How to test a PCI graphics card

[mikey_dude]

Hi there,

I have a spare PCI graphics card laying around and I was wondering how I could test this on a machine without messing anything up.

I would like to place this in a machine which contains a Gigabyte GA-7DX motherboard with 1.1 Duron and 128mb PC2100 DDR ram and an AGP graphics card.

Would I be able to place the PCI card into this machine and try booting up or would I have to go into the BIOS and disable the AGP graphics card (in which case if I do this will and the PCI doesn't work how will I change it back without getting a new AGP graphics card?)

Thanks for any help you can offer

[glc]

Pull the AGP card and put the PCI card in - then boot it into safe mode so you don't screw up the drivers. You dont have to do anything in the bios.

[mikey_dude]

Hi glc,

Thanks for your quick reply - I'll give that a go! I never thought you could boot up from a PCI graphics card once the BIOS has recognised an AGP graphics card.

Chances are the PCI graphics card won't work but if it does it will sure be better than the cheap AGP 8mb card thats already in there due to the low budget.

Thanks

[glc]

Why shouldn't it work? I have a PCI Radeon in my BX board, the AGP slot is just sitting there empty.

Put the PCI card in the top slot next to the AGP, if it works, remove all the drivers for the AGP card in safe mode, reboot, and install the drivers for the PCI card. The bios setting just tells it what to look for first (AGP or PCI) - if it doesn't find the first one it simply looks for the second one.

[mikey_dude]

Hi,

I done what you suggested last night and it booted no problem. I thought it wouldn't work as I wasn't sure if the card was faulty or not.

One thing though, I did not remove the old graphics drivers, but at the moment, it hasn't proved a problem.