Drivers

[Gavin]

HiI have a Nvidia geforce 2 64meg card. As I've never downloaded drivers (I haven't the first clue how to install them properly)I'm sure they must be whichever ones came with the card when I purchased my computer 2 years ago. I use FS2K2 and have not installed the latest DirectX (9 is it?).Could someone advise me if it is worth updating my drivers? What about DirectX?System specs are: P4 1.4G, 256RAM, 30 Gig hard drive (about 10 Gig used).2K2 framerates are locked at 15fps, most sliders medium-ish, no added AI, just changed from MS to Aardvark or FSP, AI is set to 75% IFR only and 2K2 performs reasonably, but stutters from time to time.I'm not too computer literate and am pretty nervous about doing anything too drastic (which for me means things like drivers, DirectX, etc).Thanks for any friendly advise!Gavin

[Gavin]

Forgot to mention - I run Win ME.Gavin

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

Well drivers is a little more complicated but Direct X is easy, just download the newest version ( 9B ) restart and it is automatically updated, drivers however are simple but a few more steps, the first thing is to download the ones you want, you say you are running a GeForce 2, I would download the 30.82, which you can get here,http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_30.82.htmlOnce you have downloaded those, go the control panel, find add or remove programs, open that up and wait for it to load, then scroll down to you see "Nvidia 9x/ME Display Drivers" or something similar to that, click on it, then select remove, the computer will uninstall and ask you to restart you click on yes, let computer restart, now when you log back on it might start to load default windows drivers, I know XP does but I am not sure about ME, let it do its thing, if it asks you to insert a disk or something to find the drivers, click cancel, now once you are at your desktop, open My Computer, then go to C: drive, then if you see a folder called "Nvidia" delete it!! and remove it from your recycle bin, then launch the installer for the new drivers, they will install, ask you to restart and say yes, once the computer has booted up, your screen resolution may have been changed, so you can change it back to how you want it. I hope this cleared some stuff up for you, let me know if it worked.

[Guest SoarPics]

Hi Gavin,I would recommend the 12.41's for your card. I had one just like it, and those drivers offered the best performance AND visual quality. They were great!!The 30.82's are better suited for GF3 and GF4 cards. They too are very good for that generation of card.Go here for everything you need, including install directions. Also download Detonator Destroyer to thoroughly remove any old drivers. It's very easy to use. Finally, download RivaTuner to tweak your card and drivers.http://www.guru3d.com/Good luck,

[Gavin]

GuysThose were just the sort of helpful, well written replies I was hoping for. Thanks very much.Now I've just got to pluck up the courage to go ahead.Gavin

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

You said you had Win ME, make a system restore point before you do anything and then what way if gets really screwed, you can restore.

[Gavin]

Did the system restore straight away and installed the latest DirectX, so far so good.As for the drivers, I've been reading around and there seems to be 2 schools of thought. One is that you MUST uninstall the old drivers before the new ones. The other is that you just download and install the new ones without doing anything else.Is there a definitive answer to this question?Gavin - one step at a time!

[Guest kilo_sierra17]

I don't know who told you just install the new ones but they are nuts, if you want the new ones to work, you must uninstall the old ones!