Before I upgrade my laptop...

[tooz]

I have learned more about computers by playing CM and reading these threads these past years. So, before I trust the advice of the tech staff of Dell (China), I'd rather trust your opinions.

My specs:

Inspiron 8200

Pentium 4m

4M GPU

2.20Ghz

645 MR

512M Ram

Now the main concern is obviously my video card. I have a:

NVidea GeForce 4 440 Go

This gives me fog, but now I cannot run my FPS--such as Call of Duty--I get an error message telling me that "cannot load open GL"(?)

Rather than worrying about this--I don't play much CoD lately anyway--I will just try to upgrade where I can.

So, which new/best video card can my laptop accept? If I'm going to shell out the bucks, I might as well get the good stuff.

Next, what would you guys suggest I do for upgrading the speed and performance.

I will buys CMx2 (naturally) but probably will grab T-72 also.

So, any and all advice appreciated.

[ February 18, 2005, 04:59 AM: Message edited by: tooz ]

[Redwolf]

Something is not right here. A GeForce 440Go will of course play Call of Duty.

However it does not mix with your "4M GPU" claim. A GeForce 440 Go is not available with only 4 MB RAM.

My guess is that you have a 32 MB card and that you screwed up your drivers. Can you tell us more about your OS and the drivers you have installed?

If you really have a GeForce 440 Go then there won't be a good upgrade available. A FX 5200 is slower than that one and a 5700 about as fast, just with better quality, certainly not worth the upgrade even if it is available.

If you really have a 4 MB card such as an ATI mach64 card (shudder) then upgrade to a 440 Go.

[oi_you_nutter]

the upgrade path for graphics systems in laptops is not always obvious.

but i googled this:

http://www.geocities.com/thebithead/I8200FAQ.htm#Video

myself, i prefer nvidia over ati

edit

also found this

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_video&message.id=125937&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19

[tooz]

"My guess is that you have a 32 MB card and that you screwed up your drivers. Can you tell us more about your OS and the drivers you have installed?"--Redwolf

RW, my OS is Windows xP. I DIDN'T screw up anything--I didn't DO anything. Everything was done by the Dell China service tech who came to my apartment. It would not surprise me if he is not "up to snuff".

So, if you have some advice on how to remedy this, I'll need "instructions for a bonehead" to follow.

Or, I'll call Dell or tech support. What should I tell them?

To sum up, my card went on the fritz,two days later the tech guys arrives and replaced the video card. I don't recall seeing him installing any drivers nor did he go online.

Thanks guys. Something is screwy--those specs are what are displayed, if they are wrong, what do I do?

[tooz]

How about the rest of my system (excluding video card)? Good enough for a few years? Should I save my money?

Also, let me take the time to both thanks and marvel at how much you guys know and the help you have given me already. Nothing better than free education.

As a teacher I tell my students that most of us don't know what we need to know until we need to know it. We are afraid, IMO, of what we don't know. This is true of me and computers. I'm almost 50 (yikes! How did THAT happen?) and the thoughts of tampering with and screwing up my computer are horrifying. So, excuse my ignorance and thanks for your patient input. You guys make great teachers! Cheers!

[Redwolf]

Start with dxdiag and see whether that one is happy with the 3D hardware.

It will also tell you what exactly you have. Before we know that no help can be provided

[tooz]

"Start with dxdiag and see whether that one is happy with the 3D hardware."--Redwolf

Herein lies my problem with computers. I have no idea what that means or how to do it. If it is easy, got some step by step instructions?

[junk2drive]

Clik the start button on the lower left of your screen. Find and click the "run..."

In the box that pops up, type dxdiag and click ok.

[tooz]

"Start with dxdiag and see whether that one is happy with the 3D hardware. It will also tell you what exactly you have. Before we know that no help can be provided"--Redwolf

OK, I ran the dxdiag, it tells me my "Total Memory 64.0 MB." I am using the NVidea GeForce 4 440 Go. Diagnostics checks out--no updated driver found.

I still get "Cannot load openGL". So, why not?

[Redwolf]

Start the 3D tests in dxdiag.

[tooz]

"Start the 3D tests in dxdiag."--Redwolf

Thanks for the tip. Tried it, NO error s found reads the message.

However, now that I am learning (at a glacial pace) I found that my card is 64 MB.

When I boot up CoD (CM works ok, but sometimes "stutters")get this:

"Failed to find an appropriate PIXELFORMAT.

WARNING: Could not set the game mode (3)

shutting down OGL

Unloading Open GL DLL"

Further digging uncovers my video card is 6.14.0010.5673 (English)

Doesn't make much sense to me, but you guys probably understand these messages.

Saw that this card driver was uploaded in August 2004. So, am I supposed to download the V. 66.93 NVidea driver from their website? If so, now what? Do I uninstall my old driver and install this new one, or will installing the newer version merely "update" my current driver? Sorry if this is a stupid question (consider the source).

If so, and you guys have time, can someone walk me through the necessary process?

Thanks again guys for the education!

