Win HOW TO: Using XBMC with 'Non-Compatible" Video Cards / OLDER PC's !!
#1
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I had a few matching older PC's that I wanted to turn into XBMC boxes to install for a couple of friends...
They were throwing these away at work, so I grabbed them.

I'll list the specs first of these boxes, so you can get an idea of what I mean when I say "older"

Specs on these boxes were as follows:
Intel 845G chipset Motherboard
Pentium 4 @ 2.4Ghz socket 478
Maximum of 2 GB DDR200 or 266 system Ram
on-board Intel 82845G chipset Intel Extreme Graphics controller, with an additional AGP 1,2, or 4X slot
40 GB IDE HDD's, no onboard SATA

There was a small video card in the AGP slot (only one little chip on it) with a DVI out connector,
The motherboard had a VGA connector onboard near the usb's/sound connectors, etc

These boxes also had a secondary ATI Rage 7000VR 32 meg video card in a PCI slot,
It had another VGA, DVI, and S-video connector on it.

OK... So I purchased a few IDE to SATA adapter modules, because I couldn't locate any large (1 TB+) IDE drives locally.
I then went to my local FRY'z and purchased a 2TB SATA HDD.

I installed the SATA drive via the SATA to IDE converter module (look on ebay, I paid $5 apiece for them including shipping)
They are a small daughterboard that plugs onto the back of a SATA drive, allowing you to hook it to an IDE only motherboard. They work great.

I then installed Windows XP Pro SP3. The system came up fine, I found audio and correct video card drivers at Intel and ATI's (now AMD) websites.

So the systems were up and stable.

Next I installed AVG FREE for a virus checker, and locked it down.

I turned off windows update, because the version I had installed a bunch of Microsoft update patches anyways. DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN!!

Next I needed network connectivity, I prefer wireless, so I bought a Belkin USB wireless adapter, and installed it.
The motherboards have an Intel Network Interface ethernet card built in, so I installed the drivers for it also from Intel's site

The network came up fine, so I went to XBMC's site first, and installed XBMC FRODO 12

I like to used XBMCHUB's config wizard, so I downloaded it, but to use it, XBMC has to be run once after install.
So I ran XBMC, but it crashed.

Dismayed, but not willing to give up, I went to XBMC's WIKI to find out if my systems met the required specs for XBMC...

There I found out that I needed to have a "SHADER 2.0 compatible 3D video card" !!! ARRG!


Now I could have went on ebay and bought another "compatible" AGP video card with 1GB of video ram for about $30-$50... That probably would have worked...

Instead though, I recalled hearing about a program that "simulates" in software, high end 3D cards. It's called Swiftshader 3.0 and you can get a DEMO here: http://transgaming.com/swiftshader

They claim it's really fast, so I figured what they heck, I'll check out the demo, and see if it will work, then purchase it if it does, right?

So it comes with a directX 9.0 .DLL that you can drop into your "offending" game or program's install directory, and it sits between that software and your hardware, simulating a high end video card.

I figured XBMC doesn't seem to do any real "3D" stuff, so it should be fine...

I copied the DLL into XBMC's directory, then fired XBMC up again...

LOW and BEHOLD, XBMC WORKED!

Unfortunately though, the mouse was very sluggish, as the poor little Pentium 4 tried to do all the math required for the card simulation.

I managed to get it to fire up a movie, but it was running at about 2 frames per second. but it did work...

Well, back to EBAY for a different video card, right? HMMMMM.....

Dejected again, I shut down XBMC again (I actually had to reset the computer, because it locked up on XBMC "exit")

Windows rebooted, and I deleted the .DLL from XBMC's install directory.

I was going to go surf Ebay to find and order a card, but instead accidentally ran XBMC again... OOOPS!!

You won't believe it but XBMC ran again, full speed now, and all my plugins also ran fine!!

SUCCESS!!! and it's been running fine ever since!

Now I will tell you one secret I learned... XBMCHUB's wizard would not give me the green checkmark, but I found out that by dropping the DLL back into XBMC's install directory,
now even the wizard would work, and set up all my plugins!. after it finishes, just pull it back out again before you run XBMC again!

SOoooo, I guess the moral of the story here is, Don't give up...

Hopefully this will help someone else, I can't guarantee it will work for you, but it might! Give it a try with an older PC box!!

GOOD LUCK !!

====>> STARTIGER <<====

...|\_/,| (`\
.._|o o |_ ). )
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#2
I have an inspiron 530s that I want to use for my HTPC. I don't have tons of media files (only music) but just want to run XBMC, stream sports, use the add ons for movies & TV. Also run Hulu Plus and Netflix. I'm not the most tech savy guy and building computers isn't my thing. Any advice for a noobie trying to get things set up.

It has an intel Pentium Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00 GHZ 2.00 GHZ. Its running Windows Vista.

Any suggestions on a money conscious conversion? Video card? Widows 7? Let me know your thoughts. Like I said, not looking to spend too much $$ if possible.
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#3
Thanks Startiger...this was a big help.
I have an old HP desktop sitting around that comfortably runs youtube in 720p that I wanted to use for xbmc but I keep getting the error "cannot start gui".

I was looking at (and bought!) a new video card before realising that the motherboard only has pci slots and not pci-e. I cannot source graphics cards with hdmi for much less than £100 and a new motherboard (and case and processor) defeats the object of recycling an old unused pc for a new purpose.

I tried using swiftshader 3.0 and that did not work.
However, swiftshader 2.0 did and xbmc seems to run fine now.
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HOW TO: Using XBMC with 'Non-Compatible" Video Cards / OLDER PC's !!0