My son in another city has a custom made machine running Windows XP Pro. It is about three years old. The video on the LCD monitor is scrambled and unrecognizable. He tested the monitor on another machine and it worked well so he ordered a new video card. It is an XFX PVT86JYAHG GeForce 8500 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail, from Newegg. The card specs are correct for his motherboard and his current configuration isn't running SLI. I'm sorry I can't give you more information about his configuration.
I have replaced several video cards in my computers in the past to upgrade my machines but have never replaced a malfunctioning card. My first step has always been to uninstall the old video drivers before shutting the machine down and physically installing the new video card. In my son's case he cannot uninstall the old drivers because he cannot clearly see the monitor's screen. Will this create a problem or will Windows automatically sense the new card and use the generic Windows drivers when the machine is restarted? Of course it this happens he can then install the drivers for the new card from the driver CD. But if Windows attempts to use the old drivers we can have a problem. 
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Larry Scroggs
El Paso, Texas, USA

              The NOSPIN Group is now offering Free PC Tech
                     support at our newest website:
                          http://freepctech.com