shibbydacury

Hello everyone...

I recently got a had-me-down Toshiba A75-S211 and wanted to turn it into a basic gaming rig (nothing fancy, but was hoping it'd have the minimums to play some Steam games like TF2).

The machine specs:
-Widows XP Home SP3
-Pentium 4, 3.4ghz
-1 gig of ram
-300 gig HDD
-ATI Mobility IGP 9000/9100

When I first had issues with the drivers, I did some googling and came across someone on another forum complaining about the same model laptop and not being able to play WoW. Someone suggested using your ATI driver mod located here: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php and the person said it solved their problems.

I followed the steps but I still get 2 errors when I attempt to play TF2, the first says:

"Your video drivers appear to be out of date and could cause problems if you choose to continue and run the game." Then gives me information on my driver and a link to the ATI driver download page (which of course does nothing to help).

When I click "Continue anyways", the game attempts to load but closes itself with this error after the initial startup load screen:

"Engine Error - Your graphcis hardware must support at least pixel shader version 1.1 to run this game!"

Now, according to CanYouRunIt.com, my system meets the minimum requirements to play TF2 and even says "Pixel Shader ver. Required - 1.1, you have 1.4". If I have 1.4, why does it still give me the error?

Finally, there seems to be a miscommunication with your walkthrough steps for the modtool:

For step 6, what if you don't have Vista? I have XP so when I got to this point I froze in confusion... "what do i do next?" I went ahead and just followed the Vista instructions and ran the setup file in the folder because it didn't make sense to leave the driver as is.

So yeah, I would appreciate any help with all this confusion as I would really like to be able to use this laptop.

Thanks!


Update: I got it running with SwiftShader, haven't tried playing it yet, but I would guess that figuring out how to get the shader thing working would be more preferable to game play.

Double edit: Damn, nevermind... it gets passed the load screen but my mouse cursor is invisible making it almost impossible to navigate the menu.

Judas

Which driver did you download?

For your setup, i would suggest downloading the ATI Catalyst Desktop driver for the 9000 series which should present you with the 6.11 Driver.. IF not that driver, 6.5 and below support your card.

You must download the 6.11 or 6.5 and below, and then use the mobility modder to MOD those drivers, then like step 6 says, go into the folder and run the setup...

If you installed a newer set or any set at all, you must remove them before preceeding with the 6.11's or whichever you wish to try.

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shibbydacury

I downloaded the newest one for the 9000 series... so i guess that would be 6.11 (though wouldn't 6.11 be before 6.5, or do they not follow normal numerical order?).

How do I remove it to try the other one? I know how to uninstall programs, but I don't know where to start for uninstalling drivers. Would it be in the hardware profiles under the video card category?

Judas

in windows xp... add and remove programs.. leave the catalyst install manager for last imo..

it'll ask you to reboot.. but don't do it until you've removed everything and have done the install manager as the last one.

Check and see if indeed the 6.11's came up as the option.... if it did, then yes.. try the 6.5s

6.5's are older, each driver released represents a newer on in increments as a whole. 6.5's being 6.5.0 and 6.11's being 6.11.0 (if you want to add in an additional .0 to clarify their build version structure)

usually, every new build means an additional .1 to the driver version... 99% of the time thus far as every month has had a build... so usually x.12 is the last.. we've had x.13 though

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shibbydacury

So wait, are you telling me that you have to install the modded driver fresh without another driver installed? Could this be why it didn't work? I had already installed the regular drivers off the CD, then attempted to "upgrade" to the newer drivers from the site and mod them. I'm going to give it a shot now with the 6.11's.

shibbydacury

I can't seem to find anything that lets me download older drivers (6.5). I'll consult google, but if you have a link on hand feel free to share =P

shibbydacury

Ok another update (btw, I'm not sure if its more appropriate to add another post or edit my last one):

I found the 6.5's and installed them with the mod, but I still get the shader 1.1 error =\.

Should I uninstall it all and try again with 6.11 or will this just not work with my setup?


Double Update: I went ahead and tried with the 6.11, still get the shader error =(

Mac Daddy

Welcome to DH shibbydacury I hope you get your issue sorted. Since this involves Mobility Modder I moved it to the DH Tools section you may find more help here

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"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

Judas

for older laptops that likely use the older style control panel and driver setup, you really SHOULD remove any and all excistance of the older drivers....

otherwise you can quite likely end up with conflicts and whatnot...

i know the 9000 series supports shader 1.4

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