[Kiyoske Dante]

My Friend Joe has been having problems playing games on his computer. By problems, I mean he can't run COD2 past the first CGI clip, and AoE (2?) during heavy screens. It's a laptop, yes, but the whereabouts are fishy. It says Gateway on the LCD backing, DELL on the bottom, and is running 64-bit Windows. It's running just fine on 2GB of RAM (SODIMM I believe) and the graphics controller is an "Intel Extreme Graphics Controller" that is not on any intel database, and has no updateable drivers. I'm trying to help out a friend here, and he may not understand what the [bleep] his computer is doing all the time, but he's trying to learn from me. He also says he has '3' malware scanners,virus scanners, and firewall programs running to keep him from getting virii.

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Hi there

A few thoughts initially...

1. what make is the laptop really? I assume it's a Dell if this is whats stamped or written on the base but the bios setup screen should confirm this anyway

2. You can probably determine the video controller from the system chipset (generally speaking, if you have an Intel chipset, you can often work out what the Intel video controller is). Run Everest or look in device manager to find out

3. Has your friend tried disabling the anti-malware & anti-virus software when he plays games?

[Samm]

Hi there

A few thoughts initially...

1. what make is the laptop really? I assume it's a Dell if this is whats stamped or written on the base but the bios setup screen should confirm this anyway

2. You can probably determine the video controller from the system chipset (generally speaking, if you have an Intel chipset, you can often work out what the Intel video controller is). Run Everest or look in device manager to find out

3. Has your friend tried disabling the anti-malware & anti-virus software when he plays games?

[Kiyoske Dante]

Joe keeps telling me that the store he bought it from did chop-shop-esque jobs, so he doesn't believe only one maker had a job. He brought in the lappy, and to my surprise, the shop flashed the ram with their logo, covering all traces of past manufacters(SP?) I ran SynchronEyes 2005 to check hardware (which Is not at all different from Everest I'm told) and the chipset in general is kinda...off. It says he has a '18ghz' pentium Z during start-up. D: I'm pretty sure he's too paranoid to disable the A/V/F programs for the games though, even when it's not connected via DSL. DD:

[Samm]

18GHz Pentium Z?? Hmmm see what you mean.

The problem may actually be connected to the fact that he's running 64 bit Windows. Are these games 64bit or 32?

Also advise him to try disabling the AV & Anti malware stuff while disconnected - if he's not connected to anything, then he can't get infected or hacked into ( I realise you already know this so tell him to stop being so paranoid!)

What does device manager report the chipset to be?