I have recently upgraded to a flat panel monitor. Since the upgrade my monitor will go to a black screen every once so often if I am playing a dvd, reviewing photos/graphics, etc. I’m thinking that my “aging� system cannot handle all of the video, audio, graphics, etc. It stays black for about 1-2 seconds and then goes back to where it was.

It appears that I cannot upgrade my video/graphic because it is on the actual motherboard. I do not have a lot of experience with upgrading or changing graphic cards or motherboards so I need your “expertise�.

What would you suggest I do so that my computer can play a dvd or view an online photo album without having the monitor go black or continuously flash? Do I need a new motherboard, graphic card, both? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!!

HP Pavilion PC - Model XE748
XP Home Ed.
Intel (R) Celeron (TM) 700 MHz processor (socket 370)
Intel 810 Chipset
320 MB RAM
Western Design 80GB Hard Drive (I upgraded to this)
Lite-On DVDRW SOHW-812S (I upgraded to this)
Graphics down (on motherboard) integrated in Chipset. No AGP slot.
Video Graphics PCI Local Bus
Controller Intel 810
Video Memory 11 MB shared memory ; integrated graphics; not upgradable

It looks to me that I have the very same computer as you...unfortunately, upgrading with these hunks of junk is quite difficult and near impossible.

First off you cant really get an expensive video card because there is no agp slot on the motherboard. Also it wouldnt do you much good since the mobo would extremely bottle neck the performance...and the cpu couldnt feed the gpu enough information fast enough.

Second of all if your thinking of going the PCI video card card route, not happenin. The power supply in these computers are 100watts, and a video card needs at least 350watts..Just get a bigger power supply right? Wrong, the power supplies in these computers are tiny, and the space provided for them does not have enough adequate space for a standard 350watt power supply.

Third, you could get a new mobo, but you could only find a mobo that fit your case from hewlett packard, and they jack the price up 3 times...Even if you found a better mobo, I doubt it would work, because there is not agp slot in the back to connect...So if you plan on getting the torch out and remodeling your case, and spending an arm and a leg. I would just put 512mb of ram in there, max out the ram.

Im not sure why the movies cutting out....I can play .avi movies fine on mine, but my computer is much too slow to play dvd movies on it. Hope that helps ya