OK I'm kinda tired of lagging through everything

[Demosthenes11]

So I got a brand new laptop a while back, specs are:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2 GHz
2 gigs of ram
Graphics card: GeForce 8400M GS

I also have a great connection here (I use campus connection, and it's not a very big Uni), not to mention I hardwire.

Yet for some reason, I lag to hell over everything. I can't run anything above 10ish FPS in aery, dynamis, or anything with a lot of people/mobs. I have all effects off, shadows/footprints off, clipping plane all the way down, etc. I also use mog toolz and have graphics on low-classic depending on what im doing. All of this said, why the hell do I lag so badly? I run Vista and am considering getting XP instead, but will this help my problem at all? All these stories about running 25 FPS anywhere sound really nice, especially with a nice machine like this.

Also, if I were to get XP, how would I go about finding out if my hardware is compatible with it? The machine came with vista :3

[Grandcross]

Your problem is Vista.

http://bluegartr.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=23702

[Demosthenes11]

wow im way too tired, how the fuck did i miss that

[Demosthenes11]

double posting, but then how am I sure my hardware is compatible with XP? I might be able to procure a copy, but I don't want to uninstall vista if XP wont work <.<

[Vyvian]

All of your hardware will be compatible with XP, the trick will be locating and downloading all the drivers (especially if you need a driver for ethernet).

[Demosthenes11]

Where would I go about finding those? Their website? Emailing them?

[Vyvian]

Manufacturer's website is probably your best bet. HP/Compaq lets you pick the operating system for each computer, just pick XP and download any drivers related to hardware and ignore the downloads for software (like HP Software Updater).

So before you do anything, I'd figure out if I could get the drivers for all the hardware, download them in vista and burn to CD rom or copy onto a usb flash drive. If you can't its more tedious but doable, you'd need to go through each of the components in device manager, write down their names and search google for their drivers.

Who made your computer?

[Demosthenes11]

It's a Dell inspiron 1720

[Vyvian]

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid=

There is a drop box, by default it says Vista 32-bit, change that to Windows XP.

Download the downloads under Audio, Chipset, Communication, Network, SATA Drives, and Video (but only download the one here that is for nVidia).

The ones that have more than one category are because the model can be customized with different hardware on it, if you know how to check the name of each device in device manager you only need to download the one that is on your model instead of all 9 downloads or whatever there are.

[Demosthenes11]

With this work 100%? I'm so tired of this now I think I'm going to explode, but it's my only comp with internet at the moment. I can't have this cpu out of service so I want to be sure

[Izzy]

There is a problem with the older video card drivers and ffxi. You have to get the newer drivers. But, you'll find you run into a problem. You can't go directly to nVidia's website and download them because you have to use dell's specified drivers. There is a website called laptopvideo2go.com or some shit that will give you an inf file to install the drivers directly from nvidia's website. This will fix your problem. It's a known issue posted on nVidia's forums.

I just bought a laptop with the same video card you got, and I had to research it before hand for shit like this. (You should generally always research stuff like this before hand.)

*EDIT*

Link to thread
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?show ... 5&hl=8600m

It's the model one higher from yours, but uses same drivers/same card design/etc.

[Demosthenes11]

So I tried to use that 163.67 driver, DLed it, went to instal it with setup.exe or w/e it is, and a message comes up after the nvidia program opens.
"The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit"

WTF ;;

[Izzy]

So I tried to use that 163.67 driver, DLed it, went to instal it with setup.exe or w/e it is, and a message comes up after the nvidia program opens.
"The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit"

WTF ;;

Yea, it's fucking retarded. I sent you a PM on how to get around it.

[Demosthenes11]

actually, found it. You don't use the setup file to install it because Dell won't let you. You gotta use the manual install at the top of the folder. I got it all installed, but it didn't help performance at all =(

Back to the drawing board

[Izzy]

Edit: Updating the drivers to a newer version (I used 163.67) seems to have fixed the problem. Unfortunately, the only way to perform this update is to get a modified version of the driver, as NVidia's official release won't recognize the laptop cards for some reason or another.

Try that version.

[Demosthenes11]

Tried like 7 different ones, no difference in performance I can tell

[Cjskater]

Did you try setting the Affinity to 1 core?

[Koga]

Demos if you find a fix can you PM me? I have the same card sitting colleting dust on the floor next to my PC because I would get FPS issues with mine too.
And I got the same error your getting with the driver installations on the newer versions ._.

[Daahan]

It's going to be really hard finding drivers that work. I've heard that Nvidia has released updates drivers for Vista but you can never be sure. Most of the time, switching over to XP will fix your problem.

[levish]

Silly question

Windower? it's been know to have bugs/issues running on vista.