Question Video Graphics Assistance/ Need Video Card

[synoptic12]

Seeking assistance relating to the purchase of a compatible graphics card. Currently have a HP Pavilion HP 6370t CTO with MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E) motherboard > American Megatrends Inc 5.15, 6/25/2010 > Processor Intel ® Core i5 CPU 650 @ 3.20GHZ, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical. Current video graphics Nvidia GT220 (OEM).

I am seeking some information regarding the purchase of a video card that I need. I currently have a GT220 Nvidia but it needs replacement. Contacted EVGA as the tech said the graphics card would be contingent upon the (UEFI). He said it may or may not work. My PC is going on ten years (HP Pavilion- P6370t). The motherboard is MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E). I am trying to acquire information as to whether this board supports UEFI. What graphics cards can I use. Bios Version/ Date: American Megatrends Inc 5.15, 6/25/2010. All replies are very much appreciated. I am in need of a graphics card.

Have received much controversy in varying opinions, different techs state different things. Looking for a PCIe 2.0 x16 Single socket. All information or assistance is very much appreciated.

HP and Compaq Desktop PCs - Motherboard Specifications, MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E) | HP® Customer Support

Specification for the Iona motherboard

support.hp.com

 

[Spjut]

Folks in this thread say they've successfully used the 900 series cards with that motherboard

MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E bios update and GTX 970

Hi, my system comes with Motherboard MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E! I am trying to see if there is any update available to the BIOS before I upgrade my video card to GTX 970. I already upgraded my PSU to 600 W to accommodate the 970. My current BIOS version [according to Windows system information] is...

h30434.www3.hp.com

 

[synoptic12]

Send me a PM. I have a nVidia GT 630 I'll send your way for the price of shipping if you want it. I've used it in a non-UEFI machine without issues.

GT630-SL-2GD3-L | Graphics Cards | ASUS Global

Great value graphics with superior stability and 3D gaming

www.asus.com

* I'll send PM. I was loking at the best possible match and found this Legacy Card: https://www.visiontek.com/visiontek-radeontm-5450-1gb-ddr3-dvi-i-hdmi-vga.html.

 

[synoptic12]

Folks in this thread say they've successfully used the 900 series cards with that motherboard

MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E bios update and GTX 970

Hi, my system comes with Motherboard MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E! I am trying to see if there is any update available to the BIOS before I upgrade my video card to GTX 970. I already upgraded my PSU to 600 W to accommodate the 970. My current BIOS version [according to Windows system information] is...

h30434.www3.hp.com

I only have a 300 W PSU. I'll look into it, a bit busy at the moment. thank you very much for your help.

 

[Arkaign]

* I'll send PM. I was loking at the best possible match and found this Legacy Card: https://www.visiontek.com/visiontek-radeontm-5450-1gb-ddr3-dvi-i-hdmi-vga.html.

Oh no. Definitely go for the GT 630. It's not only a way better deal, thanks to the generous offer by a fellow forum member, it's a far far better piece of hardware. AMD has long neglected anything earlier than their 7000 series. You have to use relatively ancient drivers for a 5450, and they are about the bottom of the barrel kind of card, like a 210.

That 630 is your winning ticket, a perfect match and basically free

 

[Golgatha]

Oh no. Definitely go for the GT 630. It's not only a way better deal, thanks to the generous offer by a fellow forum member, it's a far far better piece of hardware. AMD has long neglected anything earlier than their 7000 series. You have to use relatively ancient drivers for a 5450, and they are about the bottom of the barrel kind of card, like a 210.

That 630 is your winning ticket, a perfect match and basically free

It's even the "fast" version of the GT 630 series with 384 shaders (oooo, ahhhhh), and also passively cooled, so no fan to break. It's been babied too. It was in my HTPC for awhile, but switched it out for a 1050 ti low profile card pretty quickly, and then as the video for a headless server for the last few years. Just recently moved the 1050 ti into the server for Plex transcoding duties.

 

[synoptic12]

Oh no. Definitely go for the GT 630. It's not only a way better deal, thanks to the generous offer by a fellow forum member, it's a far far better piece of hardware. AMD has long neglected anything earlier than their 7000 series. You have to use relatively ancient drivers for a 5450, and they are about the bottom of the barrel kind of card, like a 210.

