Windows 7 on ancient graphics card

TheBlackBuck

I've a Dell Dimension 4550, P4 2.53GHZ, 1GB RAM and a Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420 64MB graphics card. I installed Windows 7 on the machine for a laugh and it actually runs surprisingly well! The only problem is with my graphics card (the maximum resolution I can now use is 1024*768). Windows 7 recognises the card as a "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" and installed some crap generic driver for it. Nvidia hasn't released specific Windows 7 drivers for this card so is there any way I can get it to work as it should or is there a cheap graphics card I can buy that would be suitable for my system and be supported by Windows 7?

leninbenjamin

weird, I've the exact same PC at home and was thinking of doing the same. How does it perform aside from the Graphics Card issue? Is it worth it do you think?

As for the drivers, i'm not sure, but i've read on a few places that the Vista drivers will work, so you could possibly give them a try (if they exist). That old MX420 is so old I don't think there's any possibility of a Win7 driver being written for it any time soon.

The other alternative is to try and if there are any AGP cards that do have win7 drivers for them, and maybe try search ebay or similar for a second hand one.

TheBlackBuck

I only installed Windows 7 yesterday but it seems much faster. How much of that is down to Windows 7 or because I formatted my HD and did a clean install I don't know.
Obviously it's running at the lowest spec graphics-wise (ie. no aero etc.). I've already had one blue screen though when I tried transfering 90GB of data off an external hard drive onto it. The installation itself was effortless. Any drivers that weren't found at installation were found when I did a windows update.

My "Windows Experience Index" is:

• Processor: 3.4
• Memory: 4.0
• Graphics: 1.0
• Gaming graphics: 1.0
• Primary hard disk: 5.0

Apart from the graphics scores I'm impressed by this! Should I be?!

Thanks for the advice leninbenjamin. The MX420 is so old that even Vista drivers don't exist! So an AGP card is what I have to look for? Do I have to worry about my PSU?

leninbenjamin

TheBlackBuck wrote: »

I only installed Windows 7 yesterday but it seems much faster. How much of that is down to Windows 7 or because I formatted my HD and did a clean install I don't know.
Obviously it's running at the lowest spec graphics-wise (ie. no aero etc.). I've already had one blue screen though when I tried transfering 90GB of data off an external hard drive onto it. The installation itself was effortless. Any drivers that weren't found at installation were found when I did a windows update.

My "Windows Experience Index" is:

• Processor: 3.4
• Memory: 4.0
• Graphics: 1.0
• Gaming graphics: 1.0
• Primary hard disk: 5.0

Apart from the graphics scores I'm impressed by this! Should I be?!

Thanks for the advice leninbenjamin. The MX420 is so old that even Vista drivers don't exist! So an AGP card is what I have to look for? Do I have to worry about my PSU?

well, I'd have to check it again, but I'm pretty sure that model was AGP. I know we bought ours (family PC) just before PCI became standard.

As for the PSU, I'm not entirely sure tbh, but i was always of the opinion those old Dell ones had a fair bit of headroom for upgrading. I'm sure someone else could confirm. I think it should be able to support something like an Nvidia 8400 (which had an AGP version).

Room is the other factor though when installing a new card. Those old Dell's make for a tight enough fit.

edit: found the manual after a single google
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4550/D0995bk0.pdf

It's AGP anyway. Don't see anything useful about the PSU in it though.

Another google returns it's a 250w PSU which is lower than i thought.

Solitaire

Most things AGP should work well so long as you don't run off and try to stick a HD3850 in there

It all depends on what you want to do with the system... unless you really want to run some older games on it or play HD content I'd stick with what you have or spend a grand total of, oh, €30 on a replacement AGP card

Marcface

TheBlackBuck wrote: »

I've a Dell Dimension 4550, P4 2.53GHZ, 1GB RAM and a Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420 64MB graphics card. I installed Windows 7 on the machine for a laugh and it actually runs surprisingly well! The only problem is with my graphics card (the maximum resolution I can now use is 1024*768). Windows 7 recognises the card as a "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" and installed some crap generic driver for it. Nvidia hasn't released specific Windows 7 drivers for this card so is there any way I can get it to work as it should or is there a cheap graphics card I can buy that would be suitable for my system and be supported by Windows 7?

The very fact that you tried this, and are now considering upgrading the G-card to make it useable, makes you a hero sir :cool:

I salute you, and your Dell. :pac:

Reamer Fanny

I have the same system with geforce fx5200 128mb windows 7 runs flawlessly with all of the aero features consider buying that card really cheap on ebay

Heres a link: http://cgi.ebay.com/EVGA-GeForce-FX-5200-8x-4x-AGP-128MB-FX5200_W0QQitemZ300345790951QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCC_Video_TV_Cards?hash=item45ee0111e7

TheBlackBuck

Yeah I think I'll upgrade the graphics card instead of waiting for Nvidia to release a Windows 7 driver (but I did email them about it!). These are the cards I'm thinking about and (in theory) my system should be ok with any of these (I hope!):

GeForce 7600GS
GeForce 6200
GeForce FX5500/5200 (Thanks justryan for this one)

Marcface wrote: »

The very fact that you tried this, and are now considering upgrading the G-card to make it useable, makes you a hero sir :cool:

....it probably makes me more of a chancer! Thanks for all your advice guys. I'll let you know how I get on.

Anti

This should do the job for you:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=434117

leninbenjamin

TheBlackBuck wrote: »

Yeah I think I'll upgrade the graphics card instead of waiting for Nvidia to release a Windows 7 driver (but I did email them about it!). These are the cards I'm thinking about and (in theory) my system should be ok with any of these (I hope!):

GeForce 7600GS
GeForce 6200
GeForce FX5500/5200 (Thanks justryan for this one)



....it probably makes me more of a chancer! Thanks for all your advice guys. I'll let you know how I get on.

I could well be wrong, but I think the 7600GS might push that little PSU a bit more than is safe. perhaps someone else might confirm...

Anti

Nah it will/should be fine, ive a 7900gt with a quadcore Q6600 witth 4gigs of goat and 5 hard drives hooked to a 300w psu, ho hassle at all.

leninbenjamin

Anti wrote: »

Nah it will/should be fine, ive a 7900gt with a quadcore Q6600 witth 4gigs of goat and 5 hard drives hooked to a 300w psu, ho hassle at all.

that's pretty neat. are those Dell ones as reliable though as the common enthusiast brands?

Anti

mine is just the standard 300w psu that came with the asus t3 mini pc.It even managed to power a 8800gtx. Dell psu's are usually pretty ecent compared to normal generic ones.