Freeline LS1100 help please!

[Eve]

Hi
I've had the above PC languishing in a corner of my home office gathering dust since I have been having problems with my graphics card a while ago.

Anyway I now want to resurrect her as she was a pretty good PC aside from the monitor resolution problems I was having. I have tried to get in touch with Philips and they have referred me to the company who have taken over the servicing of this model (I haven't pursued this avenue yet). I contacted Maplin for advice about graphics cards and their very helpful tech support person referred me here.

The current graphics card is: ATI Radeon X300SE 128MB.
Thing is this CPU is a slimline model and requires a low profile PCI graphics card so it's a specialist part (and PC World don't stock it - the less said about this company the better).

Can anyone advise which card to buy? I don't use the PC for anything other than internet and Microsoft Office applications although I do watch videos on it from time to time. I don't need a high spec card that has lots of bells and whistles, just something that will enable me to see the monitor in normal resolution instead of the grainy resolution I am getting at the moment (I have tried re-installing ATI drivers but with no success).

I also want to install the card myself. I've already opened up the CPU and had a bit of a look so it doesn't phase me but can anyone advise on how complicated this is?

Many Thanks for your help

Eve

[wonderlust]

what connector has you monitor got on it vga and/or DVI?

If it is DVI I have a low profile MSI 6200, but it's DVI only nad will not work with a DVI/VGA converter.

If it's any good for you you can have it for the price of the postage

[jonwoad]

any low profile PCI-Express cards will work in that machine...

try http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/MSI+GeForce+8500GT+256MB+HDMI+Low-Profile+Silent+PCI-E+?productId=30971

should just be a case of swapping over the cards

[wonderlust]

thats a good card at that price, and has the bracket

[alexnifty]

Also, welcome to the forums :)

[Eve]

Thanks for the swift responses and welcome guys!:)

Wanderlust - I suspect its VGA but thanks for the offer anyway.

I'll definitely be coming on here more often now (if only I hadn't signed up to so many forums, they're all so interesting).

OK I'll take the plunge in ordering and changing it myself! I'm tenacious so I'll figure it out...

Thanks again

Eve

[mac124]

Make doubley sure the card jon suggested fits, only he's picked a pci express card and you say you need a pci card, there is a difference so thought i should just mention it.

[wonderlust]

it seems to be PCI-E

http://support.thetechguys.com/layout.aspx?ID={c9e753b6-a4bc-40c8-8276-402d0674159e}&CatID={a0b06db2-5041-4516-8f54-17525eb17c48}

[mac124]

In that case then Jons choice is sound 8) , i just thought i should just point out it wasn't the same as what was mentioned in the original post.

[folkestoner]

i have had the same problems with mine and my brothers ls1100's.

if i used any monitor other than the original supplied i would not get a very good picture, in fact one monitor killed my computer completely, and i had to reinstall drivers through safe mode.

the best remedy for your graphics card problems (in fact, any problems with an ls1100) would be to strip your computer completely and stick the motherboard into another case which does not need a low profile card. i am intending on doing this once i hunt down a suitable power supply.

i only suggest this is the best remedy because the board in itself has a lot of potential (3.2ghz dualcore pent4 + 4 ram slots!!), but everything is packed too tight inside the freeline, and i suspect this is a design fault where certain components (mostly graphics card) overheat.

my ls1100 come with ati radeon x300se 128mb, same as my brothers but my graphics card has a small fan built into it, whereas my brothers just has a heat sink and his has had most problems