That 630 is your winning ticket, a perfect match and basically free

* That's what I'm seeking, 'bottom of the barrel' > "Legacy".

 

[Golgatha]

I mean, I have a GT 430 if you want to play it really, really safe. It was released only about a year after your GT 220 and is a single slot GPU card. The final WHQL drivers for pre-600 series are version 391.35, which were released in 2018.

 

[synoptic12]

I mean, I have a GT 430 if you want to play it really, really safe. It was released only about a year after your GT 220 and is a single slot GPU card. The final WHQL drivers for pre-600 series are version 391.35, which were released in 2018.

* Really, looked up the specs and with a clock speed of 700MHz, it's perfect. If it's new, give me a price. I'm certainly interested. Can I down load the drivers? Is it 'new'?

 

[Golgatha]

* Really, looked up the specs and with a clock speed of 700MHz, it's perfect. If it's new, give me a price. I'm certainly interested. Can I down load the drivers? Is it 'new'?

I'm sure I can ship it for $10 or less, so how about $10 for S&H? It's not new, but very lightly used as a video source in a headless server. Basically I needed a card with a HDMI port on it. I kept it around as a testing card because it was single slot and basically works in any PCIe slot. Drivers are readily available on nVidia's website.

 

[Arkaign]

* That's what I'm seeking, 'bottom of the barrel' > "Legacy".

The 630 will work in your system without issue, and offer far better support and performance, and even better capabilities as far as connected displays. The last 5450 Drivers are from 2015, and are still glitchy with Windows 8.1 and 10. And as much as I love Windows 7, it's becoming a security risk to run out of date software on any system connected to the internet. You can get a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Believe me, there is zero logical reason to go with a 5450 over a 630 (or the 430). The only 'legacy' thing you really need is capability to run on non-UEFI motherboard/bios. The 630 does so without issue. The difference is that the 630 has drivers literally released TODAY (November 12th, 2019) and is still getting support from Nvidia.

The 630 will do everything you want, is 100% compatible with your PC, and is a tremendous improvement in efficiency. The 430 is a bit older, and has gone out of support for new driver releases.

Your best choice from the options, by a fair margin, is the 630. Not only does it have current drivers up to current date, but will see a fair bit better future support until Nvidia stops supporting the 600 series in driver releases.

Improvements will be better performance not only in 3d applications, but in improved power/heat efficiency over the older cards, as well as better graphics performance in web browsing and video playback.

*-Not to add too much to the confusion, but one goofy thing about this situation is that both the 430 and 630 use the Fermi 40nm GF108 GPU core. The 430 is revision 300, the 630 is revision 400. There is AFAIK no technical reason that Nvidia couldn't release more current drivers for the 430 as well, but the fact is that they stopped one year ago. However, the memory bus on the 630 is twice as wide, and this improves things nicely enough.

We're not saying this just to be funny : there is NOTHING to be gained by deliberately seeking extremely out-of-date hardware beyond what is the limit for compatibility. Once you know what will and will not work, the remaining choice should be the best of what's available. You are only harming the potential of your PC by going with worse options on purpose. If the PC could only use something no newer than the 5450, then that would be it. Or if it could only use up to a 400 series, then the 430. But the 630 WILL WORK. WITH ZERO ISSUES. IT IS FULLY SUPPORTED.

 

[Golgatha]

The 630 will work in your system without issue, and offer far better support and performance, and even better capabilities as far as connected displays. The last 5450 Drivers are from 2015, and are still glitchy with Windows 8.1 and 10. And as much as I love Windows 7, it's becoming a security risk to run out of date software on any system connected to the internet. You can get a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Believe me, there is zero logical reason to go with a 5450 over a 630 (or the 430). The only 'legacy' thing you really need is capability to run on non-UEFI motherboard/bios. The 630 does so without issue. The difference is that the 630 has drivers literally released TODAY (November 12th, 2019) and is still getting support from Nvidia.

The 630 will do everything you want, is 100% compatible with your PC, and is a tremendous improvement in efficiency. The 430 is a bit older, and has gone out of support for new driver releases.

Your best choice from the options, by a fair margin, is the 630. Not only does it have current drivers up to current date, but will see a fair bit better future support until Nvidia stops supporting the 600 series in driver releases.

Improvements will be better performance not only in 3d applications, but in improved power/heat efficiency over the older cards, as well as better graphics performance in web browsing and video playback.

*-Not to add too much to the confusion, but one goofy thing about this situation is that both the 430 and 630 use the Fermi 40nm GF108 GPU core. The 430 is revision 300, the 630 is revision 400. There is AFAIK no technical reason that Nvidia couldn't release more current drivers for the 430 as well, but the fact is that they stopped one year ago. However, the memory bus on the 630 is twice as wide, and this improves things nicely enough.

We're not saying this just to be funny : there is NOTHING to be gained by deliberately seeking extremely out-of-date hardware beyond what is the limit for compatibility. Once you know what will and will not work, the remaining choice should be the best of what's available. You are only harming the potential of your PC by going with worse options on purpose. If the PC could only use something no newer than the 5450, then that would be it. Or if it could only use up to a 400 series, then the 430. But the 630 WILL WORK. WITH ZERO ISSUES. IT IS FULLY SUPPORTED.

Correct, there's no software or hardware issues going with either solution. If you think cooling or space constraints might be an issue, the 430 would be a good solution since it's single slot and has a fan. Judging by your picture, you have enough room, and the GT 630 runs on like 20-25w of power, so cooling shouldn't be an issue; especially so if you don't plan to ever game on it.

 

[synoptic12]

The 630 will work in your system without issue, and offer far better support and performance, and even better capabilities as far as connected displays. The last 5450 Drivers are from 2015, and are still glitchy with Windows 8.1 and 10. And as much as I love Windows 7, it's becoming a security risk to run out of date software on any system connected to the internet. You can get a free upgrade to Windows 10.

Believe me, there is zero logical reason to go with a 5450 over a 630 (or the 430). The only 'legacy' thing you really need is capability to run on non-UEFI motherboard/bios. The 630 does so without issue. The difference is that the 630 has drivers literally released TODAY (November 12th, 2019) and is still getting support from Nvidia.

The 630 will do everything you want, is 100% compatible with your PC, and is a tremendous improvement in efficiency. The 430 is a bit older, and has gone out of support for new driver releases.

Your best choice from the options, by a fair margin, is the 630. Not only does it have current drivers up to current date, but will see a fair bit better future support until Nvidia stops supporting the 600 series in driver releases.

Improvements will be better performance not only in 3d applications, but in improved power/heat efficiency over the older cards, as well as better graphics performance in web browsing and video playback.

*-Not to add too much to the confusion, but one goofy thing about this situation is that both the 430 and 630 use the Fermi 40nm GF108 GPU core. The 430 is revision 300, the 630 is revision 400. There is AFAIK no technical reason that Nvidia couldn't release more current drivers for the 430 as well, but the fact is that they stopped one year ago. However, the memory bus on the 630 is twice as wide, and this improves things nicely enough.

We're not saying this just to be funny : there is NOTHING to be gained by deliberately seeking extremely out-of-date hardware beyond what is the limit for compatibility. Once you know what will and will not work, the remaining choice should be the best of what's available. You are only harming the potential of your PC by going with worse options on purpose. If the PC could only use something no newer than the 5450, then that would be it. Or if it could only use up to a 400 series, then the 430. But the 630 WILL WORK. WITH ZERO ISSUES. IT IS FULLY SUPPORTED.

* Very much appreciated. I found this on Ebay PNY620 https://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-Geforc...626311?hash=item3652842687:g:j90AAOSwsU5dUyWy
Cannot locate a 630 at present but the 620 looks outstanding, just the price is doubled from its release ($39.95)

 

[synoptic12]

I'm sure I can ship it for $10 or less, so how about $10 for S&H? It's not new, but very lightly used as a video source in a headless server. Basically I needed a card with a HDMI port on it. I kept it around as a testing card because it was single slot and basically works in any PCIe slot. Drivers are readily available on nVidia's website.

* No offense, I really do not care for used. Looking for a 620 or 630.

 

[VirtualLarry]

* Really, looked up the specs and with a clock speed of 700MHz, it's perfect. If it's new, give me a price. I'm certainly interested. Can I down load the drivers? Is it 'new'?

