Jussi Köhler Posted December 7, 2003 Share Posted December 7, 2003 Hi, Im a total n00b on this laptop of mine. Just installed CMAK on it so that I have something to play on the road and wish to update the drivers on my graphics-card. Its a S3 Graphics Inc. Savage, ith following info I got from WinS3ID; Chip Name: Savage/IX w/ MV (294) What drivers should I try out? Ive been all NVidia until now so have no idea. Edited to add: I run the desktop at 1024x768 and get only the option of running CMAK in 800x600. This causes the screen onyl use that area, it doesnt stretch to the end of the screen-edges. Same thing happens when I change the desktop resolution to 800x600. How can this be fixed? Theres no option (that I can find) like on normal monitors to adjust screensize, position etc... This is an old 700MHz machine so the drivers dont need to be super-new as the bottleneck is elsewhere I guess... Could anybody tip me in the right direction please? Cheers, Jussi [ December 07, 2003, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: Jussi Köhler ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted December 7, 2003 Share Posted December 7, 2003 Past testing with the S3 Savage line produced some sub-par results for the CM series. They don't consistently support all of the features that CM uses under DirectX (transparency/alpha-blending, fog-tables, etc. - some effects may be artifact-ridden) or they just have bug/performance problems. However I haven't tested the Savage IX line (primarily laptop-based graphics chips). The latest drivers I can find come from S3 Graphics (who are now resurrected). The specific page for the Savage IX may not directly link, but you can click on the first link and select the "Download from..." link at the bottom of that page. The Savage IX driver is in the 290-298 listing that is first. A sampling of laptops that use these drivers are: Gateway 5300 GRiDCASE 1590 HP Omnibook Xe3 GC Sony VAIO SR21K PCG-3316 (the SR27K offers WinXP drivers - nothing is posted for other OSes) Unfortunately I don't know which version to recommend to you (for the choices that you can find). While the latest is often the best bet, on occasion it isn't. As for the effect that you're seeing where the screen is reduced in size when running below 1024x768 - that may be intended. With LCDs there is an 'optimum' resolution that they run at, where everything appears sharp and in scale. Running above or below the resolution often results in 'scaling' where the image looks a bit 'chewed up' or something to that effect. Some laptop manufacturers may have decided to go with a reduced screen display for lower resolutions in order to keep the screen 'sharp'. Not all do this (in fact few do it anymore) and I'm not sure if this is intentionally programmed into the driver (in which case changing the driver rids you of this feature - possibly) or if this is something that is part of the VGA BIOS (quite possible). This is one of those situations where chipset companies say that drivers have been 'customized' for the laptop manufacturers. That could mean that getting a driver from a different source than the laptop manufacturer may result in a display that doesn't work properly (resolution support or other problems). If there is any support left from the manufacturer, you may want to check their site for BIOS updates (a 'system bios' update could have a VGA BIOS update built into it) or other driver updates. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jussi Köhler Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 Thanks, Schrullenhaft, you certainly know your computers You had my laptop on the list, its the Omnibook X3. Too bad about the screensize, cant be helped. I need a lot newer laptop, thats for sure... Jussi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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