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dheymann

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how do I fix error message saying hardware acceleration needed?

I installed Win7 32bit on my mother in laws 2004 Compaq Presario SR1130NX (Prod Number: PC134A-ABA). I was not able to run the upgrade advisor but she has had no problems except for one. When she plays Spyder Solitaire this warning appears: "Hardware acceleration is either disabled or not supported by your video card driver which could slow game performance. Make sure you have the latest video card driver installed and that hardware acceleration is turned on.". Spyder appears to play but slowly. Is there a way to fix this?

 I checked online and these are the specs for her system:
Mobo: ASUS A7V8X-LA (HP/Compaq name: Kelut-GL6E)
Proc: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 3000+, ~2.1GHz
RAM: 1g
DirectX: 11
Integrated Graphics: VIA UniChrome graphics
I tried to find more on the graphics adaptor and I think it might be a Via VT3205 but that is not listed on VIAs website.
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John_Faulkner

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Hello  dheymann,

Start by making sure hardware acceleration is enabled...

1. Choose Start > Control Panel.
2. Double click Personalization and select Display Settings.
3. Click Advanced Settings.
4. Click Change Settings on the Troubleshooting tab.
5. Make sure Hardware Acceleration slider is all the way over.
6. Click Apply and then click OK to accept the new setting and close the dialog box.
7. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box.
8. Restart Windows.

It also could just be a compatibility issue that there may not be a driver for.  Windows 7 went to DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5.0, I believe, which may not be supported thru your mother-in-laws system.  I would try to download the latest driver for it.

Type 'information' into the windows start menu search bar and system information should pop up.  Look for the display in one of the collapsable menus to the left and get your chipset version.  Should be able to find a driver here that may help.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/support/drivers.jsp

Hope that helps!!

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Your motherboard has a pretty low-end onborad shared memory (all meaning ... slow) graphics card.

If you exoect decent 3d/gaming perfoormance you need to get a entry level or mid-range AGP graphics card for you PC.
Look for a Nvidia or ATI AGP graphics card and remember to select a card with low power consumption (newer and high-end cards usually require a better power supply)
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dheymann

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John and PC Doc:

I tried all the methods of finding updated drivers and it doesn't appear there are Win7 drivers for this MOBO. I also checked the setting of hardware acceleration and it is at max. I wonder if this onboard GPU is not capable of hardware accel. Is that possible?
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Thanks
Its easily possible, hardware shaders have gone through several revisions in the past couple years. It depends completely on the games requirements. The best bet is to go to look for a list of win7 compatible video cards - making sure they will fit in an available slot in your motherboard. If you refrain from something that needs additional power connectors it should be a no brainer. If not you may also need to upgrade your power supply so that it has the required wattage and connections.