Looking for low-end, "Legacy". Wants "New", even though said cards haven't been made in like 3-4 years. No offense man, we're helping you out as much as we can, and by "we", I mean the technically-proficient among us. You've been getting great advice, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know? You're so afraid to move forward with a solution, you keep second-guessing what everyone is telling you. I'm telling you they're right-on, take of that what you will.

And a few more things:

The memory-bus width of a video card's VRAM, has nothing to do with the "bitness" of the host system (x86, 32-bit, or x64/AMD64, 64-bit). They are independent, and compatible. The reason that they tell you the bus width of the video card, has to do with that is a performance spec. Wider memory bus widths are generally, though not always, indicative of higher performance.

And as far as the PCI-E bus width, all standard video cards are PCI-E x16 (slot-size, physical width), except for a few very rare specialty ones that fit in a PCI-E x1 (really short) slot.

The ones that you see listed as x8 or x4 are talking, usually, about the "electrical PCI-E bus width", meaning how many lanes it uses to transfer the data back and forth to / from the host system, and again, that's a performance specification, generally, not a compatibility one.

You can mix-and-match PCI-E card bus widths. For example, you can plug a PCI-E x1, x4, x8, or x16 card, into a PCI-E x16 (physical), or PCI-E x16 (electrical), x4, x1 open-ended, even. It simply runs at the lane-width performance that it negotiates, which is usually a least-common-denominator thing.

So, simply, a GT 710 that says "PCI-E x8", means that, AFAIK, the connector is x16 physically (I may be wrong here), but only utilizes 8 bi-directional differential lane pairs.

Really, the GT 710 for $35 + tax/ship at Amazon would work, the GT 630 (384 Cuda Core - Kepler GPU) that was offered to you for the price of shipping would work. I would personally tend to avoid the 400-series, as they are Fermi, as is the 220 that you have, and that will be the first to get the "Axe" when drivers start moving things to legacy. Same reason why I would NOT suggest using an AMD Radeon HD 5450 card, as you'll be stuck on "legacy" drivers, which are a pain.

You want something modern enough to be supported by current drivers, and legacy enough that it works with your non-UEFI host PC BIOS. The GT 630 is IMHO perfect for that. (And I can personally vouch for that as well, I've got a few single-slot fanless/passive "Zotac ZONE" cards, that have worked fine in my Core2-era P35 boards with PCI-E 1.1 and legacy BIOS. They even do 4K UHD @ 60Hz over the HDMI port for me, at reduced color depth.)

Edit: And if you MUST have NEW, for whatever reason, I've got some stock of BNIB legacy cards, I think. I'll have to check the "warehouse" in the next few days, and I'll get back to you. I might have a 420 or 430, I know I have some GT 610/620/630/640 cards, and probably maybe some GT 710 cards, if I haven't sold them. I also have some GDDR5 GT 730 MSI single-slot, Low-profile-ready cards, those cost me a pretty penny back in the day, so those I would want to get back what I paid (around $65), but those are either new or factory refurb, they came in boxes, I'll have to check. They might be new.

If you were planning on doing any gaming, by far, the GT 630 or GT 730 GDDR5 cards would be the best "legacy" cards, short of an actual 750 ti, which I believe would also work for you, possibly, depending on how much power your mobo can supply to the PCI-E x16 slot. Some OEM business systems couldn't supply the full 75W, so for those, a 750 ti would be iffy, but a GT 730/740 would probably work.

But seriously, if you can get over your thing about requiring them to be "New", then that GT 630 for the price of shipping is a deal for you.

 

[synoptic12]

Looking for low-end, "Legacy". Wants "New", even though said cards haven't been made in like 3-4 years. No offense man, we're helping you out as much as we can, and by "we", I mean the technically-proficient among us. You've been getting great advice, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know? You're so afraid to move forward with a solution, you keep second-guessing what everyone is telling you. I'm telling you they're right-on, take of that what you will.

And a few more things:

The memory-bus width of a video card's VRAM, has nothing to do with the "bitness" of the host system (x86, 32-bit, or x64/AMD64, 64-bit). They are independent, and compatible. The reason that they tell you the bus width of the video card, has to do with that is a performance spec. Wider memory bus widths are generally, though not always, indicative of higher performance.

And as far as the PCI-E bus width, all standard video cards are PCI-E x16 (slot-size, physical width), except for a few very rare specialty ones that fit in a PCI-E x1 (really short) slot.

