Casey Foaming out mouth, Angry

[CaseyV9]

Don't get me wrong, there are other places on the fine Hexus forums to get tech help.
I am not here to get help, No. I'm just going to moan.

Why? Technology.

When my first PC was starting to struggle with latest games I new it was over. It's VGA graphics card slot just had no new cards to improve it.
No, It was time to get a PCI Express PC and ditch the ageing Celeron for a Core 2 Duo.

So 14 months ago I thought I'd get a Packard Bell with PCI Express card and Core 2 duo. And Vista.
Ohh no.
I was going to enjoy upgrading it gradually.

So, christmas came. From Scan I bought a Corsair PSU, Corsair ram, A nice big case with good cooling and a Geforce 8800GTS 512MB. I cackled to myself.

I put my PC in it's new case, All good. Installed the new PSU, Good. Then the ram, No problems.
But the 8800GTS? NO. wouldn't boot. Tried everything. Nothing. I searched online to see if anyone else had the same problem with my MOBO. They have. It seems the new generation of PCI-E 2.0 or something about them is incompatable with the VIA chipset. I was sold a turd.

I sent my card back to find it was fine. So I changed it for a DX9 card. Not good, but PC is now running cooler and the performance increase was worth the trouble.

So recently I decided it would be good to get a console. PS3 or XBox 360?
Yesterday I decided PS3. Reliability is more important to me. But at the last minute I got a kick in the teeth. None of my monitors will work with it. I have no TV as I prefer radio, internet and gaming.

So this morning I thought "Balls to it, I'll get an XBox 360.
Out I go this morning fairly confident I know what I'll need to get it up and running. GTA IV, XBox 360 Elite. Then I went to Maplins. I got all these Audio bits and bobs so I could bodge up a way to hook it up to my headphones via cheapo PC speakers. I also grabbed a DVI > HDMA converter to get it running on my monitor.

I got back to my lodgings, and started hooking it up together. Got power running to it. Got the Audio working.

Then I grabbed my lead comming out my monitor. DVI cable, so I remember reading in my my manual. I got my new adapter and Balls. It wouldn't fit. Why? well on my PC cable it seems on the line bit there are 2 pins either side of it preventing it from fitting.

WTF

I see the guy at MAPLINS. They having nothing else. I got a refund and legged to other places.
I have an older TFT monitor in my cupboard with a VGA connector.

I saw the XBox VGA lead. Ufortunatley It doesn't look like I'll be able to use it. Unless I can find an adapter to connect 2 VGA bits of the same sex together. I got back to my lodgings empty handed.

Just an XBox 360 I can only hear and an un-opened copy of GTA IV.

That is ridiculous. Do they honestly just go out of their way to piss on people of what?

I can't return my XBox now.
I'm looking at buying a modern monitor.

Oh well, starting to feel calmer now. I'll just crack open another can of Red Bull and sit here dribbling at my shinny new XBox 360 with an un-opened shinny GTA IV box next to it

[stevie lee]

the dvi cable sounds like a single link, when you need a dual link, or something like that..

playing grand theft without looking at the screen is really fun, try and escape the police.

can i join in on a moan...... here goes..

edited out my moan - not the right topic or place, might be seen as a thread hijack - sorry..

its good to moan isn't it?

[SilentDeath]

The dvi shouldnt be a problem, you might just need another cable or to bodge it to fit. get some pictures

[Funkstar]

the xBox doesn't have an integrated DVI connector right?

So you are trying to convert VGA -> DVI. Thats fine, but that just gives you a VGA output in a DVI-A or DVI-I connector. this cannot be converted to HDMI. Unlike full DVI, HDMI doesn't have provision for analogue video in the conector. To go from VGA -> HDMI you would need a digitiser as opposed to just cable adapters.

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by stevie lee

the dvi cable sounds like a single link, when you need a dual link, or something like that..

playing grand theft without looking at the screen is really fun, try and escape the police.

can i join in on a moan...... here goes..

its good to moan isn't it?

