I’ve bought some new hardware for my computer (an HP pavillion a1730n) to stave off replacing it for a while longer, and I intend to install it tonight with the help of a somewhat more knowledgeable person: ram, a video card, a sound card, and an internal DVD writer. I’m a novice at this, but I’m pretty sure I can handle it given I’ve helped him install some of these things before, and the back up plan is to bring anything I can’t get to work properly to a professional.
However… everything but the ram will need drivers/install software, and I’m a little concerned about what happens when I turn the computer back on: will the visual output work properly if the software for the audio card or DVD writer demands attention before the drivers for the new video card are squared away? Perhaps I’m worrying for no reason given that there’s an integrated card in the computer now - will the computer even try to access the video card instead before I install the drivers for it?
There is a generic video driver already on most computers. It often looks like crap but it will let you do what you need to do until you get the real drivers installed.
Don’t worry about the DVD writer. Windows will automatically detect it. You may need to install the DVD writing software that comes with it.
The graphics card is a different matter. Be sure to download the latest drivers from nvidia or ATI as appropriate before you start. In theory, you should be able to just plug in the card, switch on, and install the driver from the CD, but I’ve found it preferable to reset Windows to the VGA driver for at least one complete reboot loop beforehand. Uninstall any extra video card utilities, change the driver to VGA, reboot, log in if necessary, wait for everything to start up, then do a clean shutdown. This clears out any graphics cruft. Note that after resetting to VGA the bottom of the Display Properties panel can be hidden behind the Taskbar if you have the latter at the bottom of the screen.
Take it piece by piece.
Start with the RAM - it just plugs in, you boot up, and it should be there.
Once that’s done, change your video settings to a generic 1024x768, reboot, uninstall the old video drivers, shut down, swap video cards, boot up and install the new video drivers.
Yes, I know it’s a lot of reboots, but the aim is to have a clean slate, so to speak, at each step of the process.
Once your video is running, on to the sound. Same deal - uninstall, reboot, install.
The DVD writer will probably be nearly as simple as the RAM - plug it in and load its software.
Trying to do all of this all at once will only end in heartbreak as you try to figure out what went wrong and why your PC won’t run.
> I’m worrying for no reason given that there’s an integrated card in the computer now - will the computer even try to access the video card instead before I install the drivers for it?
This can be tricky. Depending on the level of sophistication in the BIOS, it may not understand there’s a second video card in there. When you boot up after installing the the new video card, dont have any vga cables plugged into the onboard video. Just have the vga or dvi cable plugged into the new card and into a monitor at boot up. It should start ouputting video to the right video controller. If it doesnt, you may need to disable the onboard video in the BIOS.
>and I’m a little concerned about what happens when I turn the computer back on: will the visual output work properly if the software for the audio card or DVD writer demands attention before the drivers for the new video card are squared away?
Windows will try to output video using a generic VGA driver. So you’ll get video at a low resolution. Install your video drivers then. Dont worry about the audio card. Hit cancel on the wizard if one comes up. Install the sound drivers after the video is working.
I took gotpasswords’ advice, and everything is working. Thanks, Folks 