The ones that you see listed as x8 or x4 are talking, usually, about the "electrical PCI-E bus width", meaning how many lanes it uses to transfer the data back and forth to / from the host system, and again, that's a performance specification, generally, not a compatibility one.

You can mix-and-match PCI-E card bus widths. For example, you can plug a PCI-E x1, x4, x8, or x16 card, into a PCI-E x16 (physical), or PCI-E x16 (electrical), x4, x1 open-ended, even. It simply runs at the lane-width performance that it negotiates, which is usually a least-common-denominator thing.

So, simply, a GT 710 that says "PCI-E x8", means that, AFAIK, the connector is x16 physically (I may be wrong here), but only utilizes 8 bi-directional differential lane pairs.

Really, the GT 710 for $35 + tax/ship at Amazon would work, the GT 630 (384 Cuda Core - Kepler GPU) that was offered to you for the price of shipping would work. I would personally tend to avoid the 400-series, as they are Fermi, as is the 220 that you have, and that will be the first to get the "Axe" when drivers start moving things to legacy. Same reason why I would NOT suggest using an AMD Radeon HD 5450 card, as you'll be stuck on "legacy" drivers, which are a pain.

You want something modern enough to be supported by current drivers, and legacy enough that it works with your non-UEFI host PC BIOS. The GT 630 is IMHO perfect for that. (And I can personally vouch for that as well, I've got a few single-slot fanless/passive "Zotac ZONE" cards, that have worked fine in my Core2-era P35 boards with PCI-E 1.1 and legacy BIOS. They even do 4K UHD @ 60Hz over the HDMI port for me, at reduced color depth.)

*Forget about it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

* Very much appreciated. I found this on Ebay PNY620 https://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-Geforc...626311?hash=item3652842687:g:j90AAOSwsU5dUyWy
Cannot locate a 630 at present but the 620 looks outstanding, just the price is doubled from its release ($39.95)

* No offense, I really do not care for used. Looking for a 620 or 630.

*Forget about it.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown.

If you change your mind, I have GT 610/620/630/730 GDDR5 cards, BNIB. PM me if you're ever interested.

I'm sorry if I somehow offended you, but I all I saw was loads of quality technical advice, and even an offer to ship you the perfect card for your needs, for the cost of shipping alone, and all you give back is obstinate hand-wringing.

 

[UsandThem]

Good Grief, Charlie Brown.

They gave up over at the EVGA forums as well.

https://forums.evga.com/Seeking-Assistance-For-EVGA-Graphics-Card-m3007007.aspx

 

[Arkaign]

I can understand some of the disconnect. The very old documentation on the 2010-era HP PC is extremely out of date, and general support staff are usually low paid workers with very limited technical knowledge who are told to stick to the script as much as possible.

Whereas here you have enthusiasts and professionals who are dedicated enough to spend time discussing the minutae of this stuff, with thousands upon thousands of hours of experience going back decades. What seems common sense to us may at first seem intimidating to those without such backgrounds, and not always line up with the small amount of often incorrect info from the OEMs.

Anyway, should be good to go as long as you stick with 600 series or 700 series ideally.

 

[VirtualLarry]

"No offense man, we're helping you out as much as we can, and by "we", I mean the technically-proficient among us. You've been getting great advice,"
I just wanted to clarify that statement I made, I meant that as a compliment towards those helping you, not as a slight at anyone else. I was just trying to emphasize to you, OP, that the people helping you are very competent, knowledgeable, and trustworthy, I didn't mean it as a slight to you, nor anyone else on this forum.

Basically, I was trying to tell you, "stop worrying and trust us, we have years of experience doing this stuff, we wouldn't lead you wrong".

I'm very sorry if perhaps you took that comment the wrong way, or I worded it poorly. I know that you've been reaching out to several tech communities on the web, as well as HP's support.

Whereas here you have enthusiasts and professionals who are dedicated enough to spend time discussing the minutae of this stuff, with thousands upon thousands of hours of experience going back decades. What seems common sense to us may at first seem intimidating to those without such backgrounds, and not always line up with the small amount of often incorrect info from the OEMs.

@Arkaign is a fair bit more professional and diplomatic than I am.

