Prob a Dumb question but

[Dark]

Ok i wanted to upgrade comp with a better video card. Got a new power supply in and it works good. Its got 60amps on the 12v rail so i know i will have the power.Alrdy moved sata ports over so i can have a double slot card. my question is the comp came with a graphics card already installed (9300ge nvidia) Do i still have to use some type of cleaner like ccleaner or can i just delete the driver in device manager, drop in and install the new card (will be going to prob 9800gtx or somehwere around there depending on money no ati at all) And if i cant how do you know what to actually delete when you run ccleaner so i dont mess anything up really bad. Oh and one more question the motherboard has a vga port on it but it is blocked off with a cap that says dont use. when i add video card will vista find some drivers to work till i get new driver loaded or can i download new driver onto cd before hand and pop that in on first boot or will i have to go into bios and tell it to boot off cd or will it automatically pick it up in the drive. Only real thing im worried about is deleting wrong thing with the cleaner or having no video since there wont be any video thing going unless vista will assign some drivers before i can get the newest driver. Kinda sounds weird but hopefully you guys can guess what i mean.

I also have the addy for the motherboard and what it has and what not if that is any help since havnt done any real upgrades before just som new fans,lights,ps, and new hard drive so this is new water for me

[TilDeath]

If you go into CONTROL PANEL > PROGRAMS and FEATURES, find nVidia  choose REMOVE then select VIDEO DRIVER only.  When you install the new Video Card it will run without its drivers but obviously not how it is suppose to run.  If your getting a 9800GTX get the 9800GTX+ it is worth the few dollars more.  Get your drivers right from nVidia's website and not off the driver disk.  The disk could have drivers that are a few months to over a year old.  Also in Vista do this.

START > ALL PROGRAMS > WINDOWS UPDATE once there click on the left side, choose CHANGE SETTINGS, the select the radio button DOWNLOAD UPDATES BUT ALLOW ME TO CHOOSE WHETHER TO INSTALL THEM.  Never allow Microsoft to update your Video Drivers or any NVIDIA drivers for that matter.  Intel drivers are ok, I really can't say about ATI, someone else will have to field that one.

Hope this helps.

Here is my recommendation for on a 9800GTX+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130457

[Dark]

So i really dont need to use the cleaner then that will help alot since if i messed it up dont know anyone that fixes comps and would have to let best buyor something to figure it out. I went to the first thing you posted just to find it and if i click on it it says it will delete everything to do with nvidia in the registry, nothing shows where i can delete just the video driver only, so does that matter? And funny thing is that the card that i have saved in favorites

heres what it exactly says when i click on the nvidia then unistal/remove button.

This will remove the Nvidia Display Driver. All driver components and the corresponding entries in the system registry will be permanently removed from your system

Do you wish to continue

[BaldEagl]

All you need to do is uninstal the driver through add/remove programs then shut down and instal the new card.  When you re-boot with the new card installed go into the BIOS (set-up... usually delete or some F key... check your computer documentation) and make sure that on-board video is disabled.  Save settings and continue to Windows.

Windows will detect new hardware and ask if you want it to search for the best drivers.  Close this window and go to the card manufacturer's web-site.  Download the new drivers and double click to begin the installation process.  Your screen will look terrible until this is complete but it's not hurting anything.

[TilDeath]

So i really dont need to use the cleaner then that will help alot since if i messed it up dont know anyone that fixes comps and would have to let best buyor something to figure it out. I went to the first thing you posted just to find it and if i click on it it says it will delete everything to do with nvidia in the registry, nothing shows where i can delete just the video driver only, so does that matter? And funny thing is that the card that i have saved in favorites

heres what it exactly says when i click on the nvidia then unistal/remove button.

This will remove the Nvidia Display Driver. All driver components and the corresponding entries in the system registry will be permanently removed from your system

Do you wish to continue

Yes

[smokey23]

The only dumb question is the one not asked

[ebfd11]

I have the 9800gtx+ installed on my machine and it works great and believe it or not it is installed on a 2 year old E-machine I bought from Wal-mart here are my spec's

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 4/17/2009, 07:55:55
       Machine name: ROBERT-PC
   Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6001) Service Pack 1 (6001.vistasp1_gdr.090302-1506)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: emachines
       System Model: W3615
               BIOS: Default System BIOS
          Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 3326MB RAM
          Page File: 986MB used, 5904MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 10
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 6.00.6001.18000 32bit Unicode


  The only things I upgraded on the machine were a larger power supply for the vid card and 4 gig of memory total cost roughly 1000.00.