10 fps with hp pavillion in games

[enrineer55]

local gamer asked me to see if i could get his hp pavilloin to run better than the 10 fps he is now getting.

original conf. win me, 128 mb pc100,n onboard video 11mb?. 60gb hd, p3 1.0g 133fsb. getting 10 fps

udated conf. winxp 256 mb pc100 palit 32mb pci video card. no agp slot. disabled onboard video in windows. getting 10 fps. (just got a call that onboard video seems to be loading on startup. called hp and they said to disable it in windows so i did. maybe there is a way to disable it in bios)

using a athlon 1.0 g ati 32mb agp video card, 256 mb ram system the game ran at 50 fps or so.

game is soldier of fortune 2. im not a gamer so i have to give it back to test it.

well anybody has any suggestions let me know.

thanks

pete

 

[Schadenfroh]

disable the onboard video in the bios, then disable its drivers in device manager. what is this 32mb PCI video card if you dont mind me asking?

 

[enrineer55]

the video card is a palit 32mb tnt2 pci from newegg.

i couldnt fine a setting to disable onboard video in the bios so i called hp and they said to disable it in windows device manager. i thought it was ok but the user said windows was showing it as loading and it was enabled in windows.

im heading out the door to go see whats going on . a 25 mile drive but i have other thing on the agenda.

im wondering if i should try to load some tnt2 drivers or try to use win98.

thanks for responding

pete

 

[selfbuilt]

Sounds like you have gone down a reasonable upgrade path. Aside from a decent PCI card, more system memory is often the best you can do (processor upgrades tend to be tricky on brand names like HP, since BIOS updates are generally scarce). Also, if it's anything like the Compaq presario's I've seen, your BIOS options are very limited to start with. The Win XP really isn't necessary, since the parts all support Win 98 (less overhead, although also less stable). Given the Win XP, maybe another 256MB would help a little, but probably not worth it since the prices are still too high on PC100 memory.

Although you could get a PCI FX5200 or Radeon 9100, that's probably overkill given the rest of the system specs. Probably a GF4MX would be the best price/performance trade-off (which I'm guessing you are probably already using). As long as it is no lower than a GF2MX, your current PCI card is probably suitable.

Bottom line: sounds like you've realistically gone as far as you should go. Beyond that, tell your friend to upgrade his whole system (otherwise, you are just chasing diminishing returns).

EDIT: I see you've beaten me back to the forum ... hmmm, a TNT2 is a bit on the low side, but still probably not worth the investment to anything too much better unless you can get it really, really cheap.

 

[Schadenfroh]

g2mx would pwn that tnt2, get a g4mx

 

[MiExStacY]

i recently did this to my girls hp machine.

if you can try to find the model of your motherboard.in my case it was a fic??? so i went to fic site and download there own bios and flashed it with the new one and at that it gave me the option to disable the onboard video.

do at your own risk thou and always backup old bios

 

[enrineer55]

well i went down to see what was going on. the onboard video was loading so i disabled it in windows and it is staying that way.

fps in soldier iof fortune run from a high of 40 to a low of 4. mostly 20 ish. also lockups.

i dont have any 256mb pc100 or pc133 modules to upgrade memory and the board only
has two slots so a memory upgrade isnt possible to check if that would help. stuck with 128mb sticks

ill try installing win98 and see if thats any better. i dont have much hope.

downloaded some drivers for the video from nvidia and no improvement.

at this point ill see if the case will hold a standard micro-atx board and if it does have him get a neweg refirbished one with a agp slot. the ati 32mb video cards play the game at 50 fps and i see they had one for $10 last night.

a bios flash isnt an option at this point. ive never had a crash but things never go like they say.

thanks for the input

pete

 

[cobra77]

That TNT2 card is probably not much more powerful then the onboard graphics were, Thats why the
frame rate is so low.
Get a Geforce4 MX440 PCI card, It will run much better then the TNT2 and go for about $50-$60 online.
Even a Geforce2 MX400 would be a big improvement over that TNT. Just stay away from the MX200.