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updating video driver


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#1
ykky

ykky

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i have a toshiba satellite a105 1.7ghz what should be 2 cards of 512 ram but for some reason comes out to less ( i remember reading somewhere tha it has to do with my video ram or something) and an at radeon xpress 200m- ive been trying to improve my system as much as i can and saw that its important to keep the video card updated- i tried using driver genius to update it but i was having trouble unzipping the drivers from the update i kept getting "unexpected end of archive" can anyone tell me if there is any way i can update my drivers ive tried doing it from the ati site but either i messed it up or it didnt work i actually found this file "8-3_xp32-64_sb_59746.exe" but i cant find any site to download it from- if anyone can tell me either how to update my driver or how to get driver genius to download files that i can unzip i would really appreciate it
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#2
Kazzoo

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Greetings ykky

A couple of things, are you having trouble with your video card performance?

If not leave it alone.

If still are insisting on doing a driver download, if there are known problems first go to the Toshiba website and get them from there. Many times Windows updates will provide you a more up to date driver if one is availible. Better yet, go to the MAKER of the video card.

i can update my drivers ive tried doing it from the ati site


Well it might be that your video card isnt a ATI?

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 GM is what is usually in your model of Toshiba. That would make it a INTEL. Go to INTEL for downloads.

Intel support

what should be 2 cards of 512 ram but for some reason comes out to less


Yes indeed you have a video card that has no memory of its own and has to reserve and borrow from your systems memory. Because it reserves it, Windows will not count it as availble for anything else. Usually in bios it will all be reported as present.

The other errors you are getting are interesting if you want to reseach them, but generally points to a bad file download. Stuff is missing.

Good luck

Kaz.
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#3
Sarah Jane Smith

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You can get your lastest driver at this site. http://game.amd.com/...p/integrated-xp Updating the driver will not increase your available ram though. Since you have a laptop with integrated graphics and it does not have its own ram, the video card has to share with your system ram in order to function. If you want more ram you will have to buy more ram. However, if you have two 512 gig sticks = 1 gig of ram then that is plenty to run XP even if some of the Ram is being shared by the graphics system.
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#4
Sarah Jane Smith

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ive tried doing it from the ati site

You probably just accidentally downloaded the wrong driver. The link I sent you in my previous post is the correct one and should work. Also, never update your video driver from Microsoft updates. Most of the time it will give you the wrong driver and cause problems with your system. You could try Toshiba's site, but computer manufacturers do not always post the lastest drivers to their site. The best way is to go directly to ATI.
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#5
ykky

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ive tried that site sara jane- i tried deleting my present driver and installing that one but i either didnt do it right or it didnt work- the reason im trying to update is to get more performance for video games (ie. oblivion) - and i tried downloading with driver genius multiple times but none of the updates that were downloaded would work i got the same "unexpected end of archive" for all the updates
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#6
ykky

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also sandra is what told me my graphics card as well as the system manager
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#7
Kazzoo

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Greetings ykky

also sandra is what told me my graphics card as well as the system manager


Would have been nice to know that right off, Toshiba in the Satelite A-105 has the A-105 S10XX through A-105 S41XX

Took the most common one to help you out based on my experience with them.
Sorry, my fault for not asking which of the 90 or so machines in that series you might have had. This was sloppy of me.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 GM is what is usually in your model of Toshiba


I do sincerly appologize. Is it possible to post the FULL model number of the Laptop?

All in all this is a laptop and may not have the resources to run Oblivion well, but will not know that unless we know what you have. Toshiba satelites were never designed as a gaming machine. Sorry to be the one to have to say this to you, but I bet you already knew it.

Minimum requirements for Oblivion (Which means really crappy performance, but will somewhat run)

Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit
512MB System RAM
2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
128MB Direct3D compatible video card
and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
8x DVD-ROM drive
4.6 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c (included)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Keyboard, Mouse

Recomended Requirements (means at least a enjoyable experience)

3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
1 GB System RAM
ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card



Never update your video driver from Microsoft updates


I can not hold to that statement, yes the windows offering tends to be broad and not always device specific. But if you have no other choice and you will see I enumerated the maker of the computer, the maker of the device, and last of all Windows update as source. I will use what is availible to fix a issue.

