I have a Dell Dimension 8300 with XP Media Center 2004. Now I got stuck with a terrible graphics card, a 64Mb AIW 9000 Low-Profile to be exact . I am a bit of a gamer so I want another graphics card but if I swap while I have Media Center, I am told that is not a good thing. I just want to know if it is possible to go down from Media Center to XP Home and if it is I realize I will have to buy the XP Home full edition. PS: I don't have any place around me that sells the E-Home Wonder or the MCE 2005 OEM and I don't want to go onto Newegg or any other place and reveal credit card numbers or my address .
I see no reason why you couldn't downgrade to XP Home, (though I prefer XP Professional). I wouldn't think that changing the graphics card would be a bad thing, assuming it it occupies a PCIe or AGP slot you should be able to swap all you want. Did Dell tell you not to change gfx cards?
I didn't go to Dell about any of this. I know for a fact that I would have problems swapping while I have Media Center because of specific display drivers that are needed. I just heard that computers have specifications in order to operate with Media Center and I am just concerned that putting a new operating system might screw those specifications up and damage my computer.
I understand your comcern but I don't believe that your other hardware is build around MediaCenter so *hopefully* nothing will go wrong. If you're really worried you can always back up files on disks in case something goes horribly wrong but I'm sure tomorrow someone else will have a better idea. Hold on there Deadlock.
I haven't heard about this issue before, so I can't say if it's simply hogwash or fact. Off-hand, I can't see a logical reason why using another video card would fail to work here, much less drivers for it.
MCE only requires specific cards if you want to capture Mpeg 2. If all you care about is gaming though you should be able to swap the card out without an issue, since MCE is basically just a dashboard sitting on Win XP anyways.
