help please

[bham wolf]

my pc is running an nvidia 6200 le, but i think its fried, the screen is dull and characters are emitting bright lines. having looked at the card there is a darker brown spot in the middle. now i am a complete novice at this and would like to know what to replace the graphics card with. have looked at both 8400xfx and 9500gt. i mainly surf net because gaming is not so hot.i have a packard bell pc with xp media center. can anyone advise me plz. thanks

[Radiator]

What are the rest of your PC specs ?
Is that 6200 LE a PCI-e , PCI or AGP card ?
What PSU are you using ? How many watts and how many amps on the 12V rail ?

[-RK]

Have you tried switching out the monitor? What kind of monitor do you have?

We will need to know more about your system like Radiator said.

What kind of slot does your card plug into on the motherboard? If you don't know the different slot types then...

Is it longer than the other slots on the board and more slender? Short and wide but a little further away from the back of the case than the rest of the slots? Is it exactly the same as all of the other card slots on the motherboard?

As for the power supply, you should have a sticker on the side of the PSU telling you the wattage and information on the voltage and amperage on all the different connectors. Really just the wattage would be enough.

[bham wolf]

packard bell intel (r) media center 2002 edition service pack 2
pentium r4 cpu 3.06GHz
3.06GHz 512mb ram

what other info might you need and where would i find it ?

also would i need to upgrade anything else ?

cheers guys

[-RK]

Ahh, sorry man, but that information doesn't really help us in your case.

What type of slot does your card plug into on the motherboard? Open up the case and describe it, it should look like one of the three possibilities I listed in my previous post.

Also if you open up the case there should be a box with lots of wires going to every component in the PC. That's going to be your power supply. It should have a sticker on the side that will tell you it's maximum wattage.

[uberhiker]

You should be safe with a 7300GS if you can find one, try Newegg.com. It'd be a huge step up and should be within your obviously stringent power supply requirements.