Playing GTA IV without looking at the screen? I don't believe I could blindly work my way through the menu system to load up the game

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by Funkstar

the xBox doesn't have an integrated DVI connector right?

So you are trying to convert VGA -> DVI. Thats fine, but that just gives you a VGA output in a DVI-A or DVI-I connector. this cannot be converted to HDMI. Unlike full DVI, HDMI doesn't have provision for analogue video in the conector. To go from VGA -> HDMI you would need a digitiser as opposed to just cable adapters.

I'm finding lots of stuff online, It's just getting the needed parts.
They don't seem to seem to want to make it easy eh?

The beauty of Consoles, just switch on and go.

[digit]

Originally Posted by CaseyV9

I saw the XBox VGA lead. Ufortunatley It doesn't look like I'll be able to use it. Unless I can find an adapter to connect 2 VGA bits of the same sex together. I got back to my lodgings empty handed.

Erm? You unplug from your monitor the cable connecting the pc and plug in the vga cable from the 360. Failing that just get a VGA to DVI converter if your monitor only does DVI.. You could alternatively get a switch box to allow two vga sources to be connected to the same vga port on your monitor. A KVM would do the job nicely and allow you to use your keyboard on your 360 and on pc.

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by digit

Erm? You unplug from your monitor the cable connecting the pc and plug in the vga cable from the 360. Failing that just get a VGA to DVI converter if your monitor only does DVI.. pc.

You would think that wouldn't you? I thought that aswell.

I cannot unplug my lead from the monitor.

This XBox 360 came with a HDMI cable. The connector coming off my PC is DVI-I.
I just found out that DVI-I cannot be converted to HDMI.
So, if I want any chance of using it I have to shell out £20+ for an XBox VGA cable.
That has a 15pin VGA connector on it.
Thing is, they designed it to plug into a connector directly on a newer type monitor.
So the connector of the Xbox lead would end up being the same sex as the lead coming of my monitors.

I reckon for the my DVI-I monitor, buy a DVI-I > VGA adapter then buy an adapter to connect 2 VGA connectors of the same sex together.

To me, that is absolutley ridiculous.

[Tarffie]

So basically this thread could be summed up as "I didn't research my purchases properly" then?

[digit]

That sounds like an ancient tft you have if the video cable is directly attached crt style.... but plausable I guess. Be happy in the knowledge once you end up hooking it up the purchase will have been worth the time

Screw the official cable:

Joytech Cable £9.99 Play.com

£10 for the above and you'll be sorted I've used one since day one of getting my 360

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by Tarffie

So basically this thread could be summed up as "I didn't research my purchases properly" then?

Maybe. When that TFT came with my PC last year I probably didn't think too much about the connections.

I didn't think that there were multiple versions of DVI, since what I tried was plugging in a DVI-I connector into a DVI-D slot of the adapter that converts to HDMI.

Still, It's just annoying that a monitor I have owned for just over a year is causing me such grief.

I guess you could also call this thread "Sony and XBox make things a pain in the ass to get high def gaming"

Just wonering though, does anyone know of any decent monitors for around the £150 mark that would be up to the job? Make XBox and Vista all pretty?

[Lucio]

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Cheap monitior with HDMI input. Obviously be aware that for something of that size, you won't get full HD output, since you need 24" monitor for that.

[CaseyV9]

Originally Posted by Lucio

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Cheap monitior with HDMI input. Obviously be aware that for something of that size, you won't get full HD output, since you need 24" monitor for that.

Thanks.

Yesterday I went out to try and get some adapters.
But my mind works funny.

I bought myself a new Monitor.

I cannot find this on PC Worlds website. I think it's soon to be replaced with a newer model:

Currys - Shop for Monitors TFT - Samsung SM932MW 19" Widescreen LCD TV Monitor

PC World had the last one on display. It cost me £189.89.

I finally got to play GTA IV and my Vista looks all pretty.

Still, I ain't to happy with all the trouble I go to for this.

I guess I should be more carefull about what I buy.