Video Card?

[mountaintree16]

I just helped my brother set up an iTunes account, and we were trying to watch previews of shows/movies in iTunes but they seem to be laggy & mostly not working at all.

I downloaded Speccy to help me determine if/what type of Video card the computer has. None appear to be listed in Speccy.

How would I determine what type of a video card is needed or really, how would I determine if the computer has one? The iTunes website says this:

DirectX 9.0-compatible video card with 32MB of video RAM; 64MB recommended, among a few other things.

YouTube & Hulu work fine, as does watching a DVD on the computer, but I don't know if this is related to this or not.

Vista SP2, 32 bit, 1.5 GB RAM, 512 DDR2 memory (whatever that means). Acer Aspire Desktop.

[sho-dan]

Hello mountaintree16

Do you the model for this Acer Aspire Desktop, also you try this.

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

[mountaintree16]

hehe oops! Aspire T180.

Thanks sho-dan! I'll check that out next time I am here ; leaving shortly

[exile360]

Speccy should show what it has installed, but what you really need to know is whether it has PCI-E 16x, AGP or just PCI. That is what will determine what type of upgrade it would support as well as the power supply since video cards can place a significant load on the PSU.

[mountaintree16]

How would I go about finding that out, Exile?

[exile360]

You can check the system specs on Acer's website. Otherwise you can look at Speccy to find out the chipset or you can check the device manager under Display Adapters as well as under System Devices. Look for the word "Express" in any of the above and it will mean it has PCI-E if the motherboard actually has the slot for it. If you see AGP, then it's AGP .

Most modern systems have a PCI-E slot.

As for the power supply, either the system specs on Acer's website or opening up the tower to get the PSU model # or wattage (the wattage is usually part of the model #, ie PSW400AV or something like that would mean a 400 Watt power supply).

[exile360]

Here's some images of the slots so you can see what they look like. If you open the tower and look at the board you'll be able to see which type(s) of slots it has available. Pretty much all remotely modern systems will have PCI, but if it has AGP or PCI-E you'll want to use that one instead because it's a faster, higher bandwidth interface:

• PCI-E
  
• AGP
  
• PCI
  

A nice little guide on upgrading your video card can be found here. I read it over and it appears to be pretty accurate based on my knowledge and experience.

[mountaintree16]

Thanks Exile! I'll check these out too!

Do you have any idea though, why movies/video might play fine on YouTube, Hulu, & actual DVD's put into the computer but not on iTunes? Only thing I can think of is that iTunes needs something completely different, which would stink. lol.

[exile360]

It uses a different codec in iTunes. A codec's efficiency on CPU usage and hardware acceleration through the GPU (Video Card) can make all the difference in the world. YouTube and Hulu are based on Flash, DVD's are MPEG2, iTunes is most likely MP4. I can't say what the actual problem is, but I don't use iTunes either. Post the Speccy log so I can take a look at the PC's specs, including the CPU to possibly determine the weak component behind the problem.

Also, have your friend remove iTunes and update to the latest version as that alone may correct the issue.

[mountaintree16]

Thanks!

I made sure it was updated last time I was there, and that was still the case today

Sure, next time I'm there I'll show ya the Speccy shots/logs.

I could uninstall/reinstall but he's downloaded a few songs, but I could back those up on Flash drive, just hope DRM wouldn't interfere with them working again, heh.

[exile360]

He can grab the songs again from the iTunes store without having to pay for them even if they are deleted .

[mountaintree16]

sweet, good to know