VAIO AGP slot problem

[Lacoste]

Ok, I have something weird going on with my Sony Vaio desktop, and wanted to get some more information on it.

I have an old Sony VAIO PVC-RX580 that I wanted to install an older AGP video card that has MJPEG encoding. The card is an AGP Matrox Marvel G200. Now, here's where it gets weird: I open up the VAIO, take out the old card, and go to put this new card in .. *bump* I look down, and there is a divider in the AGP slot that doesn't match up with the card. I look at this and think 'Is this a PCI card?' So I hold it over a neighboring slot, nope, it definitely an AGP card, but it isn't going in this 'AGP' slot. I look at the card I took out, and it's pins have 2 dividing points in them, one of which is used by this divider. The other dividing point matches up with the single dividing point on my upgrade card.

I think, this is kind of weird, isn't an AGP slot an AGP slot? I open another system, take a look at it's AGP slot, it has no dividers in the AGP slot, it's just one continuous slot.

Now, I know that I'm not going to get this card to work, but what is up with this different kind of AGP slot? Is it some kind of Sony'ism? It wouldn't surprise me, after all, this same machine has the proprietary Memory Card slot built into it as well, but I thought that AGP was a standard, why would they muck around with it?

Also, is there anyway to figure out what AGP cards will fit in this system (ie, have a dividing point towards the back of the card, instead of the front). Are there different physical AGP slot standards?

Thanks.

Lac

[spyder003]

It sounds like you have an AGP Pro card and an AGP slot. That card will only work in an AGP Pro slot which also takes "normal" AGP cards.

Does your AGP slot look like this?
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba...ge/ap3c2k3.jpg

[Lacoste]

Yep, that's what my slot looks like. So that's a normal AGP slot? Where does it say in the card specs that it's AGP Pro? I don't see that anywhere. There's no way to mod the AGP slot so that a Pro card will work in it, right? I thought about cutting out the plastic divider part in the slot, but the card has pins throughout that section, so it looks like I would need a new physical slot. Then the question would be, does the mb support it .. I doubt it. I'm not even sure what MB the Vaio PXV-580 has in it ... I wonder if there is a version of the MB I could swap in that would have the exact form factor (the interior of the case is customized a bit).

Do you recommend any MBs that have AGP Pro slots? Do all modern MBs have Pro slots?

Lac