(02-03-2012, 02:29 AM)9bjames Wrote: Wow... that's really unlucky... =/
I hope you can get one soon... if you need any help finding one, I could give you advice...
I recently upgraded my own graphics card... but there's quite a few things ya need to look out for...

(02-03-2012, 01:06 PM)9bjames Wrote: Okay, I'm only here for a bit... but I don't really have too much time today...
I need to take out £250 for the deposit on a house, as well as sign the contract for it, then possibly get shopping and do work, if there's time...
But I can at least get ya started off.

First, I'll need to find out what motherboard, and graphics card you have... the easiest way to do this is to download a free program called speccy. Just google "speccy", and install it like any other program (it's by a company called pririform, it's pretty handy to have)... there's nothing dangerous about it, but it might flag up as potentially being a virus or something. Either way, just let it run, wait, and it'll show everything about each component of your computer. When its done with that... The easiest thing to do would be to click on the motherboard and graphics part, and either copy/ paste, or screenshot and send me all the info from there. Not all of the information is needed, but it makes it easier.

After that, I could probably search for a better graphics card which would fit your pc specs... but theres one more important part you need to be careful about... power.
Since it's an old PC, installing a new graphics card might mean you'll need a new PSU (power supply unit), since generally when you buy a PC, it'll have a PSU which should just about fit the needs of the components inside... whereas installing a better piece of kit into the system would mean the power you need goes over what your PSU can supply. If it's old, I'm suspecting you won't need anything too pricey (so long as you don't boost up the graphics card too high)...The old one I had was probably about 350W, which I replaced with a £50 (approx $75) 550W one... I didn't need to go that high, but you should always go higher than the total power your system should be using. Now, before you actually go for a new PSU, you should know the specs of it...

Unfortunately, speccy doesn't check the power rating on PSUs, so the only way you'll be able to find out is by opening the case, and looking at the power rating on the PSU itself... but more on that later, you don't need to worry so much about that now. If you don't get a new PSU, it wouldn't be the end of the world really; it would still run, but you wouldn't be able to get as much out of the new graphics card, and it could also lead to other components not getting as much power as they need... which generally leads to crashes etc...

For now, just do what you can using speccy, I'll help ya through the rest of it if and when ya need.
Also, this is all assuming you need, and are ready to replace your graphics card... That's what I think ya meant by getting a new video card driver... Although I could be wrong, and you might just mean the driver software... XP
If it is that you just need to update driver software, you could still just use speccy, since that would give you the make of graphics card, then you could search for free driver downloads from there...
Either way, let me know if this helps.