[mixflip]

Ok so I picked up an older used Dell desktop just to do real basic stuff. (my newer HP got fried beyond repair! The only things that were salvageable was the 360gig HD and the 2 gigs of RAM) The most demanding thing I might do is edit videos for youtube on this old dentist office computer.

That being said, I picked up a few used parts to upgrade this old business workhorse. I bought a used Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 video card and a sound blaster sound card (both the older PCI) Both did not have any install disks. They looked fine. (no blown capacitors or bent parts or anything obvious)

Do I just plug and play these cards or do I need to configure something to run them properly?

My other question is...I cant find the video card anywhere when I tried to look for it on the computer? I tried "my computer" and "control panel". The only thing I saw was that the computer "found new hardware" at initial boot up.

Where do I verify its existence?

[kc8ykd]

evidence of these cards being present will be of you viewing an image on the screen while it's plugged into the 'new' video card, and hearing sound from speakers plugged into the 'new' sound card.

you will want to go out to the manufacturer's websites and get the drivers from them. the built-in windows drivers are very basic to provide basic compatibility with a wide variety of hardware.

soundcard: support.creative.com

video card: http://www.nvidia.com/page/drivers.html


i assume you're using XP, to view information on the cards you'd do the following:

click on the start button
click on control panel
double click on administrative tools
double click on computer management
click on device manager, under system tools on the left

or,
right click on my computer, on the desktop
click on manage
click on device manager, under system tools on the left

your video card will appear under the heading display adapters

your sound card will appear under the heading sound, video and game controllers

[mixflip]

Thanks, you rock! I got both drivers now.

[kc8ykd]

cool.

while that hardware may be a bit older, it's possible that the manufacturers will continue to release updated drivers for them to increase stability and efficiency.

i'd recommend checking every 6 months or so with them for new drivers and updating if appropriate.