I think that his suggestion to remove your existing card, and try the onboard video, could be prescriptive, if your monitor will connect to one of the onboard outputs.

I would like to assist you, if you are willing, more with the black-screen problem. It could be that your PC has other problems, and simply your low-powered video card fan failing, is not the actual cause of your issues, though replacing it with another one, if you can get a hold of one free or nearly free, might aid in diagnosis.

 

[Arkaign]

OP might also consider giving the motherboard capacitors a good once over examination. Electrolytic capacitors look like tiny upright batteries with cross-hatched slits in foil tops. Run your fingertip across each one. It should be completely flat. If any are bulging, it's a clear indication of a failed/failing leaky cap. This causes irregular power distribution in the Mobo circuitry and can cause all manner of irregular operation up to ultimate failure. It's not a guarantee that non-bulged caps are still 100%, but it's a great quick check you can do to find obvious problems.

Often a small GPU which ordinarily runs cool and demands little power can wreak havoc if the fan fails or gets jammed with dust. Heat, increased power draw, and bad return current can then damage motherboard power circuitry and ICs.

Motherboards of that era and budget range frequently experience bad capacitors.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Here are some links to my initial problem if you care to read. Why is my graphics card working now and what could be the issue? I very much appreciate the support you have provided. I’ve been at this for a few days, must get some sleep. Ill check back tomorrow. Thank you very much, most appreciated.

Assistance > PC Shut Down with Black Screen ? - Windows 7

Page 1 of 3 - Assistance > PC Shut Down with Black Screen ? - posted in Windows 7: Running Windows 7 - 64-bit as the desktop shut down with Black Screen. Monitor ‘Going to Sleep’ but tower was still ‘on’. Could not shut down. Had to shut down manually by pressing power button. Symptoms prior...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Assistance >Nvidia GeForce GT220 Fan Problems/ Black Screen? - Audio and Video

Assistance >Nvidia GeForce GT220 Fan Problems/ Black Screen? - posted in Audio and Video: * Started a topic previously under Black Screen, Not to wander. However, I possibly pinpointed the problem; relating to the video card. Upon opening the PC door, I found the fan was stuck/ not working...

www.bleepingcomputer.com

Referring to that first BleepingComputer.com thread:

Not any have addressed the index light that was 'stuck' > "not blinking or flashing" when the last black screen occurred. This was prior to the screen going 'black' when I was reading Google news. I was looking into building the index but have decided against. At this point, the indexing light is working, at least at present.

By "Indexing Light", do you mean some sort of software indicator, or do you mean the physical HDD LED on the front of your case, which would in fact be lit pretty solid or blinking intensely while the PC is running its background indexing feature, but is really just a HDD *activity* light.

Anyways, if the screen went black, suddenly, and the HDD activity light was solid-on, that can be an indicator of a HDD failure or soon-to-be-failure. And if your PC is 10 years old, and you are on the same factory HDD / installation, well, let's just pray that you have backups of your important data. Because a HDD failure might be imminent.

Try downloading and running CrystalDiskInfo, if you dare. It's GRAS (Generally regarded as safe), but who knows, maybe there are some GMOs hiding in it somewhere.

If you do, it will give you SMART info for the drive, which can help diagnose it's age and whether or not it's ready to fail.

The Nvidia drivers are the best available as the hardware cannot be improved upon. There is one final set of drivers that I have made mention above somewhere. However, the last driver would serve no purpose with the GT220 for there is nothing that could be added.

That's part of your problem too, possibly. If it's not HDD failure, then it could be an interaction between your modern browser's usage of "hardware acceleration" (using the video card's features), and/or potential web exploits of your video card, as there were some serious Nvidia kernel driver exploits found in older Nvidia drivers. Since you are using such a "legacy" card, currently, that could be an issue. The other issue is, sometimes browser hardware acceleration can expose bugs in the video driver stack, and cause VPU recovery events (in Win10, also called TDRs), and sometimes BSODs (in older OSes). That could be an issue. (Normally, the constant stream of new video driver updates, fixes or accomidates the changes in the browsers.)

Right off the bat, Avast showed registry errors that were counterfeit, as many apps walk the same path. I can certainly corroborate all the facts with snapshots and registry files. This is why I'm hesitant to install anything. There is a catch to all freeware or shareware. A great majority steal one'es files or implant malware or adware, sometimes even with a custom application. Thanks for your continued support.

