Drivers for 256 MB GeForce Go 7300

[dfree86]

Hi all,

Nvidia hasn't put out a driver update for my GeForce Go 7300 in ages, so I'm looking to update my Forceware to maximize my performance on games, and in general. (I'm thinking Oblivion, but that might be a bit ambitious given my specs). Anyhow, I've never tried to update my Drivers before, and I'm new to the modded INF thing, though I've read up on it extensively and understand it in principle. Here are my system Specs:

Dell Inspiron E1505

Windows XP (SP2), Media Center Edition 2005

Intel Core 2 Duo T2050 @ 1.60 GHz/533MHz

1GB System RAM

256 MB GeForce Go 7300

Forceware Version (at present): 84.29

I'm looking to get the most out of my card and having read extensively on the boards and the site, I'm currently debating between the 84.69 and 163.15 driver updates. According to the recommended drivers chart, 84.69 is optimal for Geforce Go 7xxx cards, so that looks good. Then again, the 163.15 is a much newer update and people who've installed it seem to have had a lot of luck with it. I downloaded them both last night and am just looking for some feedback on which one (or another entirely) might serve me well. I tried to install one of them and stuffed it up, so I just have a couple questions about the Driver installation process as well.

1)When I uninstall my existing drivers and restart, my screen loads in a very low resolution (640x800 or something). That's normal, right? My problem came when I tried to increase that resolution before installing the new drivers, because the screen was hard to manage with everything so big. This, I now realize, was a dumb idea. My computer froze and each time I tried to restart I ended up with a black LCD screen for a desktop. I went into the BIOS setup and also did some diagnostics but nothing seemed to work. It was only by some miracle, after several restarts, that my desktop loaded normally and I was able to System Restore. In order to prevent something similar happening again, I want to be sure I've got an appropriate driver and the exact installation process before I try again.

2) When I extracted files from the downloaded Driver they littered across my desktop filling my screen, rather than going into a single folder that was titled "84.69" - or the name of the corresponding driver. Is that just an extraction problem, where I need to make sure I have a folder put them in? If I have to drag the modded INF file into that folder to make it work, I want to be sure that I'm putting it in the correct place.

My biggest fear with this whole update process is that I'll muck something up and not be able to load Windows so that I can System Restore to an earlier point, have to wipe everything, format, throw away, demolish, etc. I'm looking for a little performance edge, but not at the expense of losing my whole system due to personal incompetence. Heh. Any help or advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time. Cheers!