No I don't think so. You can try and nothing bad will happen. It will just say something like "no such package" or "couldn't find package flgrx*". In any event there are just 4 or 5 to remove. You can find out there exact names with The ones to remove are the ones with an "i" at the beginning of the line.
cheers,
jdk

I removed all the fglrx packages and module-assistant prepare, update worked. The a-i fglrx did not because it needs to download some files from the distro server. I cannot download right now because the location I am in doesn't allow ethernet connections and for wireless there is another authentication method that I cannot do without a browser. I will have to wait until I get home to run the commands again. I will do this tonight and post back with the results. jdkaye, thank you very much for all the commands so far.

Here's where I am now:
I uninstalled all fglrx packages and tried two methods. One method is the ATI native driver, the second is the packaged fglrx from non-free. Both of them did not work. The non-free package install says no supported devices when I run aticonfig --initial. The ATI driver won't build fglrx-kernel-src because it says it has to download some stuff from the repositories and when it does, it messes everything up. I even turned off the repositories and still it will not build with module-assistant. Since it won't build, it throws an error during startx saying:

(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) module ABI major version (0) doesn't match the server's version (2)
(EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module requirement mismatch, 0)
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so: unidentified symbol pciNumBuses
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//fglrx_drv.so
(EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) No drivers available

At this point I don't really know what to do. I have an ATI Radeon X200M card which I know is troublesome. I don't necessarily need 3D acceleration if I can't get it, just display. I did at one point have 3D acceleration but that was some time ago. Am I missing something or should I install some older drivers or maybe download different fglrx packages from a different repository?

What is has to download, among other things are the kernel header files necessary to build modules of kernels. When you use expressions like "messes everything up", it is not very helpful. Downloading a package should not "mess everything up". What does "mess everything up" mean?
Once you do that you have abandoned all hope of very getting this to work. Trying 2 or more different methods of installation at the same time is not really recommended. Also I would not use the methods you are using. This is what works for me.
1. Remove all existing fglrx packages.
2. Build new packages by running (as root or sudo)
or whatever your ati-driver-installer is called.
3. You will create a bunch of debs which you now install using dpkg -i *.deb (run as root in the folder where the debs are).
4. Now run m-a but without an argument and follow the steps one-by-one. Eventually you will get to the part where you select the module you want to build and hit a spacebar to insert "*" then esc to highlight "ok" and carry on to the end.
5. If you run into problems make careful note of what they are (you can copy and paste from your terminal program if need be). Follow the steps I gave you before and you should have a working driver.
cheers,
jdk

jdkaye, thanks! I didn't read that post until just now, but here's how I got some display to work: I uninstalled all fglrx and then re-installed the mesa glx gli and xserver-xorg-ati files. I then went to the xorg.conf and used driver ati in place of fglrx. That made the display work although without 3D acceleration. I will follow your steps next. When I say messes everything up I mean that it first says it can't build and on the second attempt it asks to download fglrx-driver from the repositories which is not the same version as the ati driver so it doesn't work but conflicts on the version. It then suggests that I download all of the packages which are non-free but which are the ones I don't want to install because they do not work. I have not tried m-a without arguments but I will do so and hope it will compile fglrx-kernel-src correctly because that is the package it is having trouble with.

I did run into some more problems after I got the display but I think they are minor: 1, Network-Manager does not recognize either wired or wireless connections even though I have connection through wired if I start with it plugged in. If I disconnect the cable and plug it back in, there is no connection. But that's not related to x or gdm.
Second issue is that the mouse does not operate with the synaptics driver so I don't have tap function on the touchpad. I did find out that I can scroll if I use two fingers like on an Apple laptop. The mouse is the least of my problems.