Has anyone had this problem with a Dell Machine, went to upgrade the Grapics, opened the case and there was no APG Slot, it looks as if the manufacturer has taken it out. Is this a common problem or a one off? The system is 6wks old and I advised that she take the machine back. I also understand that Dell told her it would cost around £200 for her to get an upgradable system. Personally I think that sucks becouse you buy a PC to do possible upgrades! Never buy DELL!!! Talent does what it can; Genius does what it must!

Okay, there are some manufac out there that went through a phase of "no agp slot" which at the time (and still is) dumb. When you bought the system, did you look at what the specs were on it, or did you ask someone. Lately i have not heard of any mobo manufac doing the "no agp" thing, and you might want to talk to dell, could it be that you have the new pci express?? i didnt think that was out quite yet?? but look into that. Honestly, if they sold you that kind of mobo, and it wasnt the new pci rave, then i would throw everything in the book at them to take it back and give you want you wanted. It should still be under warranty. I hoped this helped a lil.

My reply to you about not buying a Dell is this. Dell is not the only company that makes budget computers that come with no agp slot and on board video and sound. Any knowlegeable person that is into upgrading would not purchase the cheapest system from any manufacturer. They most certainly would make sure that any possible upgrade they might want to do is feasible. For people that do not check things out there is a pci video card option available.

Ok, let's take this one step at a time. Answer the following questions: 1. Dell Model # 2. Refurbished unit or not 3. Dell purchase or through a retail store. It may be a 6 week old machine as far as purchase time, but the machine may actually have been introduced last year or so. There are still some computer companies selling "beginner", for lack of a better word, with PCI slots only. Emachines was still doing this on their 400-500 dollar machines before gateway bought them. It very well could be a PCI Express system since Dell now has them on their website. If so, your worry should be how much will I need to spend when I want a new video card, lol. I didn't think they had started putting them in systems yet either, unless you had one custom built. Cool!

If enough people would stand up and go to federal court, I think Dell would end up in the soup like Circuit City did. They're just sticking to people who don't know any better and laughing all the way to the bank. That's my opinion... I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid...

I can't believe I'm actually going to say this (I service extended warranties and have seen first hand the horrors of the retail world, from computers to pools), but, if you are out to buy a store computer, *gulp*, go with HP (Ok, that really stung). This is off-topic, but let me give you a rundown of the computer manufacturers I have dealt with so far: 1. Hewlett-Packard. They are the lesser of the computer maker evils. They have good enough to great specs (depending on purchase price of course), but, as with all retail-bound computer makers, they don't really make their systems upgradable too well. Most of their systems contain decently made components, but the systems as a whole tend not to last more than a couple of years (yeah, I know most of us try to buy a new one in that amount of time anyway, but if we want them to last longer, they should be able to do so. I'm also not too thrilled with the recovery disk being on the hard drive itself, that can lead to trouble. 2. Dell. Decent pricing, pretty good tech support. However, the quality of their parts are very questionable. Some of their practices with customers has been a bit shady. 3. Gateway. Questionable parts quality, bad tech support, and just generally bad systems. (As a side note, Gateway is headed down the tubes, they have stopped selling all of their cameras, MP3 players, and darn near everything else gateway branded except for plasma tv's and such) 4. Emachines. Please, I'd rather not even discuss them. Terrible parts, lowly specs even on higher end systems, terrible tech support (I owned one, which gives me further right to blast them :-) ). Now all that ranting was still opinion, even though I have some backing experience. It was also geared towards desktops.

I doubt it has a PCI Express slot even though they are out in the real world now. PCI Express is going to replace AGP because it is a lot faster. As others have stated, it is common for a low end system to not have an AGP slot. You cannot slam Dell though for not doing your own homework. You should have asked if it came with an AGP slot prior to ordering the system. Only one to blame is yourself, not Dell. KTTD Hearts Break, Hearts Mend, Love still hurts.