Changing graphics cards in a Dell laptop

When i originally purchased my new Dell i built it with the NVIDIA 8600M GT with 256MB memory. I have not had any joy from this when playing the sims 2 and i want to switch to a ATi card. Is it possible to change cards in a Dell laptop?

 

Unfortunately, you cannot change video cards on laptops.

Have you tried different drivers?

 

You can only change graphics cards on a Dell to another one used in the same model (in your case, the 8400M GS). It's different from changing graphics cards on a desktop.

 

What model do you have?

 

That graphics card can play Sims 2 with ease. Maybe it's something with the drivers.

 

Yeah, you should have no problem at all. my aunt has that in her 1520 and it works great. SHe hasnt gotten any driver updates at all i dont think. maybe try taking out drivers youve installed?

 

Def. driver issues

Or your running a 200MHZ cpu

 

What happens is my game would freeze, go to a blank screen and then return to the game again and it runs fine afterwards, until 10 minutes later and it does the same again.

The rest of my specs are 3GB RAM, 2.2ghz processor and a NVIDIA 8600M GT Graphics card. I also have had the "blue screen of death" (blue screen white text) but thats supposed to be a fault with one of the latest expansion packs according to the makers of the game.

I have the Dell Vostro 1500 laptop with Windows Vista Business.

 

I'm currently using the integrated intel graphics, can I purchase a graphic card and put it in my m1330?

 

I always thought the XPS were gaming laptops?

In order to switch to an actual video card, you would have to get a motherboard from an XPS 1330 that has the ability to have the graphics cards.

 

Alienwares are gaming laptops. XPS are the premium lineup, and Inspirons are the basic lineup.

 

It can be down to your virus checker or microsoft defender forcing it to switch applications try killing those and testing it.....

Cheers

 

If your notebook does not have an integrated graphics card (part of the motherboard) then you can upgrade, but only if the system supports the card you are upgrading to. Dell only tests the system to ensure the cards we sell with the system will work, so if you try a card not sold with that particular model it might work, but there is no guarantee one way or the other.

If you purchased a Dell notebook with integrated video then the port for the video card is not physically present on the motherboard. You can upgrade, but you have to replace the motherboard to do so. Honestly, it is probably less expensive (and definitely easier) to just get another computer with the graphics option you want if this is the case.

As for the problems you are having on your Vostro 1500, I would have to agree with miprs4 that it is most likely some other application hogging the system resources once every 10 minutes. If you have email running (usually defaults to checking once every 10 minutes), or some other program that does something every 10 minutes, or an aggressive anti-virus program they could definitely be the cause of the problem. Unfortunately, tracking down the exact application giving you the problems might be simple (hey, whats this program doing running?) or it might take some thorough testing that will take a while (disable start-up apps and non-MS services, then enable them one at a time to see if any cause the problem when running).

If you have any questions specific to the system itself I'll be happy to help.

[edit] I just noticed you list Vista Business as the OS. It is possible it is set to give background tasks priority or, probably more accurately, not set to give use run applications priority over background tasks. That setting alone might account for how your system is behaving.

Right click My Computer (desktop) and pick properties, then the Advanced System Settings option (bar on the left) and on the new Window the Settings button for Performance (it should already be on the Advanced tab). The Advanced tab on the new (third) window gives you the option to switch between what has priority: applications or background services. I'm looking at Vista Enterprise, but it should be exactly the same in all versions. Check this and see what it is set for.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate