update graphics card??

[robhopkins]

I have a sony vaio PCV-LX1. Can I replace the graphics card with a newer more powerful one. Even if it is a different brand. If so, what will this do if I have to do a full system recovery from the Sony recovery disks which will not contain the new graphics card drivers???
Thanks in advance

Rob

[kee-lo_]

If the machine has a seperate graphics card then you can, if its on board the motherboard and theres no AGP it can't be done. You wouldn't have to do a system restore, you'd uninstall your old one, fit the new one and let Windows detect it.

[robhopkins]

Its always on!!!!

[kee-lo_]

???

[iainjturner]

You can upgrade the graphics card on your machine, since it has a spare AGP slot. This means you can use virtually any graphics card on the market today, all you have to do is disable the onboard graphics in the BIOS. You could alternatively use the PCI slot(s) to upgrade the graphics card, although this will not return as good as performance as using the AGP bus.

[robhopkins]

the fan is always on!!!

[iainjturner]

Which means in English...?

[robhopkins]

since i upgaded my pc to windows xp the internal cooling fan remains on constantly!!!
i have downloaded the latest upgrade/driver form the vaio web site but it makes no difference. it remains on all the time....... it didnt before.

thanks

[robpaxton]

Fans on desktop PCs normally run constantly.

Regards, Rob

[iainjturner]

I thought this thread was about upgrading the graphics card on your computer.

XP is a more CPU intensive operating system than other OS', so that may have something to do with the fan running constantly. But since desktop PC's use desktop processors, the fan must run constantly to cool the chip, since desktop CPU's have no clock throttling mechanism.