dead AGP slot

[sbdragon]

Hi there, I have an old MSI KT3V (VIA KT333) board. The board had run smoothly until some problems with AGP slot began - the AGP video card crashed occasionally then the frequency of these crashes kept increasing to the point when I wasn't able to boot at all. Then I removed the board from the case, put it horizontally on the desk. After some further testing I realized that the AGP card worked when I pressed it hard from the top against the board, but after some time the slot died completely. It seems to be obvious that there is some damaged contact, but I don't know where and how to reapir it. Visually, no damage to the board or the circuits is apparent. What do you suggest I do? I must say that the board is otherwise working perfectly (with a PCI graphics card), but I need the damn AGP slot for obvious reasons Thank you for any suggestions.

 

[sexibwoy]

Have you tried a different video card in u're pc? or maybe that same video card in another pc? hmmm....

 

[cafuddled]

You can pick up a KT333 board for about £25 now from a local computer shop. might just be better for you to spend a night in instead of going out drinking and put the money on a new mobo.

EDIT: Ow that is to say if it is the mobo thats the actual problem, trouble shoot a bit before you spend any money.

 

[ConsciousTech]

Id say this is a good opportunity to do a mobo/chip swap, even some of the most low end stuff out there will outperform your stuff, a relatively ok pair would run you around 200-300US. A low low end pair can run you under 160US. What I suggest is swapping over to a PCI-e x16 board and getting a low end card unless you do a lot of gaming, then spring for something a little better. AGP is nearly out th window and PCI-e has nearly completely taken over.

 

[sbdragon]

My dear people...
I appreciate your help... OF course, I've tried about 5 VGA's in the mobo, and the card is working perfectly....
Now I don't have a single penny to spend...so please do not recommend buyng A NEW mobo... I posted the question cause I wanna use this one... for some reasons... and, this is not my current rig....it's just an old machine I wanna get it to work and SELL it to someone...

PS: There is no real advantage of PCIe VGA interface... only that VGA manufacturers are stopping to make AGP boards for marketing reasons

 

[cafuddled]

Well there is not much you can do with a dead AGP port. If you want tips on opening it up and fixing it with a soldering iron or something you have came to the wrong place. The best thing you can do with out having to take things apart with a more than likely chance of actually breaking your motherboard even more. Is by spending £15 – £20 on a new PCI graphics card or £20- £30 on a new motherboard. Do you want a miracle or something?

Oh and the reason they are putting everything over to PCI-E is because they don’t have to pay the high royalties. As they do to make things in an AGP format, meaning that they can make extra profit or cheaper cards (more of the former I suspect).

 

[ConsciousTech]

PS: There is no real advantage of PCIe VGA interface... only that VGA manufacturers are stopping to make AGP boards for marketing reasons

My computer runs on an AGP interface card. And I build computers all day with low end motherboards and PCI-e cards, and just about every single one scores higher on 3dMark05 or 06.

And yes, to fix a dead port, shy of buying a new motherboard, soldering will be in the mix.

 

[Crashman]

sbdragon is right, there's no noticeable difference between AGP and PCI-Express graphics cards for most models. In fact, THG compared the AGP and PCIe version of Diamond's X1600 Pro, and the AGP card was actually faster.

 

[ConsciousTech]

The card isn't the decider in this case, it's the interface that is.

Here are some quotes, straight from those horse's mouth, so to speak:

In contrast to ISA, PCI and AGP, PCI Express is a serial interface subsystem. Thanks to this, it runs with very few connections. Different from parallel buses, the total bandwidth is available for every device, while e.g. several PCI cards have to share the total available bandwidth.

PCI Express x16 (16 links) offers a bandwidth of 4 GB/s up and down or 8 GB/s total.

Although increased bandwidth is a welcome innovation, a more pressing need was facing the industry: power consumption. The AGP 3.0 standard (AGP 8x) could only deliver a maximum of 41.8 W (6 A from 3.3 V, 2 A from 5 V, 1 A from 12 V = 41.8 W and an additional 1.24 W could come from the 3.3 V auxiliary at 0.375 A).

Overall, PCI Express is a much simpler solution as it can deliver 75 W through the x16 connector and an additional 75 W per six-pin connection for a total of 150 W.

 

[ikjadoon]

Whoa. Dude. You are confused here...

Graphic's are just now touching the barrier that AGP provided. Do not tell me that PCI-e gives a performance boost because the boost is negligible. Nothing. You will NOT notice. Put a PCI-e 6800 Ultra and AGP 6800 Ultra = No difference.

I am NOT saying AGP is better and do NOT want this to turn into a AGP vs. PCI-e battle. I am just saying that GPU's on the AGP platform will not be slower than GPUs on the PCI-e platform. If anything, it is the motherboard that is causing the changes.

PCI-e was introduced for quite a few reasons and they are LOOKING AHEAD. One big part was power consumption. PCI-e can give 105W than AGP alone could provide. Please provide me a benchmark where the same GPU on AGP and PCI-e and the performance increase was over 5%. SLi doesn't count,

Yeah, a dead AGP slot is, well, just another slot gathering dust. Sorry. But if you have tried five different GPU's with all of them not working, it has got to be the slot. Unless of course you are plugging them in a PCI slot, lol, jk. I know you are smarter than that... Maybe drivers? Have you updated chipset drivers? GART drivers? But the card should at least work...

