Video card question?

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I have an ATI HD 3400 series video card and how do I install drivers without causing any problems. I am complete computer noob.

If you had a different video card in your computer, you HAVE to uninstall the drivers of the previous card. There should be something like that under the uninstall software option in "add/remove programs" section of the control panel. Also, if you're having problems with gameplay, make sure your new Video card is up to par with the game requirements (the first 2 digits of the card compared to the requirements are lower than stated on the game, the game will NOT run). For example, if a game requires a minimum of a Nvidia Geforce 8900 and you only have a 7600, the game will NOT run. Once you have the new card in, go to the manufacturers site for the card and search for "Download Latest Drivers." Make sure you search the one one compatible with your card. There is often a listing or search method on the site to do this.

Is it already installed on your pc?
if yes, go to here and select your operating system.
Press Go, then you'll be shown a page, it'll probably say "Full ATI Catalyst Suite (Recommended)", press Download.
Once it finishes downloading, open it and it'll guide you.

I have not changed card. I got an error during the installer so I could do computer loves step.

Bad advice. both ATI and nvidia have recently crossed a threshold and dropped digits. They do that every few years too.

For example, i went from an ati x1650 pro from a 9600. that 1650 is actually a 11650.

And I more recently went from a nvidia 9600gt to a gtx 250. The 250 is a bigger card.

All those cards are still on the market.

Yes. thats quite annoying that they did that. I usually wiki the new card, especially if the game requires something **** or above, just to find out where mine goes in the scheme.

If you got an error during install, that could mean the drivers either don't work for your OS, or they are the wrong ones. If you're not sure about the card, especially something used, you can go to device manager, right click on the unrecognised card and click properties, then go to the details tab. The VENID and DEV numbers will tell you EXACTLY what it is and who made it, plugging those into google usually pulls up tons of driver downloads.

You're going to need to know what exactly the card is, not just 3400 but 34** for a specific driver.

I will try again and I will tell you exactly what problem I have if it happens again.

That is one thing I like about linux. My friends nvidia 8800gt, my brothers 9800gt and my gtx 250 all have the same driver, despite being in three different generations.

The ATI site has it only in the series and my card is just ATI radeon HD 3400 series,What folder am I supposed to install it into.

It said installed correctly no but catalyst control center still wont open,I click on it a little load circle appears but it never opens.Do you know how to fix it.

No, you don't need to know the exact model and Fuzzy you are mistaken if you think that is unique to linux.

AMD has a single driver package for all currently supported cards. No AGP card is officially supported but an AGP hotfix is issued shortly after each driver release. So, there's just 2 choices unless you are using some very old or very new cards. For the very old cards, obviously you can only use the last released driver. For the recently released cards, they often have to add some last minute fixes to the driver to make it works. But those fixes will be rolled back to the main branch once it's thoroughly tested.

NVIDIA used to be and is still largely in the same situation as AMD. Only their 200 series card has been using a separate driver version for a long time.

Back to the original question. Open Device Manager and check the current driver of of your display card, is it the same version as the one you downloaded from AMD? If so, then run dxdiag and check if acceleration is enabled. If it's a yes too, then the driver is working properly. That would mean it's only CCC that's not working. If that's the case, the only thing I can think of is .NET Framework 2. Try re-install it and if that still doesn't help then maybe you can consider using ATI Tray Tools instead.

I think it was properly install because device manager because the driver date on the site is 9/11/09 while the driver date says 8/13/09 and I got my pc in janurary and that is the card the pc came with and this was the first driver update I ever did.Opps I just checked and it isn't the current version but the installer said was succesful I installed into the default folder the installer gave,Man what am I supposed to do.It say accelation is one and oblivion works and that the most intensive game I own.I tried to install the latest stable verision of net framework and everthing went ok until the end then it said setup error,this issue is getting extreamly irratating. Can you give me like to a download for ati tray tools because I looked it up and the date all says all the way back in 06.Man next computer or next chance I get I am going to nvidia.

You can find ATI Tray Tools here.

But what's the error the .NET installer gave you? It may indicate some other problem of your system.

To tell you the truth the installer didn't give me me an exact error it just said setup error and thats it.

I restarted my computer and I got an error from ati tray tools saying cannot access low level driver and after install ati tray tools,Window vista gave me an error saying ati tray tools tried to download a unsigned driver and it didn't let it but I am an administrator.Man I hate windows vista.

Ah, thats good to hear. I dont mind being mistaken at all.