Windows device drivers have many times been the difference of having a driver and a working device vs having a non functional device. I do recall asking if there was a problem or issue. Now we know you wish to Run Oblivion better and not a failing of the device or its software.

About the Driver Genius software, Paid version or the free trial one? "Trial Limitations 30 day trial. Some features disabled" From what I read about it, it points to its own data base and is only as good as the versions it has for downloading.

If the download file is corrupt its corrupt, you cant make it un-corrupt.


Regards

Kaz.
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#8
Sarah Jane Smith

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Kaz, the reason I avoid using Microsoft update to update video cards is because most of the times I've tried this it's caused my graphics to go to a minimum amount of colors (usually 256) and the lowest resolution with no options to increase resolution or colors. When this happens, I have no choice but to roll back the driver or get the driver from another site. I haven't had any trouble with other Microsoft Update hardware drivers, just the graphics ones. But I agree that you could try it as a last resort. Actually, it sounds to me like ykky is not even having any real issues with his display and may not need to worry about a driver update. There is no way that a Toshiba laptop can run Oblivion well based on the system requirements you listed. Instead of focusing on an updated video driver perhaps getting more ram would help performance. I agree that is is frustrating when someone posts that he has a particular graphics card and it is not even the right one. Of course, the link I sent would not work in this case. I am also very interested in finding out exactly what model of Toshiba he has. --Sarah Jane Smith
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#9
Kazzoo

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Greetings all

Just did some browsing about the Forums, and under Gaming, There was a sticky post about "Can my Computer run this game" by a poster called STARJAX
Link to post--->Starjax post


Pointed to System Requirements Lab and this link.--->Can I run this game on my computer?

Oblivion is listed there in the drop down box, under The Elder Scrolls. You will have to accept a active X but it is not harmful. Allows a system scan of the machine for resources.

Regards

Kaz.
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#10
Sarah Jane Smith

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ykky, I know a sure way that you can use to determine what kind of display adaptor your computer has. You can download Everest Home Edition and run it. You can find it at http://www.majorgeek...wnload4181.html When you run it, click on the plus sign next to "display" and highlight "Windows Video" Look in the right panel under "device description" and tell us what it says. It should be the name of your particular display adaptor. I have used this method many times when trying to identify a piece of hardware so that I can find the right driver for it. --Sarah Jane Smith

Edited by Sarah Jane Smith, 10 April 2008 - 05:16 PM.

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#11
ykky

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i downloaded everest and again its ati radeon xpress 200m - the bios string (if that helps) is: BK-ATI VER008.049I.001.000 and i currently have the 6.14.10.6561 with ati catalyst 5.8 driver installed
im currently running oblivion on the extremely low setting thats available with the update- it works albeit with quite a bit of lagging at times especially when theres multiple npc's around- but it does work- lately though i hear the fan working more even when im only running a few tabs in my web browser so id like to try anything to improve whatever i can
my system is:
toshiba satelite a105-s2051
intel celeron m lv 1.7
1 gig ram (but as was mentioned by kaz my video card has no memory bringing the actual total to 896- im using both available slots
although the 2 sticks were not from a kit- which crucial.com told me i need bc i have dual channel mem)
windows xp with sp2
ati radeon xpress 200m
i dont know what else you need to know i got the idea bc i was reading tweak guide for oblivion i found on google there he said that its important to keep drivers updated esp for high-performance games since i dont know so much about computers i differed to his expertise if thats not true then ill have to suffice with the way its running now which is not too bad if it is then i found "8-3_xp32-64_sb_59746.exe" mentioned on some driver update sites but it doesnt seem to be available for download- the driver i got off the ati site itself im either to inexperienced to understand how to install it or it just didnt work although i tried the same one mentioned by sara jane smith
i really appreciate all the feedback you guys are giving me- thanx
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#12
Sarah Jane Smith

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ykky, It is correct that it is best to have the latest video drivers. This is mostly because some older drivers will not work well with newer games. Newer drivers are modified to improve performance and often address known compatability issues with certain software. However, if you are not really experiencing any issues then a driver update is not 100% necessary and may not make any difference whatsoever. I do not blame you for wanting the latest and the greatest though. I always seek the latest drivers for my systems. Honestly though, the best way that you will see improved performance is to increase your ram. Don't worry about what crucial told you. As long as the ram are the same type and same amount of MB or GZ then dual-channel will work. They don't have to be from a kit or even the same brand. They are just trying to sell you a kit. The real advantage of a kit is sometimes it is cheaper to buy two at the same time and you will know for sure that they are the same type. You can use everest home to determine what type of ram you already have. Open Everest and click the plus sign next to Motherboard and highlight SPD. This should tell you the type of Ram you are using. You will want to buy low density ram of the same type. If for some reason Everest doesn't show anything under SPD, you can download cpu-z from the download area of Geekstogo. I believe cpu-z will also let you know if dual-channel is enabled. I would suggest you get two 1 gig sticks.

Now as far as your video driver, the link I sent you is to the correct driver for your graphics accelorator. I would like to know more about why it is not working for you. Are you unable to download it? Do you get any error messages when you try to install it? What happens exactly. Also, are you sure you tried the exact same link I sent you already? Perhaps the one you tried before was a slightly different page that just looks similar. Perhaps you could humor me and download the driver by following the link I sent you. Then if you try to install it and it fails you can write down any error messages that occur. At best, maybe it will work this time. At worst, we will have more information.
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#13
Kazzoo

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Greetings all:

With the model number in hand I can verify as well this video card is a ATI RADEON® Xpress X200M.

Uses 128mb shared memory. 1024mb-128mb=896mb for the System.

The system has two memory slots and can go to 2gb max with pc 4200 ddr2. That would be 2 sticks of 1gb each.

I have to guess both slots are already occupied. Again that would have to something you would have to know. Original called for 512mb.

ykky, what are you going to do with the old memory you would remove to upgrade?

What is really interesting is the processor is a Intel® Celeron® M Processor 390 @ 1.7 ghz.<---bottleneck here

I am really doubting that your going to get any increase with video drivers, your best bet is more memory. I dont expect much improvement there either and you throw away the 512mb sticks. Cant get around what kind of video card there is and what you have for a processor.

I agree with Ms. Sarah Jane Smith, the link to the drivers she provided is good. You will have to decide if to download the whole suite or just individual drivers.
As to your errors, I am still holding out that you got a corrupted download.

Good Luck

Kaz
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#14
ykky

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s.j.s. -it was definately the same driver and i tried installing it again and it said "setup did not find a driver compatible with your current hardware or operating system" i think the last time i tried i got the screen to go into i guess its called fullscreen mode or whatever it is the computer goes into when i play a game except i wasnt and the only way i got it back was from a restore point
i added the second stick of 512 after bring all the info i got from sandra to the store with me the computer only came with one i cant really say ive noticed a marked increase by adding that second stick and its not for any problem that i was trying to update the driver as much as i was hoping oblivion would run a little better although lately the cpu usage goes up to 100% just from running one tab on mozilla from youtube when i was previously able to run 5 without a problem could i be burning my computer out with oblivion? i try to run registry cleaners and defrag regularly
kaz- is the bottlenecking from the computer being to fast for the video card or the video card to fast for the computer
buying more ram right now is out of my pockets so my only choice is to do anything i can to just streamline my computer as much as i can
and i dont understand why i would get corrupt downloads i tried downloading it 3 or 4 times
lastly i didnt pick out the specs for the computer my wife got it on a sale i think closer to 2 years ago not that i know enough to get anything better but i just have to make the best with what we got
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#15
Sarah Jane Smith

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I found this on the toshiba support site. It will supposedly will with your laptop. However, it was created in 2005 and probably insn't any newer than the one you have. The truth is, you probably already have the best driver for your graphics adaptor. You said you bought the computer 2 years ago (2006) If the latest drivers were made in 2005 then they probably came pre-installed on your computer. I checked several other sites, including driverguide and driveragent and both of them had possibly compatable drivers, but they were also created in 2005. Even though the driver off of the ATI site is newer, it obviously is not compatable with your adapter even though the website claims it is.

Edited by Sarah Jane Smith, 12 April 2008 - 11:31 PM.

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