help a noob please

masafi · Jan 31, 2005, 09:38 AM

right im a noob to all this driver stuff im toataly lost now , i own a dell inspiron 9100 with 64mb ati radeon mobility card, 512 ram, 3ghz ive been playin nfsu2 and other games doom 3, halflife2 etc quite happly for a while with no probs until i had to format my hd i installed the card drivers from the dell site, installed nfsu2 and it looks terrible not like before it also slows down quite bad and i get in game messages like "fps too low " ive now installed the omega drivers it seems to make quite a difference, my graphics look a lot better but still having the slow down and fps messages and i havnt a clue what settings to use on the control panel .....please someone help i just want my laptop back to normal

swimtech · Feb 1, 2005, 01:20 PM

Could you please post your service tag#? I can take a look at your particular unit and see what you've got and what system software is available.

First step, considering your problem, I would run DriverCleaner to clean your OS of any remnants of previous driver installations, then install Dell's latest driver (again) as a start. It is possible you may need a chipset driver installation too.

Did you do a system restore after your last format, or install the OS from scratch another way?

masafi · Feb 2, 2005, 03:34 PM

ok i said im a noob and now it will show lol,whats a service tag and where do i find it ? i have used driver cleaner and i uninstalled the omega drivers and then used the modder with the latest catalyst from ati which i read about in another post ,that went ok but im not seeing much improvement in my graphics and im still having major trouble with nfsu2 it all just slows down to a near halt, it played fine before i formatted im not sure if its a graphics problem or not now,i never done no system restore i just formatted my hd and reinstalled windows and all the drivers which came with the dell factory discs, the chipsets and the grahics card drivers were on there along with some other stuff i installed all the drivers that i could from that disc .

val_parthen · Feb 4, 2005, 05:17 AM

The service tag will be on the bottom of your laptop, on a barcode. It'll be 6 or 7 characters long, along the lines of "1JX89Q" or something like that.

As for the quality of the games, have you checked the driver settings? Have you turned mipmaps up and stuff like that? If they're installing with all of the "low quality" settings by default, it could give you something like that...

masafi · Feb 4, 2005, 06:26 PM

ok found the tag thanks, no luck with the problem still though

redsolar · Feb 4, 2005, 06:48 PM

Why did you install the drivers from the Dell site again? www.omegadrivers.net, and you will never have to lag a day in your life.

swimtech · Feb 4, 2005, 06:54 PM

Masafi,

Now that you have installed your system from scratch again (and the chipset drivers, you're right, should be part of the restoration CD software), I would download and install the latest driver for your laptop from Dell's site.

There have been some problems over the past several driver versions of Omegadrive's modded driver playing video (DVD movies, Mpegs, AVI files etc.) that I have run into as well using my laptop below. The latest Dell driver version for my laptop solved the problems and allow it to run in the most compatable way.

A link to the file you need that I found using your service tag number is here:
http://support.dell.com/support/down...=6434&devlib=6

Follow the instructions for the file as instructed and let us know, OK?

Edit: a video bios update is there too, that may help too. The latest driver at Dell's site looks to be equivalent to the ATI Catalyst 4.8's or so...

masafi · Feb 5, 2005, 08:33 AM

right i have installed the drivers from the dell site and also tried the bios but it said i have already got that version of bios , no change in any games most look fine but i get slowdown almost to a halt online and offline , i know a 64mb card might struggle with games like hl2 and doom3 but i didnt get much trouble with them games before the format ,but nfsu2 should play fine on my card and it did before the format also, so do you reckon its a ram problem ? or something else ? .......and to the user who said use the omega drivers i have tried them they gave me much improved graphics but i still had the same slow down problems ,i may well go back to them when i get this problem sorted ... thanks for all the help !

masafi · Feb 7, 2005, 02:49 PM

could anyone also tell me if can upgrade my graphics card to a 128mb or 256mb dell said no but im sure ive read it can be done ?

