Old HP, needs new GPU

[chugot9218]

Hey Guys,

I have an almost 6 year old HP desktop at my parents, it is an m7680y, and I believe the video card has gone out on it. When you start it, it has no video output and gives the beep code that corresponds to a bad GPU. I opened up the case and removed it and did see what looked like some burning/melting. I have done a little investigation and believe I found the MOBO that is inside the system, a UL8e. Can anyone confirm that this is indeed the motherboard? And past that, I am looking for an extremely cheap video card for it, it does not need to be fast (the PC they had to fall back onto is an extremely old dell, im talking like 1997 or earlier), and the HP is a vast improvement over it as long as it is working. I believe the previous GPU was a 512mb Geforce although at the moment I do not recall the exact model. If the MOBO I suspect is indeed accurate, it has a PCI Express x16 slot and a 3 regular PCI slots, 2 of which are occupied with a TV tuner and sound card. The options on newegg are quite expensive, 60+ dollars, more than I would like to spend to fix it. I searched on Amazon and found some pretty cheap cards but most of them were PCI x2, which I assume I cannot use. Any help provided will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[Rustyy117]

Hi

If this is your motherboard: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&dlc=en&docname=c00748726&lang=en&lc=en&product=3239104#N245 then you could buy a HD5450 as the motherboard has a PCI-E lane and the card is PCI-E, its also low profile, cheap and uses very little power.

 

[chugot9218]

I believe that is the MOBO, however, the description lists it as having 2 PCI-E slots, although even the pictures/schematics they provided seem to indicate only 1. I am assuming that it does not matter that the HD5450 is a PCI-E 2.1 card? That looks like exactly what I am looking for, just want to make sure it will work. At least if I order it through Newegg I can make sure it works in the PC and that nothing else is causing problems, and return it if there is.

*Edit* The original MOBO listing I was looking at listed Lithium as the manufacturer and the link you provided was manufactured by Basswood, doesn't look like much of a difference but I will confirm as soon as I can *Edit*

 

[Rustyy117]

If it is the motherboard I posted earlier then I would check with HP if the PCI-E lane(s) are version 1.0/a or 1.1 or newer as the description for "Expansion Slots" doesn't specify, v2.1 graphics cards aren't compatible with V1.0/a PCI-E lanes as the power delivery is different.
The version may be printed on the motherboard near the PCI-E lane(s)

I did find the description abit strange aswell, listing 2 PCI-E lanes but only one is obviously visible, perhaps they mean that with an expansion card you could have 2 PCI-E lanes... not sure.

 

[chugot9218]

As soon as I can confirm the Serial # I will contact HP and find out exactly what MOBO is installed. Would a PCI-E x2.0 work in the PCI-E 1 x16 slot or are they incompatible as well? I found this on Newegg, looks pretty quality, but again I do not know that it would work: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127557

Any other GPU recommendations with links would be awesome! And thanks for the info you have provided so far fatal .

 

[josav246]

Get the radeon sapphire 7950. I have used it and it is amazing

 

[chugot9218]

I cannot help but think that that was a spam post, as it is very irrelevant to my problem lol.