stoolee
asked on
notebook video hardware for games
Hi
I have a new Dell Latitude D600 notebook for my work. My son wants to play games on it. He installed SIMS2 on it and it crashes. (Screen freezes with all graphics settings on minimum.) I think its because there's no video card, but I'm not sure.
Is it possible to upgrade notebooks to make them suitable for gaming? Can it be done with PCMCA cards?
SIMS2 specification:
"Requires a 32Mb Transform & Lighting (T&L) capable video card with DirectX 9.0... Supported T&L cards NVidea GeForce2 or greater, NVidea Quadro series, ATI Radeon 7200 or greater. Non T&L Video cards such as the ATI Radeon 7000 (VE series) and Intel Extreme Graphics 82845, 82865, 82915 requires a 2.0 GHz processor."
The next game he wants to get is 'Dawn of War'...
Thanks
Stuart
I have a new Dell Latitude D600 notebook for my work. My son wants to play games on it. He installed SIMS2 on it and it crashes. (Screen freezes with all graphics settings on minimum.) I think its because there's no video card, but I'm not sure.
Is it possible to upgrade notebooks to make them suitable for gaming? Can it be done with PCMCA cards?
SIMS2 specification:
"Requires a 32Mb Transform & Lighting (T&L) capable video card with DirectX 9.0... Supported T&L cards NVidea GeForce2 or greater, NVidea Quadro series, ATI Radeon 7200 or greater. Non T&L Video cards such as the ATI Radeon 7000 (VE series) and Intel Extreme Graphics 82845, 82865, 82915 requires a 2.0 GHz processor."
The next game he wants to get is 'Dawn of War'...
Thanks
Stuart
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Hey there,
First your graphivs card on your laptop cannot be upgraded. But I think I could help you get Sims 2 running.
Your Dell Latitude D600 notebook came with a Radeon 9000 32mb graphics card. So it should be enough to run the Sims 2 with everything at the lowest setting.
I want you go here http://ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=13&submit.y=6&submit=GO%21
asap. Download the first package. Uninstall your old display driver from the control panel > add/remove programs. Then install the the new driver you just downloaded. You may have to restart you computer a couple of times, but after the new graphics driver is installed the game should run. But don't expect it to play to well. It will probably run slow and the graphics won't be too great, but it should still be playable. I also think it's a bad idea to buy Warhammer Dawn of War because that will probably run slower then Sims 2 and the game probably won't be to fun with everything going so slow and at the lowest setting. Try buying good old games because they will run much better. Maybe starcraft or warcraft but that's up to you. I hope this helped.
First your graphivs card on your laptop cannot be upgraded. But I think I could help you get Sims 2 running.
Your Dell Latitude D600 notebook came with a Radeon 9000 32mb graphics card. So it should be enough to run the Sims 2 with everything at the lowest setting.
I want you go here http://ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=13&submit.y=6&submit=GO%21
asap. Download the first package. Uninstall your old display driver from the control panel > add/remove programs. Then install the the new driver you just downloaded. You may have to restart you computer a couple of times, but after the new graphics driver is installed the game should run. But don't expect it to play to well. It will probably run slow and the graphics won't be too great, but it should still be playable. I also think it's a bad idea to buy Warhammer Dawn of War because that will probably run slower then Sims 2 and the game probably won't be to fun with everything going so slow and at the lowest setting. Try buying good old games because they will run much better. Maybe starcraft or warcraft but that's up to you. I hope this helped.
ASKER
ok Philby11 gets the points for asking the silly question!
I got Directx9 installed and it seems to run fine.
For some reason I thought games installed Directx for themselves. Its some time since I installed a game, but I seem to remember being constantly asked in the installation routines to ok installation of the relevant version of directx. These days my son is old enough to install his own games so perhaps I'm just out of touch... or imagining things.
I've downloaded - but not installed - the latest display driver. My laptop (my employer's laptop) is brand new. Wont it have the latest stuff on it already?
How does the Radeon 9000 rank in the world of graphics cards? Is it a suitable card for games?
Dawn of War specifies: nVidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or equivalent with 64 MB of Video RAM. So does that mean my machine should run it ok after all? If mine's a Radeon 9000 32mb, does that mean 32mb video RAM? If so, can I increase it to 64mb?
Thanks for everyone's help.
-Stuart
I got Directx9 installed and it seems to run fine.
For some reason I thought games installed Directx for themselves. Its some time since I installed a game, but I seem to remember being constantly asked in the installation routines to ok installation of the relevant version of directx. These days my son is old enough to install his own games so perhaps I'm just out of touch... or imagining things.
I've downloaded - but not installed - the latest display driver. My laptop (my employer's laptop) is brand new. Wont it have the latest stuff on it already?
How does the Radeon 9000 rank in the world of graphics cards? Is it a suitable card for games?
Dawn of War specifies: nVidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or equivalent with 64 MB of Video RAM. So does that mean my machine should run it ok after all? If mine's a Radeon 9000 32mb, does that mean 32mb video RAM? If so, can I increase it to 64mb?
Thanks for everyone's help.
-Stuart
ASKER
Hmmmm....
Not so sure it's ok now. Have to try again when I've more time to see if it really is working...
Not so sure it's ok now. Have to try again when I've more time to see if it really is working...
Im sorry to tell you, but your laptop is unaprageable (at least as far as dell's concernerd), due to the size and specific inside-design of your laptop. So far, the only external graphic card available is for MAC, so no success here either. The only latitude laptop that is graphic card - upgradable is Latitude C.
Sorry for the bad news.
Dawn of war isnt probably going to run either. I recommend buying older, but good games such as Sims 1, Nomad: Omicron etc.