So yeah, I'm only 14 and I'm clueless when it comes to computers. I just got a new hp pavilion laptop for Christmas to do my school work on and play a few of my games. See, my mom objects to just about everything I do on her computer. (which I had to use until I got my own) Which kind of leads to my question. I play an online game on her computer called City of Heroes. Whenever something goes wrong with her computer she claims this game gave it a virus. So to stop her accusations I installed it on my laptop. Unfortunatly the game's graphics on my computer are very poor, and there is a huge amount of lag. I'm guessing I need to update my video card or something like that. Is this what I need to do? I currently have an ATI MOBILITY RADEON Xpress 200 Series. I've tried looking on the ATI site, but I've had trouble finding the proper download. If anyone here can help me, can you give me a link to the correct upgrade? Now for my second problem. Just two days ago my mothers desktop computer started acting very oddly. It's only 2 or three years old but every few seconds the entire screen will go completely dark. I can still see the desk top and any other windows I had open but only very faintly. I found that the problem can be solved by turning the monitor off then on again. Unfortunatly the problem resumes after a few minutes or seconds. Any ideas as to what's going on? Mom blames this on me again, and I just want her to get off of my back for once. I'm sorry to trouble you all with what may seem to be petty problems to you all, but I've really run out of options. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated
First of all, you're not going to be able to upgrade the graphics on your laptop. There are a few things that could help (perhaps a memory upgrade) but that's about all that could improve game performance. Second of all, I'm almost 23 and when I visit my parents, every little problem is my fault as well, so don't feel bad. Third of all, welcome to the forums! Fourth of all, I sent you a PM with a suggestion about the desktop.
Yeah welcome to forums dude! Unfortunatly upgrading a laptop is near-impossible, you will be able to find laptop sized hard drives, optical drives (DVD drive), and more memory and possibly a new cpu if you look in the right places and the laptop takes the right socket, but no matter what you do the intergrated graphics (theres no graphics card in) will not play most games. I would reccomend a new laptop with good graphics card or switch to desktop again (preferably latter). I know your troubles with money i guess but then again im not much older then you and i can get a gaming pc, so get a paperound/job and start savin up £300/£500 for cheap gaming PC. jake
LCD monitor? Sounds like a backlight problem, if it's a LCD and you still see the faint outline when it's dark.
its kind the same in my house but i blame everything on everybody else it sounds like the backlight is going on your monitor like altron said. with your laptop you could always sell it and use that money to get a good desktop PC. unless you need a lappy then thats a bad idea
Well it sounds like at 14, his parents bought the laptop, in which case he can't easily sell it. I would say slowly try to piece together a decent desktop gaming system and go from there. As said, upgrading laptops is incredibly difficult to do desktops are really the ones to upgrade. I would say that it's probably the LCD on your mother's pc, or maybe even possible the graphics card going nuts. I've seen some crazy stuff working IT so everything's possible. And yes, everything that goes wrong a computer is my fault too (and they deliberately wait till I come home to tell me about it)
As for gaming on the laptop have your tried older games. These can be found very cheaply and will run a treat, best of all they are just as fun / interesting as current games. They often look fairly descent. Try Deus Ex I'm sure you could find this for a tenner and it's excellent. I'm 31 and yes I get blamed for my parents PC problems when I visit them. "Last time you "fixed" our PC it went all wrong", blah blah. Good practice for when you get a job and a BOSS though.
The 'mommy pc' problem could probably be solved by: 1, new lcd screen (or whatever is the cheapest. Like she needs a 72" plasma screen to play tetris on) 2, format the harddrive and re-install whatever operative system that is currently in use 3, clean up the pc! I doubt it has gotten a good cleaning since it was bought! 4, use an antivirus program (like Avast Antivirus free homedition) to do a thorought (or how it's spelled) virus check to see if your mother is right. The 'virus' could easily be an error in the sysregistry (how'd it end up there??) I hope it helps!
I also play City of Heroes, and if I remember correctly, that video card either meets or is below the minimum specs for the videocard for the game. I'm sure you're aware of that. As others have mentioned, upgrading the Laptop will be VERY difficult, and with the video card you have in there, I'm afraid it's all but impossible. There is a known bug with performance issues with ATI cards that the devs are working on, maybe if that ever gets fixed you will see some performance upgrades. For now all I can say is to crank down the graphics and resolution and do what you can. My dad says things to me sometimes. Whenever there's something wrong with his computer, he has some kind of virus, he even goes as far as thinking there is another person out there in internet world hacking his computer!
Welcome to the forums, hey, i have a toshiba sat pro with the same graphics, however i kitted the laptop out with 1gb of ram, and now i have 128mb graphics from the 32mb before i upgraded, what i surgest you do is searcha round for some ram for your laptop, and upgrade the ram, this will allow the graphics card to run alot smoother, to give u a taste, my laptop will play battlefield 2, smoothly, but with no graphics, but it will play it, so that may or may not help, i dont no, but give it a try.
That intergrated chip will run battlefield two if you loer the settings and do anti performance-hoging tweaks. But maybe you (or your parents) should have researched this stuff before buying a Lappy, with desktops its different you can always upgrade. However, with laptop computers the only thing upgradeable on your end (that doesn't come factory-installed) is RAM and harddrive/opticals. If Also, that laptop can and will kill itself (it happened to me too) so you're going ot be in the market for a new one soon anyway . (Seriously, there's nothing you can do about it. HP Pavilion motherboards have voltage fluctuations enough to fry the power supply, not your fault if your mom asks you.) The signs of this is that the power button has to be pressed REALLY, REALLY hard to get it to run, and then it will eventually jjust stop turning on.
