Updating Display Driver

**VOP2288** · September 01, 2007, 03:54 PM

So, I'm trying to play some games on this laptop I have for school...performance wise they run great but graphically I either a) have to minimize the graphic settings or b) the game appears all glitchy but still runs smooth

I'm running Windows Vista (which may be apart of the problem) on a fairly new Gateway (2006 I think) laptop...here are some specs...

Processor: Intel Core Duo CPU .186 Ghz
RAM: 1014 MB
System Type: 32-bit OS

Anyways, I was trying to play the demo for Aliens vs Predator 2 this afternoon and it ran great with the graphics being a little iffy but what would happen is that all of a sudden it would freeze then the screen would go black...I would push the little Windows icon key on the keyboard to go back to the Desktop and a little bubble would pop up saying that my display driver stopped working but is ok now...then I would just reopen the game and continue playing. Within maybe 10 minutes this happened about 3 times.

About the only thing this laptop seems to run without any problems is Civilization III. Everything else seems to be pretty crappy when I download it on here (RTW worked with extreme minimum performance and graphic settings).

So I thought that maybe my display driver needs updating...the laptop can obviously run the demo (it worked flawlessly except for the black outs) so I'm trying to find how to update them...I knew how to do it on XP but Vista is so different. Can anyone help?

**Roman Clone** · September 01, 2007, 04:18 PM

Overheating Perhaps.

**C.M.** · September 01, 2007, 04:23 PM

The display driver is your video card, what model do you have?

**VOP2288** · September 01, 2007, 04:40 PM

The display driver is your video card, what model do you have?

I'm not sure it's a laptop so I doubt it's any of the big names...how could I find out? That's the main problem...I don't know where to look for it on Vista.

**C.M.** · September 01, 2007, 04:59 PM

I have no idea as to what vista looks like. What you are looking for is the device manager. I suggest looking up your computer's Help and support, it should be able to tell you how to find the device manager

Once you find that look under display driver and it should tell you what card you have.

**VOP2288** · September 01, 2007, 05:17 PM

Ok yeah I finally found the device manager but there's no actual "display driver" option...there is however a "display adapters" option and under that is "Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family"...whatever the hell that is...

**C.M.** · September 01, 2007, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by VOP2288

Ok yeah I finally found the device manager but there's no actual "display driver" option...there is however a "display adapters" option and under that is "Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family"...whatever the hell that is...

That would be your video card

. The next step if finding the version of the driver you currently have, it's a bunch of numbers (mine looks like this 3.8.360) Yours would of course be different.

Once you have this, visit intel's website and check if there any new drivers for your card.

**Spiff** · September 01, 2007, 06:06 PM

Could try running the demo in compatibility mode for windows XP - a long shot i know but might work. Right click the exe for the game then click the compatibility tab, should be straight forward from there.