I have received a new video card - Gforce fX 5200. It is a PCI version. Looking at the unopened box I found NO requirements. After opening it and reading the users guide I find: "If you have a PCI CARD, you will insert it into an available white PCI 2.1 or above compliant slot."

My computer is a 5 year old DELL DIMENSION XPS T550, PENT III, 640Megs RAM. PC WIZARD says this about the computer:

General Information :
Number of PCI Bus : 2
Number of PCI Connectors : 3
Frequency : 33 MHz
Multiplier : 1/3x

General Features :
Support Mechanism 1 : Yes
Support Mechanism 2 : No

Bus Information #0 :
Device : 82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX CPU to PCI Bridge (AGP Implemented)
Device : 82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX PCI to AGP Bridge
Device : 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/E/M ISA Bridge
Device : 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/E/M EIDE Controller
Device : 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/E/M USB Controller
Device : 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/E/M Power Management Controller
Device : AIC-7861 AHA-2940AU PCI SCSI Controller
Device : uPD9210/72010xx USB Open Host Controller
Device : uPD9210/72010xx USB Open Host Controller
Device : uPD720100A/101 USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
Device : EMU10K1 Audio Chipset (SB Live!)
Device : PCI Gameport
Device : HCF 56k Data/Fax/Voice/Spkp Modem

Bus Information #1 :
Device : Riva TNT GUI+3D Accelerator [NV4]

Questions: What do I have?
Can this card be used in this computer?
Is it a paper weight?
Will Kerry be... ooops! :)

Thanks in advance for your kind help for this old man.

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/_950/lamer.gif

Are you sure that youe Graphic card is PCI version?
PCI version of graphic cards are very old.
My friend have that one and it's goes on AGP slot.
Newer version of AGP slot is PCI Express, but I don't think that that cards goes on PCI Express.
With your card you should get a driver and user manual, that's all you need.
Your card can be used on tour computer.
My advice: You should go to store where you buy that card and ask him about it.

This is definitely a PCI card. The box, manual, label on the card identifies it as such as does the catalog.

I installed the card with the instructions given. When I turned the power on I got one long and two short beeps and a black screen. I changed the PCI cards about and got the same results so the card is seating and the slots are good. So I called eVGA.com tech support and the rep had me switch the cards around again... same story. He said bad card and I should take ti back to the store and exchange. I did this. THEN I found the "requirements" on this box that had been hidden on the first one by a store label... requires a 300W power supply. The computer has a 200W supply.

I have not opened this box yet... what is the suggestion now?

Thanks for the reply.

Dd

It looks like from the PC Wizard system config dump that you still have the Riva TNT GUI+3D Accelerator [NV4] AGP video graphics card plugged in to your systems AGP x2 expansion slot.

If this is indeed the case, all you need to do is
1.) Shutdown your computer.
2.) Remove the power cable from your systems power supply.
3.) Open your computer system case.
4.) Remove the video card from your AGP slot.
5.) Install your eVGA FX 5200 video card in to an available PCI expansion slot.
6.) Close your computer case and power-on your computer.
7.) Install the FX 5200 video graphics cards device drivers using the installer application on the CD that eVGA shipped with the video card.

You should be in business.

In the case that your system still is unable to power its self up with the FX 5200 video card installed you can always replace your systems 200W ATX12V power supply with a more powerful 300W or even 350W ATX12V power supply.

You can get a 300W to 350W ATX12V power supply for as cheap as $30 (USD) from any online computer parts supply retail store.

-ecborg

FYI - The POST beeps of one long followed to short beeps that you mention hearing when booting up your system with the FX 5200 PC video graphics mean that the "power on system test" could not detect a video card connected to the system.

Link to the Dell Dimension user manual POST beep code descriptions:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dkub/codemess.htm

A little late for this guy probably, but I found by trial and error how to resolve this issue... For this particular machine (and probably other similar Dimension models), the PCI graphics card must be in the first PCI slot. If it's in any other PCI slot, you'll get the beep followed by two short beeps indicating no graphics card found. Hope this helps someone else needing this answer.