[TexasChuck]

hi, I inherited a T6540 eMachine, XP Media Center sp2. I would like to give to a daughter. Problem is after 1 to 20 minutes it freezes and the screen has a blue/white diagonal pattern, not always the same pattern. It had 500 meg ram, so I bought a 1-gig ram and replaced it. Same problem. I downloaded a fan-checking program and heat seems to be no problem. I've tried unplugging and replugging all the connections I could, hoping that would help. No go. On the novice (0) to expert (100) scale, I'm about a 30 what might I try next, short of taking it to a repair shop? thanks for whatever ideas you guys can come up with, Chuck

[BG-0]

Download Rivatuner and check the video card temperatures: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download...432a3976bff55a

[TexasChuck]

I downloaded RivaTuner and can't figure out what to do with it. Went through the menu system, read the Help area..... I downloaded and installed a new driver for the Nvidia 1650LE. No difference. I thought maybe the mouse was the problem So I got a USB wheelmouse (different plugin, different mouse). No help. Still the same symptoms: at some point between 5 minutes and an hour after booting up the screen freezes, then a diagonal pattern appears across the screen, usually blue/white, from upper right to lower left.. ctrl-alt-del does not work. nothing works. I have to power down. RAM change made no difference. What to try next?

[BG-0]

A cheap fix could be a new video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121259 I can't really think of any other reason than the 6150 LE dying for the patterns you're seeing...
Installation: Remove any nVidia drivers on your PC, shutdown, install new card, go to BIOS, disable the onboard graphics, boot to Windows, download drivers from ATI's site and install. http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_ca...ce/radeonx-mce

[TexasChuck]

I'm not much into hardware. Once I remove the drivers, and shutdown, I'll be without a working monitor, won't I? Then how do I go to BIOS, disable onboard graphics, boot to windows, download drivers, etc.if I can't see what's happening on a monitor? -Chuck

[TexasChuck]

Shouldn't I download the drivers first?

[BG-0]

You will see something, Windows has its own "failsafe" drivers, everything will display at 800x600 resolution (or something like that) and less colours... And sorry for a wrong order, you first install the drivers, then disable the onboard. Or... Err.

[Rich-M]

I would look more at the hard drive and try running chkdsk /r from a command prompt and see if that doesn't help.

[brite750]

buy the new gfx card
power down and install
plug your monitor into the new card
turn on the pc, you should get a picture, if not you will have to power dn, plug back into your ob gfx and go into bios and turn off on board, look in your manual for that, save settings and power down, now plug monitor into new card, you should be able to get to windows and install drivers then.

[brite750]

buy the new gfx card
power down and install
plug your monitor into the new card
turn on the pc, you should get a picture, if not you will have to power dn, plug back into your ob gfx and go into bios and turn off on board, look in your manual for that, save settings and power down, now plug monitor into new card, you should be able to get to windows and install drivers then.

[TexasChuck]

looks like gfx cards are expensive. This computer's worth less than most cards, from what I see. Could I replace the onboard video? If so, how do I go about doing it? This is a whole new area to me. -chuck

[BG-0]

You cannot (within reasonable cost range) replace the onboard video. Just get the Radeon 3450, it's about 20 $ for crying out loud. That's not expensive.

[TexasChuck]

thanks. that link did not work for me the other day, but it does now. and my shopping was turning up cards from $150 up.

[TexasChuck]

well, I got a used card from a friend. Unfortunately this Jaton TVGA9685PCI is apparently too old, and not approved by WinXP.
It fit, but did nothing on bootup.
So now I took a look at the card mentioned above,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121259
It appears to me that the bottom plug-in pattern would not fit on my eMachine. I have two open ports. One fits the Jaton, as I said and is quite short, with the notch near the rear. The other port is orange, and longer, and would require a card with a notch near each end.
How do I find cards to fit this machine?

[BG-0]

According to the computer's spec site it does have a PCI-E 16x slot, which the 3450 needs.
The site: http://www.emachines.com/products/pr...tml?prod=T6540