Compaq on-board video

[FreeHand]

Assuming I can find a decent PCI graphics card (I'm sure I can) for a Presario 5BW130 (667 MHz Celeron), I'm concerned about disabling the integrated on-board video. Compaq outlines a procedure on their web-site, but this has been panned, just recently, as inadequate, as neither a BIOS update or jumpers are available to carry out the fix. Is a new card a straight-forward upgrade, and/or are the necessary parts, both hard and soft, readily available??

muchos gracias,

 

[chizow]

You can probably remove the driver in Windows, and I believe there is an option in the BIOS to disable the AGP. It didn't matter on my old integrated AGP Compaq. I just installed a PCI (v3 2k) and it detected it fine. The on-board AGP showed a conflict but the voodoo ran fine.

Chiz

 

[nj]

My girlfriend has almost the same Compaq as you (P3 700 instead of Celeron). I installed a PCI Radeon on it about a month ago.

If nothing works when you first put your PCI card in, just download all the patches from Compaq. One of the ones I downloaded flashed the Mobo's bios and fixed the problem. I think this was an issue with Radeon's and Compaq's, Voodoo's might be easier to install.

The Radeon, while not stellar, does make quite a difference. I can play just about anything in 640x480 or 800x600. Of course the girlfriend doesn't seem to notice the difference at all.