Video Card Installation for a Beginner (please help!)

[LakerGod]

Hi, I just received my Radeon LE card the other day and I want to install it on my Windows 2000 system. This is my first time installing a video card by myself and I don't want to mess up. Therefore, I have a lot of questions I hope can be answered.

1. What is the best and more reliable driver I can download for Win2K? Where can I download it?

2. When I want to install my new card, do I just pop the old one out and put in the new one? Or do I gotta do other things, like uninstalling the old driver first?

3. When the computer picks up the plug n play card, do I install the drivers through their wizard, or should I cancel out and install it directly from the driver?

4. When I have finished installing the card, what steps do I have to take in overclocking the card and enabling hyper Z? What are the best ways of doing this? What is a safe speed to overclock at?

If there are any other details that I have left out, please let me know. Thanks for the help!!!

 

[sohcrates]

1) dunno...maybe someone else who actually has a radeon can help ya out with this one

2) you should go into device manager and remove your old card first...then shut down..rip out the old card, and install the new one..then on boot up it will detect the card and you should have the drivers ready

3) i always like to install from the wizard...makes things easier..but you can do it either way (i.e. sometimes the driver just comes with a .exe which you run after cancelling the wizard)

4) dunno...same answer as question 1

let me know if you need more help with the install basics

 

[LakerGod]

thanks for the help

 

[BFG10K]

you should go into device manager and remove your old card first

You should also go to add/remove programs and uninstall your old video card drivers.

 

[LakerGod]

bump

 

[Dark4ng3l]

well hmm I suggest you do a clean install to avaid problem(delete partition, recreate partition, format partition, install os(and drivers etc.))

 

[Hawk]

www.rage3d.com has all the drivers.

 

[HappyGamer2]

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/articles/video_card_install_guide/

http://www.planethardware.com/features/doit/video_card/

 

[Finlay]

I dunno about with Windoze2k, but I did this last night with W98...

1) With your old card still in place, change the video driver to Standard VGA, then shut down.

2) Swap the cards and boot up.

3) IMHO don't use the wizard - I have had problems with it, plus it can get weird when you try and install the ATI software after (but for W2K it might be okay...). Anyhow, I just cancelled out, then autoran the ATI disc that came with the LE - worked like a charm. I went to the ATI website, and the driver on my disc was the same one they tout as their current production driver. They have newer beta drivers, but I'm gonna wait until I have problems before playin' with 'em.

4) Read Anand's article about the LE and follow the instructions for enabling HyperZ - then decide if you want to bother OCing...

G'luck!