Thanks Haystack! That was a brilliant suggestion! Turns out, there is one such outlet within three miles of where I live. And they do seem to have some cards I might be interested in. :-)

And....when you do take the lid off do give the innards a good jetting with some compressed air to get rid of all the dust.

:-)

Update on the graphics card situation - ordered a new Asus GTX 750 Ti after ensuring my motherboard and PSU can handle it. I gather I must uninstall the current graphics drivers and the card (Device Manager) before installing the new card. My problem is that Windows is not able to start though with some struggle I can probably get it to boot in Safe Mode. Assuming I am able to do this, I am concerned that uninstalling current drivers might land me with a black screen. I doubt if my system has onboard graphics. Any suggestions?

Here are some steps to follow:

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-a-Graphics-Card

This also advises uninstalling the old graphics driver. Then you open the case and remove the old grpahics card

I note when you switch on for the first time, there thus doesn't seem to be any graphics card driver installed at all. Thus you might not be able to see anything on the monitor.....???? :-)

Hmmm? Not so. I'm sure you will see something on the screen.

So you then duly install the new driver. Job done!

Well not quite.....

I have found that Driver Booster 2.1 (Free) is of great help keeping all of your drivers up to date and isn't at all intrusive like some of these kinds of programs can be. download it, install it and give it a whirl. This should then help you put every driver on the machine slap bang up to date.

PS. Careful as always when doing the download as to what boxes you tick.

If it is a 'Plug and Play' card I can't see any reason why Windows won't install and run the new software for your new card. Presumably it comes with an installation disc or, if not, Windows will search for the correct software on the internet.
In fact, looking at your system, you have onboard sound, but no onboard graphics on the model P7P55D-E, so the system must require a plug in graphics card. In which case I think it should just plug and play.
In my experience, if you get problems with the new card, you can leave it in, uninstall all drivers and start again.

Thanks! I am sure it'll all go well. Just like to have Plan B and C handy! :-)

In fact it looks like you have no external port on the motherboard (DVI-I, DVI-D, D-SUB/VGA, HDMI)to connect to a monitor, so no onboard graphics.

Quite right, HC. That's the reason why I was a little concerned about the possibility of black screen. Hopefully Windows will be smart enough to use the card as a pass-through until the proper drivers are installed.

No worries :-)

Windows will normally revert to a generic VGA driver to get the system going then instal something suitable. In the end you need to download the correct manufacturer drivers.

Thanks HC. Will post progress here when I receive and install the card. Appreciate the help.

Hi,

Recently I have had a message 'Intel manager Update' required with an agreement to either sign up or not, this comes up at the bottom of my screen, not via an e-mail.

Seen several warnings on the internet re the danger of virus coming in via this, would welcome advice and info as to what this is, in as simple terms as possible please.

I have the same thing on my new Toshiba laptop running 8.1, but it's from Toshiba not Intel. I am always pretty wary of signing up to any of the Service Manager services, but if your machine is new then it may be o.k. If it's not and the message is a new innovation, then would be inclined to ignore it.

Greek - I've heard of Intel Update Manager - is that the same thing?

Hi Skinny,

Yes, that's what I mean't thanks.

Thanks Harrycat, not sure if it comes in via HP which is my laptop make, will probably ignore unless others come back with more info.

My Laptop is about 5 months old.

There is some info in that link.

Thanks Skinny, just read it.

Might have mislead by saying sign up was required, what I mean't was I had to agree with the terms/conditions which I appreciate is normal, still though wary of doing so.

Just to show how things have moved on a bit in the last 60 years...



Uploading (Yes, the term 'uploading' is correct) the first 5 MB hard disk onto a PanAm aeroplane in 1956.

Perhaps the usual size of hard disk these days would be around 1TB (or 1,048,576 MB) and over here we might even call it a hard disc or even a hard drive. Here's a portable one from Toshiba:

But not even 1 tebibyte!

Update on the graphics card situation for my son's gaming machine. Card arrived today. Uninstalled the old drivers - and no, screen did not go blank! :-) Removed the two six-pin power connectors from the old card before removing the card altogether. Slotted the new card in. It needed a single six-pin connector. Made sure all screws were back in place, reconnected the display cables (2 monitor setup) and powered up the machine. Immediately noticed the blocky green lines were gone. Windows booted up in standard VGA mode. Installed the new drivers from CD, rebooted and everything is now back to normal. Thanks for the guidance I recd. here.