Where is the bottleneck?

[jmkeuning]

OK, so this is a new build, my first one. I know now that I have some older technology here so you can feel free to comment on that because I would like the opinions and other readers can learn from it, but I will probably not be changing much right now; so don't be too harsh and make me feel bad!
I think my display is not updating fast enough. With almost nothing running and only a few Windows open, dragging windows around quickly leaves "ghost trails," white shadows; you know the ones. What is odd is that my slow thinkpad does not exhibit this behavior (1.8 pentium, 512 RAM). I had a PNY Tuner/Video Card driving this thing but I just installed a VGA EVGA|GF FX 5500 256MB DDR (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130197) which I got because of this drawing problem. What I think is odd is that if I run Windows FX and apply a fancy Window animation the drawing problem happens when I first drag a window but then stops after I move it around some more. When I move on to the next window it leaves some shadows but then runs perfect. It seems that Windows FX would make the problem worse since it takes up resources. I do not understand.
Could it be that I got a cheap monitor? The $200 19" LCD special? I have played with the acceleration, cranking it all the way down with no effect. Maybe I need another gig of RAM (don't think so...). I really thought the new video card would help! Oh yeah, I do not play games or edit video. I watch some TV with the tuner card but my tests so far seem to tell me that all that is working fine.

Here is the setup:
GIGABYTE GA-8I848P-G Socket 478 Intel 848P ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128242)
Intel Celeron D 335 Prescott 533MHz FSB Socket 478 Processor 2.8 GHz Model BX80546RE2800C - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819112186)
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS1GB400C3
VGA EVGA|GF FX 5500 256MB DDR
Fujiplus FP-988D Silver-Black 19" 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824168005)
Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 PCI Interface Tuner Card
ASPIRE ATX-CW500WP4 ATX 500W Power Supply
250 Gig Seagate Master
80 Gig Slave
Windows XP SP2
Norton Antivirus 2006
Microsoft Antispyware
BenQ DVD Burner

[saphalline]

Sounds like a driver problem. Did you fully uninstall the old vid card's driver before installing the new vid card? If not, that's most likely the problem.

[jmkeuning]

No, I did not uninstall the drivers. Can I do that now? The problem is I do not know what is what now because everything that I installed loaded up a different Nvidia software so do I need to install all that? or just the drivers?

When I look at the device manager the only item under Display Adapters is "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500" which is the current card. Should I take it out and put the other one back in or how can I uninstall the old drivers?

BTW, this GeForce did not plug-n-play on the DVI jack, I had to hook up the AVI (?) cable to load the card and then after the reboot the DVI worked. I do not know if that is normal but it makes me nervous that if I go out and remove drivers I will get no picture at all. And with no onboard video I could get scewed.

Anyway, any further troubleshooting is appreciated.

[saphalline]

Oh no, removing the driver doesn't render the vid card useless. It will just revert back to standard plug'n'play SVGA mode. No big deal. Here's what to do:

Make sure you have the latest NVidia driver pack (or whatever new one you used) saved to your desktop. Then reboot your computer into Safe Mode (hold down F8 after the POST). Bring up the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall the NVidia display driver. Then reboot normally and cancel the Found New Hardware Wizard. Install the new NVidia driver pack on your desktop.

That's how you properly change vid cards. Although, this procedure is a little-known fact.