Endemic (?) NVidia GeForce FX 5200 capacitor problem -- SAFE MODE screen issue

I have a flaked-out  2004 Dim 8300 with four bad Skywell SHT 6.3V, 1000uF capacators on the NVidia  well described previously in this forum thread:

 

Dim 8300 - NVidia GeForce FX 5200 cards - swollen capacitors

Also describe here, with picture:

 http://blogs.mie.utoronto.ca/roller/oscar/entry/weakest_link

and many more complaints (after sorting through a possible driver problem) here:

http://byronmiller.typepad.com/byronmiller/2005/10/stupid_windows_.html 

Typical example (scroll down):

"Here we go again. When all four big capacitors on my FX5200 card literally exploded in December 2006 (my post, Dec 13 [2006]), Dell replaced it within 24 hours with a refurbished card, under the terms of my Next Business Day On Site maintenance agreement. Just one month later the 'new' card has started exploding - a loud pop, like a ruler smacking a desk, tells you that one capacitor has swollen up and exploded. Dell have replaced it with yet another refurbished card. Very good service, too. But they didn't want to supply a different spec replacement presumably on the basis I would be getting something I don't deserve or haven't paid for. So I guess I will go on costing them lots of money in replacement card deliveries for the next 2 years, having just extended the maintenance agreement at very reasonable cost!

I am horrified by these tales of people wiping hard disks, re-installing Windows, fiddling around with drivers etc. It only takes a few minutes to remove the card and physically check it. If there is obvious damage then there's your answer. If not, THEN start fiddling with Bill's tempermental and delicate software. This is a known problem."

NVidia GeoForce FX 5200 cards are provided by various manufacturers -- NVidia just sells the chipsets.  So I quickly picked a used one up locally not made by a Dell contract manufacturer that has 5 capacitors (not Skywell) and a bigger heat sink.

Unfortunately, all was not seamless.  There was a shut-down error message reporting new hardware had been installed.

I appreciate the next step probably is to install updated NVidia drivers, but uninstalling the current ones -- or doing anything effectively in SAFE MODE -- is problematic because the screen image in SAFE MODE runs off the right side of my Dell FP 20" monitor.  Only about 2/3 of the screen image is visable and I don't know how to adjust this. 

(The image -- when the black screen of death didn't start showing up several days ago -- was fine running on the old NVidia before the capacitors went bad.)

Suggestions very much appreciated on how to fix this.

Also, curious to know if anyone has achieved out-of-warantee satisfaction from Dell on this insidious capacitor problem, which clearly seems to warrant a recall.

 

Robert