Graphics card upgrade question

[NotMyRealName]

Not sure this is the best place to ask but....

The graphics card in my 5 year old WinXP PC has died. If I install a more
modern graphics card will I have problems with the old drivers preventing XP
producing a display? ..or will XP detect the incompatible card and default
nicely back to VGA and allow me to install new drivers ?

It was a Gainward Geforce 4 Ti 4400 and now it's smoke. I've actually found
someone with a nearly identical Gainward Geforce 4 Ti 4400 for sale but they
want nearly £70 for it.

 

[Pop`]

Not sure this is the best place to ask but....

The graphics card in my 5 year old WinXP PC has died. If I install a
more modern graphics card will I have problems with the old drivers
preventing XP producing a display? ..or will XP detect the
incompatible card and default nicely back to VGA and allow me to
install new drivers ?

It was a Gainward Geforce 4 Ti 4400 and now it's smoke. I've actually
found someone with a nearly identical Gainward Geforce 4 Ti 4400 for
sale but they want nearly £70 for it.

When you buy a new video card it should have the necessary drivers along
with it. It's likely the old drivers aren't needed and in fact won't work
right with a different card.

Pop

 

[NotMyRealName]

When you buy a new video card it should have the necessary drivers along
with it.

I know but getting them into the new PC will be tricky if I don't have a
working display

 

[Roy Coorne]

I know but getting them into the new PC will be tricky if I don't have a
working display

You install your new display adapter.
When booting XP, press 'F8' and select the VGA mode. Then you can
install the driver for your new video card.

Roy

 

[NotMyRealName]

You install your new display adapter.
When booting XP, press 'F8' and select the VGA mode. Then you can
install the driver for your new video card.

Great thanks. Just the info I needed.

Hopefully it was just my card that failed. The BIOS beeps 1 long and 8 short
and according to AMI thats a graphics card fault. The graphics CPU also
smells burnt. Problem is I was out when it happened so the whole PC smells a
bit. Wife reports there was a power cut but my PC is on a UPS. Not sure what
happened - perhaps the graphics card fan didn't restart or something. Bother
anyway.

Colin

 

[Jim]

Great thanks. Just the info I needed.

Hopefully it was just my card that failed. The BIOS beeps 1 long and 8
short
and according to AMI thats a graphics card fault. The graphics CPU also
smells burnt. Problem is I was out when it happened so the whole PC smells
a
bit. Wife reports there was a power cut but my PC is on a UPS. Not sure
what
happened - perhaps the graphics card fan didn't restart or something.
Bother
anyway.

Colin

And, if you don't install the new drivers, XP will default to 640x480 using
its generic drivers.
Jim

 

[DandyDon]

As all have said install the new card and boot to Safe Mode. But before you
can install the new drivers, you must uninstall the old ones.

In Safe Mode open Control Panel-Add Remove Programs. Your old card is made
by Nvidia. Look for a file named 'Nvidia Graphic Driver' or similar. Click
to select it, click Remove to uninstall it.

You can then reboot the computer, the new card will display at 640x480
resolution. Then install the new cards drivers per manufacturers
instructions.

Rather than installing the drivers from the new card's CD, dowload the
latest drivers from the card makers web site, either www.nvidia.com ,or
www.ati.com.

 

[NotMyRealName]

As all have said install the new card and boot to Safe Mode. But before you
can install the new drivers, you must uninstall the old ones.

<snip>

Thanks. Just waiting for my new card to arrive then I can give it a go.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Since you were using a video card based on a nVidia chip, if you were using
the nVidia Unified Drivers (UDA??), any other video card based on any nVidia
chip.