If you're not willing to install GRAS diagnostic applications used by people all over the web, how do you expect to diagnose your PC's issues? Seriously?

Btw, "installing and leaving registry entries behind", is not the same thing as actual malware. Just a little accumulated cruft, that's all.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Often a small GPU which ordinarily runs cool and demands little power can wreak havoc if the fan fails or gets jammed with dust. Heat, increased power draw, and bad return current can then damage motherboard power circuitry and ICs.

You'll have to tell me more about the bolded. I didn't realize that a non-electrically-defective small-TDP video card with a busted or clogged fan, could damage a mobo or surrounding circuitry.

Motherboards of that era and budget range frequently experience bad capacitors.

True. OP is kind of somewhat lucky that a consumer HP desktop PC of that vintage, is still running at all, TBH.

I ran into a lot of HP AM2 rigs running 5600+ or 6000+ CPUs, 125W, that would cook themselves, and I think those used paste, which would dry out under the heatspreader, and thwart any attempt to cool them better by attached a 125W or 140W AMD quad-heatpipe copper-cored heatsink. I didn't get any improvement over the stock Aluminum chunk that HP grafted on there. Also, the mobos had poor-quality caps that failied. Generally, PSU, HDD, and then mobo failure, total failure within 5 years. PSU and HDD, somewhere between 3 and 5 years of usage. AMD rigs were a bit under-built, Intel desktop rigs slightly over-built, that's just how things were in the market, so I'm not trying to scare the OP. There's plenty of older Intel brand-OEM rigs being sold refurb today, but a 1st-gen Core i5 is fairly old.

I don't think that the advice to "get a new PC", in the EVGA forum thread, was necessarily incorrect.

You could go out and get a brand-new Z170 mobo, brand new Skylake i5-6400 or i5-6500, some brand-new DDR4-2400 RAM, an SSD, a HDD (both new), and a copy of Windows 7 Pro, and install and update it all, and transfer his data and programs over. He would have a nice shiny NEW Windows 7 64-bit rig, ready for the next ten years or so, and not falling apart like his current rig.

I may have an occasionally-brusque nature, but I'm trying to assist you. The one thing that I won't do, is just give you the answer that you want to hear, rather than the technically- and logistically-correct answer.

 

[synoptic12]

Good Grief, Charlie Brown.

If you change your mind, I have GT 610/620/630/730 GDDR5 cards, BNIB. PM me if you're ever interested.

I'm sorry if I somehow offended you, but I all I saw was loads of quality technical advice, and even an offer to ship you the perfect card for your needs, for the cost of shipping alone, and all you give back is obstinate hand-wringing.

* Just so it's visible, forgive me of my ignorance. Sent you a PM for the GT620. I'M NOT LIKE THAT, AS OTHERS ALWAYS CHIME IN WHEN THEY ONLY SEEK CONTENTION. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

 

[synoptic12]

OP might also consider giving the motherboard capacitors a good once over examination. Electrolytic capacitors look like tiny upright batteries with cross-hatched slits in foil tops. Run your fingertip across each one. It should be completely flat. If any are bulging, it's a clear indication of a failed/failing leaky cap. This causes irregular power distribution in the Mobo circuitry and can cause all manner of irregular operation up to ultimate failure. It's not a guarantee that non-bulged caps are still 100%, but it's a great quick check you can do to find obvious problems.

Often a small GPU which ordinarily runs cool and demands little power can wreak havoc if the fan fails or gets jammed with dust. Heat, increased power draw, and bad return current can then damage motherboard power circuitry and ICs.

Motherboards of that era and budget range frequently experience bad capacitors.

* Thanks for the heads up, they look o.k. The video card is getting hot and the fan stopped again. Do not wish to stay online long for the aforesaid issues. NVIDIA tech support provided me a similar scenario. Truly appreciate your help very much.

 

[synoptic12]

I mean, I have a GT 430 if you want to play it really, really safe. It was released only about a year after your GT 220 and is a single slot GPU card. The final WHQL drivers for pre-600 series are version 391.35, which were released in 2018.

That driver is also applicable to the GT620 with better bench marks. (391.35) > Checked tech support with NVIDIA. I believe the last issue date was 2018.