Graphics card troubleshooting

P: System crash after running a video game or application that needs serios graphic resources.
A: Check your video card temperature. Some manufacturers have software for monitoring CPU or video card temperature. Check with your graphics card documentation for the highest temperature supported. Start your PC with the case open and check if your case fans and video card fan are working properly.
Check your video card power connector and make sure that is plugged in. Consult your power supply documentation to determine it's capabilities.

P: System freezes, reboots, or displays poor grafic performance.
A: Make sure that your new hardware it's compatible with the rest of the system, in this case the video card has to be compatible with the motherboard and power supply.
Unninstall your old graphics card driver before installing a new one. Also download the latest drivers for your graphics card. Both Nvidia and ATI offer drivers for all their graphics cards; simply visit their support websites and download the driver you need. For best performance in gaming, also download the lastest version of DirectX from Microsoft website. Installing the latest driver can also resolve graphics issues that appear after installing Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Install the latest chipset driver for your motherboard. The chipset on your motherboard is the "bridge" between CPU and graphics card slot. Find out your chipset driver by checking your documentation or go to Device Manager - System Devices. Your chipset should appear as multiple entries in the list (like Intel 945G/GZ/P/PL Processor to I/O Controller - your chipset is Intel 945). Download the drivers from manufacturer's website, install them and the restart.
Try resetting Bios to default by entering the BIOS menu before startup.