if you want to get
video without a hassle. PCI is 33MHz 32 bits wide on
the average desktop, and this is not exactly a high
speed interface. It's about as challenging as
making an IDE ribbon cable work.
AGP slots go up to 8X, and the interface has a
clock and can do eight bus transfers within one
clock tick (of the lower speed clock). There were
all sorts of problems over the years with this.
One USENET poster seems to have had some
first hand engineering experience with AGP,
and only had swear words to offer.
PCI Express is similar, in that like SATA, there
are attempts to be backward compatible, that don't
always work out. PCI Express 2 cards in PCI Express 1.1
motherboards were a problem in a few cases. Some of the
PCI Express 2 cards, the manufacturer offered a
video flash upgrade that would cause the card to
have the interface set at the PCI Express 1.1 rate
instead (so the card would refuse to negotiate
and screw up, and would always use the correct
speed without any assistance). Maybe you could
get a video flash upgrade for the 64KB flash chip
on the 8800GTX. That was somewhere in that era.
Even if you acquired a PCI 6200, that would be
good enough to get a BIOS screen working. Most Windows
OSes would run that screen at 800x600 without a
driver, and Windows 10 could manage 1024x768.
PCI cards "don't need to match era". No need to
aim for the year 2008. A 6200 PCI offers PCI without
bridge chips. An HD3450 would offer PCI by bridging
PCI Express to PCI with a separate chip. And a
card which delivered an AGP connector to the motherboard,
it would use a bridge chip like ATI Rialto to convert
from PCI Express (on the GPU) to AGP (at the motherboard
connector). Those are some examples of how
it's done. Today, you could take practically
any PCI Express card, and with a good bridge
chip, run it in a PCI slot by using a PCI
to PCI Express bridge card.
That being said, the market doesn't have much to offer
in the way of PCI video cards. Even though bridging
new kit is easy. There's a lot of used cards on
Newegg for $50, but that's a bit too high. For that
price, you would expect a new card.
This is for situations where you have a low profile
card you'd like to use. The problem with this card,
is the end away from us in the picture, needs
the end of the connector sawn off (to allow the usage
of x1, x4, x8, x16 cards in the adapter). This
one uses a *closed* x1 connector. The second link shows
the kind of connector Startech *should* have used.
https://www.newegg.com/startech-com-...82E16815158190
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Ex...d_IMG_1820.JPG
Now, this adapter plugs into the previous adapter,
giving us overall, a PCI Express x16 to PCI adapter.
It solves the closed x1 connector problem.
The card is passive, just a slab of FR4. There is
no mechanical support to speak of. The box contents
don't show a "stubby" faceplace metal piece to be
affixed to the FR4 drill holes.
https://www.newegg.com/startech-com-...82E16815158223
So again, a swing and a miss. I'm sure with a little
shopping, a better adapter is out there. Just a matter
of a crappy Google search coughing the thing up.
If I needed a PCI video card today, I have one surplus
place I could try that has "old new stock". I got my
IDE DVD writer there. Other than that, I've have to
go to the recyclers and get one.
Paul