[Schrullenhaft]

I'd suggest downloading and installing the 66.93 Forceware drivers. I'm not sure what the exact differences are, but you can peruse this Release Notes for 65 series Forceware drivers in PDF format, though I didn't specifically see Call of Duty mentioned anywhere. I don't know if a Beta Forceware driver from Guru3D would be an even better bet or not in this case.

Preferably you should uninstall your current video driver before installing the new one. For most driver installs you can go to the Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs control panel and look for the 'nvidia driver' entry and and uninstall it. Optionally you can download Driver Cleaner, install it and run it to remove and 'file debris' from the drivers (but it isn't absolutely necessary). Now reboot your computer, but make sure you've downloaded the new driver before rebooting. Windows will attempt to detect your videocard and may ask for drivers. If it does, cancel that operation. Now go to where you've downloaded the file (assuming you have one of the executable installers - a standard if you've downloaded a driver from Nvidia's website) and run the installation. You should need to reboot after this.

Another tool you can try that is OpenGL specific is glview. Once you install this and run it, it will give you much more specific info on OpenGL support in your drivers and, like the DirectX Diagnostic (dxdiag), it has a spinning cube test to check out OpenGL's functionality (on the Test tab). You may need to uncheck the tests for OpenGL 1.5 & 2.0 since a GeForce 4 MX may not support many of those functions. You'll need to press the Esc key to progress to the next test (depending on how many you've selected).

[ February 24, 2005, 05:04 PM: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Redwolf]

Originally posted by tooz:

When I boot up CoD (CM works ok, but sometimes "stutters")get this:

"Failed to find an appropriate PIXELFORMAT.

WARNING: Could not set the game mode (3)

shutting down OGL

Unloading Open GL DLL"

OK, first of all your initial message said the error message was just "couldn't load OpenGL".

It is of course a strict no-no to post for help and incorrectly quote error messages

The solution to the problem above is almost certainly that you have your desktop set to a bit depth that isn't supported by the Quake engine that is used by that game.

Set your color depth on your desktop to either 16 or 32 bits (65536 colors or 4294967296 colors). You probably have it at 8 bit (256 colors) or 24 bit (16777216 colors).

A driver update might resolve that dependency, but for now try 16 or 32 bit.

[tooz]

"The solution to the problem above is almost certainly that you have your desktop set to a bit depth that isn't supported by the Quake engine that is used by that game.

Set your color depth on your desktop to either 16 or 32 bits (65536 colors or 4294967296 colors). You probably have it at 8 bit (256 colors) or 24 bit (16777216 colors).

A driver update might resolve that dependency, but for now try 16 or 32 bit."--Redwolf

Nope. My display has always been set at "Highest", which is 32 bits.

"OK, first of all your initial message said the error message was just "couldn't load OpenGL".

It is of course a strict no-no to post for help and incorrectly quote error messages"--Redwolf

I quote them as I see them. This "cannot open OGL..." pops up and then later in a smaller box with black background comes the second message.

CoD played fine with my ATI but since the changeover to NVidea I have had the problems.

So, I am thinking it must be the driver.

[tooz]

Guys, I think I discovered the problem. I cannot find NVidea listed in my programs--nowhere! Under Add/Remove programs all I see are two items for ATI. One is the "ATI Control Panel", and the other is "ATI Display Driver"(!). Is it possible that this techie from Dell of China replaced my ATI Radeon with an NVidea AND IS STILL USING THE ATI DRIVER? Is this possible? I have run a search for NVidea and come up with nothing. Yet, my computer STILL shows the NVidea video card.

Methinks I'd better call Dell...

EDIT. Well that sounds too strange for even a newbie to believe. My DIAG shows the NV 4 Driver. So, scratch that. Now, do I go ahead and download the newer NVidea driver? If so, how can I delete the old NVidea Driver if I can't find it in my ADD/Remove programs?

[ February 26, 2005, 06:37 AM: Message edited by: tooz ]

[Schrullenhaft]

It's possible to just use the Device Manager and point to the appropriate .INF file to install drivers. This method would not have a listing on the Add/Remove Programs control panel since it wouldn't be using an installation program to install the drivers (which would update the Add/Remove Program's registry-based list).

I'd suggest first doing an uninstall on the two ATI entries. I have no idea what they may be doing to the registry or your OpenGL configuration.

Next, you can uninstall the driver via the Device Manager and the 'uninstall button' in the Device Manager (or a right mouse click on the display adapter listing in Device Manager). Uninstalling this way tends to leave the .INF file available for reinstalling the device automatically the next time you reboot, so it isn't convenient in the long run. Instead you can download the Driver Cleaner application I linked to in my post above and run that. It should remove the driver and the .INF file allowing you to start over from scratch with the video drivers.

[tooz]

Schrullenhaft--thanks--I'll try this and post back the results.

[Redwolf]

This is almost certainly (I know, I said that before ) a mismatch in the OpenGL library. That fits the symtopms well that a FX game like CM works and DXdiag works but an OpenGL program does not. You probably have an ATI OpenGL.dll first in your search path or at least configured in your game.

Nuke all occurances of opengl.dll from the system, then install the NVidia drivers.

Make sure you also delete instances in your game's directory. You might have to reinstall certain games when switching graphics cards independently of that.

[ February 27, 2005, 05:46 AM: Message edited by: Redwolf ]