"One slot left" - Gateway 810 Intel "Flex ATX" Move sound or video to it ?

[R. Asby Dragon]

I scored a Gateway "cute little box" ; FLEXATXSTC BRO Essential;
800P3 for my wife. For her needs; it's almost perfect. She's not a
hardcore gamer; she uses "lightweight" business apps. Reality is
that it's mostly email and surfing <g>

We have (finally) got broadband via Verizon DSL ; she can now do
streaming video/audio; but it's "stutter/bump/herky jerky" . It's
not the connection; it works fine on my "max tweaked" K6/III + box
at 580 mhz.

There's two half-height PCI slots available; one's filled with the
necessary (stock) LinkSys NIC. (everything else is on the mobo)

Both video and audio are "onboard"; the "Intel Extreme" graphics is
built into the chipset and I really don't think it's the cause of
the problem. I'm suspecting it's the AC97 audio. I've *never* had
good luck with anybody's AC97 onboard "audio (??)" .

FWIW; it's running 98SE; fully patched and WinUped ( guess who did
the techbeta on both<g>); 384 megs; all drivers and mobo BIOS
current; and I've done whatever's possible with Gateway's meager
BIOS options to shut off "stuff" or otherwise 'optimize' this box.
The only "legacy" item is an onboard modem as Com1 -- everthing else
is USB 1.1 .

I'm leaning at doing the sound card as first attack; I can buy a
Yamaha chipsetted noisemaker with a PCB that's "half-height PCI" but
a full-height bracket for $9 .. reworking the bracket is a
no-brainer ..


Ant better ideas ??

 

[Mac Cool]

We have (finally) got broadband via Verizon DSL ; she can now do
streaming video/audio; but it's "stutter/bump/herky jerky"

I'm suspecting it's the AC97 audio. I've *never* had
good luck with anybody's AC97 onboard "audio (??)" .

Make sure all codecs up to date. Disable the onboard audio and see if it
cures the problem. If it doesn't, try the video card from your machine.