Jan 31, 2005, 09:38 AM	#1
masafi DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	help a noob please right im a noob to all this driver stuff im toataly lost now , i own a dell inspiron 9100 with 64mb ati radeon mobility card, 512 ram, 3ghz ive been playin nfsu2 and other games doom 3, halflife2 etc quite happly for a while with no probs until i had to format my hd i installed the card drivers from the dell site, installed nfsu2 and it looks terrible not like before it also slows down quite bad and i get in game messages like "fps too low " ive now installed the omega drivers it seems to make quite a difference, my graphics look a lot better but still having the slow down and fps messages and i havnt a clue what settings to use on the control panel .....please someone help i just want my laptop back to normal

Feb 1, 2005, 01:20 PM	#2
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Could you please post your service tag#? I can take a look at your particular unit and see what you've got and what system software is available. First step, considering your problem, I would run DriverCleaner to clean your OS of any remnants of previous driver installations, then install Dell's latest driver (again) as a start. It is possible you may need a chipset driver installation too. Did you do a system restore after your last format, or install the OS from scratch another way? __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Feb 4, 2005, 06:48 PM	#6
redsolar Off duty Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Las Vegas, USA Posts: 1,242 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Why did you install the drivers from the Dell site again? www.omegadrivers.net, and you will never have to lag a day in your life. __________________ Real_Men_Do_Not_Use_Space_Bar Main rig: Intel Core i7 930 @ 4.0 Ghz \| Corsair H50 Push/Pull \| 12GB OCZ DDR3 \| ASUS Radeon HD 5850 \| 3x 1TB Samsung F3 RAID5 on Dell PERC 5i SAS + 1TB Hitachi \| MSI X58 Pro-e \| 850W Antec Truepower Quattro \| RocketFish by Lian Li Full Tower Case \| Gateway XHD3000 30" LCD \| Dell 2408WFP 24" LCD \| Dell 2407WFP 24" LCD \| Logitech Z-5500 Speakers \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Laptop: Samsung x360-34P \| Core 2 Duo SU9400 1.4 GHz \| 4GB DDR3 \| 128GB Samsung SSD \| Intel 4500M w/ HDMI \| WiFi \| Bluetooth \| 13.3" WLED 1280x800 \| Windows 7 Professional x64

Feb 4, 2005, 06:54 PM	#7
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Masafi, Now that you have installed your system from scratch again (and the chipset drivers, you're right, should be part of the restoration CD software), I would download and install the latest driver for your laptop from Dell's site. There have been some problems over the past several driver versions of Omegadrive's modded driver playing video (DVD movies, Mpegs, AVI files etc.) that I have run into as well using my laptop below. The latest Dell driver version for my laptop solved the problems and allow it to run in the most compatable way. A link to the file you need that I found using your service tag number is here: http://support.dell.com/support/down...=6434&devlib=6 Follow the instructions for the file as instructed and let us know, OK? Edit: a video bios update is there too, that may help too. The latest driver at Dell's site looks to be equivalent to the ATI Catalyst 4.8's or so... __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it. Last edited by swimtech; Feb 4, 2005 at 07:19 PM.

Feb 2, 2005, 03:34 PM	Thread Starter #3
masafi DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	ok i said im a noob and now it will show lol,whats a service tag and where do i find it ? i have used driver cleaner and i uninstalled the omega drivers and then used the modder with the latest catalyst from ati which i read about in another post ,that went ok but im not seeing much improvement in my graphics and im still having major trouble with nfsu2 it all just slows down to a near halt, it played fine before i formatted im not sure if its a graphics problem or not now,i never done no system restore i just formatted my hd and reinstalled windows and all the drivers which came with the dell factory discs, the chipsets and the grahics card drivers were on there along with some other stuff i installed all the drivers that i could from that disc .

Feb 4, 2005, 05:17 AM	#4
val_parthen DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Longmont, CO Posts: 42 Rep Power: 0	The service tag will be on the bottom of your laptop, on a barcode. It'll be 6 or 7 characters long, along the lines of "1JX89Q" or something like that. As for the quality of the games, have you checked the driver settings? Have you turned mipmaps up and stuff like that? If they're installing with all of the "low quality" settings by default, it could give you something like that...

Feb 4, 2005, 06:26 PM	Thread Starter #5
masafi DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	ok found the tag thanks, no luck with the problem still though

Feb 5, 2005, 08:33 AM	Thread Starter #8
masafi DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	right i have installed the drivers from the dell site and also tried the bios but it said i have already got that version of bios , no change in any games most look fine but i get slowdown almost to a halt online and offline , i know a 64mb card might struggle with games like hl2 and doom3 but i didnt get much trouble with them games before the format ,but nfsu2 should play fine on my card and it did before the format also, so do you reckon its a ram problem ? or something else ? .......and to the user who said use the omega drivers i have tried them they gave me much improved graphics but i still had the same slow down problems ,i may well go back to them when i get this problem sorted ... thanks for all the help !

Feb 7, 2005, 02:49 PM	Thread Starter #9
masafi DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	could anyone also tell me if can upgrade my graphics card to a 128mb or 256mb dell said no but im sure ive read it can be done ?