New stuff coming, need installation advice.

[woot7800GT]

Alright, as most of you know, my 7800GT and 2 GB of RAM will be here in a day or two and I need installation instructions!

1. With the RAM is it a simple plug and play affair or do I have to screw with bios?

2. How should I go about installing the new video card? Just pop it in, start it up and install the CD drivers or should I use safe mode and uninstall the old ones or can I run on the old drivers or what?

I've never installed RAM or a video card before so please help! Thanks.

 

[Boonie45]

RAM won't be a problem...99% of the time! I wouldn't worry about that...just make sure the case is unplugged when you put it in. (Obviously!) Your computer will automatically recognize it...(hopefully!) and you will be able to check in your system props in Windows.

The same goes for the vid card. However, as far as drivers go for the vid card, it sometimes depends on what you had before, and what kind of programs you have installed with the old one. For example, if you have an ATI All-in-Wonder or something, by pulling out that card and restarting, your computer is going to want to start the 30 million programs that ATI uses with that card. However, because you have a new card, it is going to error out several times before calming down.

One thing to do would be to uninstall all of the unnecessary programs before you even take the old card out, then shutting down, installing the new one, and starting up. That will save you the hassle of clicking out of 400 error boxes. But from a technical standpoint...it can't hurt anything. (Unless you have an overclocking program that will immediately try to OC it when you boot.)

Windows will probably install all of your drivers, but I still recommend just installing the drivers from the CD, or getting them from the company's website. Make sure you go there regardless to check for updates.

 

[Juice Daddy]

also, you might have to go into the bios and set the initial display

if it doesn't work right away, then thats probably why/\

 

[woot7800GT]

Initial display?

 

[woot7800GT]

Okay, to be more specific with my question:

Aren't all the nvidia drivers universal for all nvidia cards? Since I have drivers installed, will I even need to install anything for the new card or will it work on the current drivers fine?

OR

Should I uninstall the current drivers and install the ones on the disk? If so, how should I go about doing this? Boot in safe mode to uninstall?

 

[HAVOC]

The method that I use is as follows:

New Video Card Installation:

Regardless of what type of card it is I always (Uninstall all Display Drivers and Software) FIRST before shutting down and removing the card that you will be replacing.

Don't worry, your current card will continue to work fine. The Uninstallation doesn't finalize until the PC is shutdown and restarted. You don't need to boot to safe mode.

Then install your NEW videocard. When you restart your PC, windows will recognize that you have a NEW card installed and will prompt you for NEW (Drivers & Software) ETC... Then you continue your installation. After all Drivers and software are installed, RESTART your PC. This will ensure that everything was installed properly.

I've used this method ever since i've been doing videocard upgrades. I've never had a problem...

I also use this method when installing new Drivers for a videocard that i'm currently using. Except I don't uninstall the software. Just the drivers.