Toshiba Satellite A215-S4757 - Graphics Issue

Hello,

A family member of mine has a Toshiba Satellite A215-S4757 Laptop and is having an issue playing the Sims 2 on it. It has a Radeon X1200 integrated graphics card (which is the problem).

The comp is running Vista 32bit. I have updated the drivers from ATI to the current Oct drivers from the ones that were loaded from 07.

I found a little bit if info elsewhere by someone who said:
"According to the EA website, the Sims 2 is supposed to play fine on Vista, as long as you have the right graphics card (and meet the other requirements.) EA Games says the Sims 2 is simply not compatible with the X1200 graphics card. Shows what the freakin' Best Buy guy knows, right?"

I've tried finding this quote on EA Games and cannot, so I am not sure of its validity, however, it doesnt work.

I'm also having a difficult time finding out if there is a way that they can add a different graphics card to this comp. I know the X1200 is integrated on the MB, but is there a spot to add a new one?

Are there any other drivers that you might know about to try?

Thank you for any suggestions.

Freezer

cheap or 2 years old laptop is not for gaming, games need powerful pcs with core duo and 3 to 6gb of ram. your card overheats and that's why you're having a problem because it cant deal with the game.

Minimum System Requirements for The Sims 2
http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=21


Supported video cards (and the more video memory the better):

ATI RadeonTM series (7000 or better)
Radeon 7000/VE series (non-T&L; requires 2.0 GHz processor)
7200, 7500
8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
X300, X600, X800

These FAQs may give you a work around.
Windows Vista and The Sims 2 FAQ
http://thesims2.ea.com/help/detail.php?help_id=281

Thank you Train for the website faqs on Sims 2. Its interesting that the cards listed skip the one that is on my sisters computer.

I know its not a great laptop for gaming, but whats interesting about it is that she has an older comp that it runs fine on with lower specs. That is why I was thinking it was just a Vista driver issue.

Someone posted that having 3-6gb of ram is what you should have to play games. In a laptop I have not run into a system that will allow more than 4gb practically , 2 - 2gb = 4gb. Are there laptops that are able to have 2 -3gb chips? or 3 slots? Well thats another topic I believe.

Basically, I just was curious about some other drivers, maybe non-Ati-supported that ppl used to get better performance from their cards. Or if this computer was able to be upgraded, in terms of the graphics card.

Thank you for your help.

cordially,
Freezer

No, it seems 4 GB is the limit for laptops as of now. But to use all of the 4 GB you need a 64 bit OS. 32 bit OS limitation usually only allows ~ 3.25 GB to be used.

They do make so called gamer laptops , falcon-nw I know does, but darn if they are not right spendy. $4600 and up last I looked :eek:

They say things like this about them:
Intel Core 2 Duo processor and SLI nVidia 9800GTX GO graphics it becomes a superpower among laptops.