[malcolmlusby]

Help! I have a dell latitude d600 (which is know is not the best for gaming) and I have an odd problem with running computer games on it. I suspect it is my graphics card (in the 'dos'? window from when the computer is starting up, it says something like 32 or 64 mb graphics card.)

The reason the prblem is weird is because I have more than enough memory (80 GB) and intel centrino processor. In relation to a particular game (even the free 'miniclips' games run slowly), the best example of the problem is 'Splinter Cell, chaos theory.'

The game itself will run fine for a period, but then it slows down to an annoying rate. the graphics remain good, but the gameplay is very jerky and slow. With splinter cell, if I switch to the infared vision mode, the game play picks up to normal speed again. it seems to be battling with the high resolution graphics - but only every five minutes or so!

In addition, we have just installed BT Broadband. It works fine, but certain downloads no longer take place we keep getting the error message 'unable to connect' and get asked to check our connection. We have followed the BT manual to the letter, but still battle with this. This is probaly best explained with reference to 'widgets'. We can downloads widgets, such as stock ticker, time etc. but anyone that requires internet access (eg stck ticker) will not be able to connect EVEN though we are online at the time!!!!

Any ideas?

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That's an odd situation. You've got a 1.4Ghz Pentium M processor, 512MB of memory, and a Radeon Mobility 9000, you should be ok, as that meets the minimum requirements (if only by a bit). Does the problem remain exactly the same when you run the game at lower settings? It sounds like you may almost be running into heat issues. Try plugging the computer into power, and setting the laptop on a hard surface, with nothing blocking the exhause ports (kitchen tables tend to work well for this). See if you get the exact same issue, or if anything changes, like the time until it starts.

As to your question about internet connectivity...try asking that one over here:
http://www.geekstogo...owsers-f26.html
the issue with widgets and the like sounds like a firewall configuration issue, and they'd be better equipped to help you out with that one.

[Kurenai]

That's an odd situation. You've got a 1.4Ghz Pentium M processor, 512MB of memory, and a Radeon Mobility 9000, you should be ok, as that meets the minimum requirements (if only by a bit). Does the problem remain exactly the same when you run the game at lower settings? It sounds like you may almost be running into heat issues. Try plugging the computer into power, and setting the laptop on a hard surface, with nothing blocking the exhause ports (kitchen tables tend to work well for this). See if you get the exact same issue, or if anything changes, like the time until it starts.

As to your question about internet connectivity...try asking that one over here:
http://www.geekstogo...owsers-f26.html
the issue with widgets and the like sounds like a firewall configuration issue, and they'd be better equipped to help you out with that one.

[malcolmlusby]

Hi Kurenai thanks for this, I'm actually running a gig of memory and 1.8ghz processor. I've downloaded HD tune and the temperature is apparently okay (posted this issue before and got some advice on it. Howevere, the reason I'm reposting is that even the little mini-clip games you can play for free go very slow and then speed up again.) any other thoughts?

[Jazza]

Hey malcolmlusby,

Have try lowering the amount of graphic because for your graphics to be good and you game play slow it usualy mean its trying to do to much at once like load all the good and great graphic and not giving you enough speed in the game.

Edited by Jazza, 12 November 2006 - 11:57 PM.

[Kurenai]

Have you added any hardware, or installed any software, to the system lately?

[malcolmlusby]

I have added a fair bit of software lately and I have updated the ati radeon driver. i downloaded a shockwaves game last night to srew around with and see if the same problem occurs and, surprise, surprise, even on a game with that level of graphics (rather low) the same problem occurs.

I did a complete reboot about a month ago, but even with a clean drive and minimum running (XP only, before i downloaded or installed anything but the drivers) the same problem occurs.

Jazza, how do i 'lower the graphics' please. I have tried, through my ati cintrol panel, to set everything for best performance rather than best qulity, but still no joy (it doesn't actuall seem to affect the graphics at all when I do this!!)

[Kurenai]

Shockwave and other internet based games really don't have settings that can be changed, but it's odd that the error effects only games. Does anything similar happen when you play movies, or other such?

Also please do the following, and let us know if anything doesn't work properly:

Go to Start -> Run, type dxdiag, hit enter. Go to the Display tab, click Test DirectDraw. Note if any of the tests fail, or do not look right. After that, Test Direct3d.

[malcolmlusby]

Shockwave and other internet based games really don't have settings that can be changed, but it's odd that the error effects only games. Does anything similar happen when you play movies, or other such?

Also please do the following, and let us know if anything doesn't work properly:

Go to Start -> Run, type dxdiag, hit enter. Go to the Display tab, click Test DirectDraw. Note if any of the tests fail, or do not look right. After that, Test Direct3d.

Direct draw worked fine, direct3d functions, but the Spinning box was moving VERY quickly and didn't look quite right. It doesn't seem to effect movies, but they can be a little jerky (nowhere near as bad as the games)

[Kurenai]

Well, I think I may just be officially stumped. Any chance you could try another video card in the system? Worth a shot, I guess.

[malcolmlusby]

Well, I think I may just be officially stumped. Any chance you could try another video card in the system? Worth a shot, I guess.

I was told by a friend I can't change the video card (graphics card? is it the same thing?) in a laptop as they are built in....

[Kurenai]

Oh yeah, laptop. Sorry, time for me to go to bed, looks like. I think I'm out of ideas, I'll take another look at this when I wake up, see if anyone has fresh insight.

[malcolmlusby]

Hi Kurenai,

Many thanks for all the help. I went into splinter cells settings and tunrned off all the fancy crap such as ansitropic filtering and it works really well now. (Can't believe it was that simple!!) it still goes slowly for about 5 seconds ever now and again, but only when the HD is doing something!!

Many thanks