~Ibrahim~

 

[VillageIdiot]

Okay well how do you expect to fix this without spending any money? If there is an internal problem (a short or something) inside the AGP slot, you will be hard pressed to fix that without buying a new mobo. So.... goodluck.

 

[ConsciousTech]

The point I was trying to make is that the interface is better, not the card, obviously identical GPUs won't make a difference, I never said a PCI-e 6600GT would beat an AGP 6600GT, but where the AGP falls short the PCI-e picks up.

Also those quotes were straight from a TomHardware.com article. That little Beginners Guide to Graphics postup.

Also the price differences are usually noticed between a PCI-e vs. AGP card of the same GPU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130036

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130020

Same mfg. Same GPU. Better Interface (NOT CARD). Price Difference: $50.00

Not a big difference in those two but if you go locally or some higher end models, at least where I'm from there is often a difference of no less then $70.00 and ive seen as high as $150.00 for the same GPU.

The technology in that interface is better, and cheaper. Much like the majority of technology coming out today is.

 

[VillageIdiot]

PS: There is no real advantage of PCIe VGA interface... only that VGA manufacturers are stopping to make AGP boards for marketing reasons

My computer runs on an AGP interface card. And I build computers all day with low end motherboards and PCI-e cards, and just about every single one scores higher on 3dMark05 or 06.

And yes, to fix a dead port, shy of buying a new motherboard, soldering will be in the mix.

Okay, I agree PCI-e is more economical but then you have to say this post is either poorly worded or just straight up BS. For one you don't even make mention of the card you use and the cards you put into these computers. Finally, these posts have little to no relevance in this topic based on the fact the topic starter doesn't want to spend any money. A PCI-e card would require not only the card, but a new mobo as well. I would agree however, if he has to buy a new mobo, to get one with a PCI-e slot. To do otherwise is just plain stupidity.

 

[ConsciousTech]

PS: There is no real advantage of PCIe VGA interface... only that VGA manufacturers are stopping to make AGP boards for marketing reasons

My computer runs on an AGP interface card. And I build computers all day with low end motherboards and PCI-e cards, and just about every single one scores higher on 3dMark05 or 06.

And yes, to fix a dead port, shy of buying a new motherboard, soldering will be in the mix.

Okay, I agree PCI-e is more economical but then you have to say this post is either poorly worded or just straight up BS. For one you don't even make mention of the card you use and the cards you put into these computers. Finally, these posts have little to no relevance in this topic based on the fact the topic starter doesn't want to spend any money. A PCI-e card would require not only the card, but a new mobo as well. I would agree however, if he has to buy a new mobo, to get one with a PCI-e slot. To do otherwise is just plain stupidity.

I have a relatively crappy card, GeForce FX 5700LE, obviously not even considered mid-range anymore. To the point that I suppose comparing it to even the low-end PCI-e cards out nowadays isn't fair. I was basically making a point that for the same or a lower cost a PCI-e card/mobo is a better combo.

If you look up the lowest cost AGP 4x/8x 754socket mobo, and compare it to the same socket but the lowest cost PCI-e mobo (ATI, via Newegg) you have a difference of about 3$. For one that doesn't specify a video maker, 5$...now the difference in video cards of the same GPU 50$ - 5$ = 45$ saved.

But in the end, yes, I should have worded the post a little better.

From the beginning it was obvious this guy would either need a new motherboard or a friend that is savvy in the soldering world. Either would cost him in materials. Bringing the computer in to get soldered to a place that does it could end up costing him as much if not more than doing the mobo/pcie card swap.

Now since he's coming from a Socket A mobo moving to a 754 will obviously mean a new CPU, luckily 754 processors are relatively cheap. Lowest on on newegg is 60$. So the total cost difference between an AGP card/mobo setup vs. a PCI-e card/mobo setup. $15.00.

The same priced Socket A processor is a 2400, vs the 754 2600.

 

[ikjadoon]

Yeah. Now that he needs a new mobo, PCI-e should be on it.

~Ibrahim~

 

[cafuddled]

He has loads of AGP cards... Why would he need to buy a PCI-E motherboard and a new graphics card on top of that? It’s like you are all saying “instead of spending a little bit why not spend a lot”.

 

[sexibwoy]

I've got to agree w/ you. THere isn't any difference as yet between PCI Express and AGP, and he already has his supply of AGP cards. HOwever, I would suggest before he buy the "cheapest" mobo out there.. to read the reviews *check out what you want at newegg, or another website that allows people to rate produts.* In life, you get what you pay for.

 

[evongugg]

Since you can't spend any money now, you might solve the problem with an old PCI graphics card. That is if have one lying around.
Thanks.

 

[ikjadoon]

Oh, I thought he had returned the ones that didn't work.

~Ibrahim~

 

[ConsciousTech]

Oh, I thought he had returned the ones that didn't work.

~Ibrahim~

Yeh, same here. Not sure how I got the same thing out of it...

Oh well.

But, he didn't specifically say he HAS 5 VGA cards to try only that he had tried 5 VGA cards, he may have borrowed them, I doubt someone who doesn't want to spend money would go and buy 5 VGA cards...unless he had em lying around. I dunno the OP stopped posting awhile back so yeh.

 

[ikjadoon]

Got it.

~Ibrahim~