Video Driver Updating

[Stoney80]

I have an Asus V9280/TD GeForce 4 Ti4200 8X AGP 128 meg video card. I would like to update to the latest nVidia drivers. This is something that I have never done before and so if you can explain to me how to do this I would be most appreciative. Step by step would be the best because I am real slow on the uptake.

I do have some questions:

1. Do I need to uninstall my old driver first? If so, How do I do this? I have read that nVidia drivers are notorious for leaving remnants of the old. How do I determine the old driver is kaput?

2. Once I download a new driver is it automatically installed or do I need to do it manually? If, manually what steps do I take?

3. Also, I have been have major conflicts when I try to run any NWN game modules from Bioware, i.e. game freezes, blue screen, etc. This has never happened before. I am wondering if my card has acquired a conflict or glitch. What do I do to determine any possible conflict?

4. I have also notices little yeallow pixels showing up on my screen, but in random patterns? Another video card issue?

Thanks for your patience and time.

[jeffandleigh]

I'll try to answer in the order the questions were asked but I'm going on memory.

Updating Drivers:

Download newest drivers for your card from nvidia (site should walk you through this process)
*do not execute the file yet

uninstall old drivers
- control panel, system, hardware, device manager
- locate "display adapters", right click on drivers and select uninstall
- reboot
- open follder with new downloaded drivers and double click
*I am aware of free software that will guarantee that all remnants will be gone, but have never used it. So far my driver updates following the above steps have yielded no negative results.


Regarding corruption with your game display. The new driivers might help, but if not save your "saved games" in some other folder (create one yourself). Then uninstall/reinstall game. You should then be able to place your saved games back into the game directory where your found them before making the copy. *Note that exact location as it matters. You might even quickly save a game and then you'll see where it is saved. Then you can just dump your old saved games on top of the "new save" (overwriiting it when prompted to do so).

Secondly, make sure your running enough system memory (RAM). Depending on what your using, it can be very inexpensive to upgrade to 512 or even better to 1 gig.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck.

[Stoney80]

Yes, that was most helpful. I'll try to get to it soon. Much appreciated.