Installing a Video Card - Is it easy?

[emailer]

Hi. My son is buying a new video card today and we're wondering if it's easy to install?

I'm assuming computer stores usually charge to do stuff like that, so he's thinking he'll try himself.

Thanks for any info.

[David]

Video cards are easy to install. Follow the directions which coem with it and you should be fine.

Typicly the instructions go something on the lines of

Changing the display settings to the lowest resolution and color possible.
Uninstalling the driver for your current video card.
Remove the old video card and insert the new card.
Install the device driver for the new card.
Then after windows reboots after the new driver instalition change the display setting back to where you want it.

[CignaXI]

Something that many people take for granted is static which can harm your computer's componets. When you change the cards try to be static free touching your computer's case or using a static free wrist strap. Overall changing a video card is very easy ( If your OS Windows ) and you will save money so just fallow the instructions that came with your video card like David said. Good Luck!!

[CDRecorder]

Yes, upgrading a video card is quite easy. I upgraded mine last week; I did almost exactly what David said. I uninstalled my old graphics driver, installed the new graphics driver, shut down the computer, swapped out the graphics card (while wearing an anti-static wrist strap), and powered up the computer again. When Windows XP popped up the driver install window, I directed to the location where I had installed the drivers, and then the installation was finished except for setting the color depth and resolution to where I wanted them.

BTW, what video card are you getting? I got a card based on the GeForce FX5200 chipset with 128 MB of RAM, and it really improved my performance (old card was ATI Rage 128 Pro with 32MB of RAM)!

[emailer]

Thank you for your replies. Totally appreciated.

[dodecahedron]

Uninstalling the driver for your current video card.

newbie question:
how do you uninstall the video card driver?

[Dartman]

You can go to add or remove programs and it should be there. Sometimes the drivers even have a remove feature in their folder. If your online with cable or DSL XP should go out and find the drivers for you, of course the card should come with a driver and programs disk that will get you up and running in case you have to suffer through dial up, or can't get online right then to get the latest update for the new card.

[CDRecorder]

Emailer: You're welcome.

Dodecahedron: The driver should be in Add/Remove programs if you installed a driver other than the Microsoft driver that WinXP installs. If you have the WinXP driver or if the driver doesn't show up in Add/Remove Programs, you could go into Device Manager, right click the video card, and click "Uninstall".