Installing a new graphics card

cocoluvsmummy

I'm confused . Not that it takes much, anyway i have my newish gfx card (taken off my sons pc) and am ready to try to install it (have given up waiting for OH to do it for me, even nagging hasn't helped), i have found a couple of guides for it and think the actual putting it in the pc should be ok, but i can't work out if i should disable the current on board card and how, and if so when i do it, and also when i am supposed to install the drivers for the new card, the guides i have read all say different and i don't want to suddenly be left with nothing on the screen and not able to rescue the situation.

Am i living in dream land that i should be even attempting to do this? if it is possible can some kind person tell me the excact oreder i should be doing everything, or does it not really matter all that much?

thank you in anticipation

espresso

Have you looked in the BIOS see here for an option to disable the on-board video?

cocoluvsmummy

i have seen it in the bios when we were sorting out sons pc, when should i disable it is more my problem, its the order of installing and disabling that is bothering me.

espresso

cocoluvsmummy wrote: »

i have seen it in the bios when we were sorting out sons pc, when should i disable it is more my problem, its the order of installing and disabling that is bothering me.

Fit the new graphics card and then go straight into the BIOS on first boot with the new card fitted, disable the on-board graphics and make any other graphics card related changes required for the new card.

dedward67

A couple of things. Graphics cards come in two main varieties, PCI-E (the current modern standard) and AGP (slightly older). You need to make sure the card you have fits in the PC you're putting it in. It should be fairly straight forward to check by comparing the connector (gold bits at the bottom of the card) with the slot it needs to go in. Basically, you just remove the cover from the PC (normally a couple of screws) and you can see the card slots on the main board. You just need to remove the metal blanking plate for the respective slot and insert the graphics card. From my experience, normally inserting a graphics card automatically disables the onboard card. I've certainly not had to manually disable one for a long time.

tomsolomon

The correct order is
1. Uninstall old card drivers
2. Shut down PC
3. Install new card
4. restart PC
5. Turn off onboard graphics controller in BIOS(if not been done automatically)
6. Restart PC, if you had to turn off said graphics controller
7, Install drivers for new card.

There you have it.

And yes you need to make sure your system will take the new graphics card. Not only are there different types of graphics card ie. PCI, AGP, ISA (if your realy unlucky), there are also different types of memory and voltages.

Oh, and is it VESA? But then your realy realy unlucky.

cocoluvsmummy

its in, i have a screen that works anyhow, not quite sure about the resolution but can't get it quite right, seems a little fuzzy around the edges, but if up the rez agin it goes distorted.

if i look in the device manager it only lists the new gfx card as being in there so does that mean i have managed to stop the on board one working? I looked in the bios but couldn't see anything that looked like it was what i wanted so didn't fiddle (very controlled of me i know)

mdbarber

cocoluvsmummy wrote: »

its in, i have a screen that works anyhow, not quite sure about the resolution but can't get it quite right, seems a little fuzzy around the edges, but if up the rez agin it goes distorted.

if i look in the device manager it only lists the new gfx card as being in there so does that mean i have managed to stop the on board one working? I looked in the bios but couldn't see anything that looked like it was what i wanted so didn't fiddle (very controlled of me i know)

sounds like its disabled automatically, don't worry about it.
You need to set resolution to match monitor, if lcd try 60hz as a refresh rate (under display settings/advanced/ adapter properties)

tankard_2

Changing the gfx card is a job I need to do (my first time). Good answers thank you.

cocoluvsmummy

Thanks to you all for your help, i had not managed to set the bios correctly, but once OH pointed me at what the section was called in the bios i was able to change it. I was then able to get the resolution up to maximum and i have a lovely crisp picture.

Most importantly i am dead pleased with myself and feel like i've really achieved somehting (that and the fact i will now be able to play games on my pc to a small degree, card's not that good hence why son took it off his machine):D