When you fire up your computer, the startup sequence displays information in standard VGA on your monitor, and most systems (except for #@&% Toshibas and maybe a few others) say something like "Press DEL to enter setup" or similiar. This all happens before Windows loads. You can even see this screen without a hard drive in the computer. The system does not need a driver or anything to run standard VGA through the G450. Unfortunately for this situation, the system will first try to use a video card in the AGP slot (unless you set the BIOS differently). So, if the only video card in the whole system is the Matrox, then you can easily tell if it works - because either you'll see the startup messages or you won't. There are no driver or configuration issues, just bios versions and hardware problems.
I agree with that, but one should also have a surge supressor at least. And UPSs are so cheap these days, there's no excuse not to have one if you use your computer to make money. I've got two suppressors followed by a UPS, and my UPS still beeps every once in a great while, probably from a momentary power drop.
RE: Power suppressors etc. What brand power suppressor do you use ? I strongly agree that you should use power suppressors and a UPS. UPS should have AVR, (voltage regulation and line conditioning). Sure there are elect. spikes from your power company but I'm referring to a degenerating power supply that improperly transmits a surge or spike of elect. through your PC that can do severe damage. Most PC users are not aware that this can happen frequently enough to warrant using a better quality power supply. Of course you might have to loose 5 years of data and software to realize the importance of this issue like I did. Another thing I have noticed is that if you have initial problems with a device or PC component, even if you finesse it to work after hours of fiddling, it most likely is going to be a chronic problem. Most likely you will become either a good PC tech or a good trader. My opinion is that your time is better spent reading everything you can about trading to gleen out the few important things you need to understand and do to make money at it. There is alot of false information and are mostly armchair trading text book writers out there to siphon your trading capital.