Not enough video memory, my laptop crash when playin games ??

[azev]

Is this possible guys ?? Well my friends laptop only have 8MB ati video card, and recently he I just bought age of mythology which on the box require minimum of 16MB video card. I change the settup to 800X640X32 on his laptop and I played for about 5 minutes before everthing locks up. He have had problem with his laptop for a while now, and best buy said that they will replace everything on the computer to make it right, this include, motherboard, memory, hardisk. But even after all that replaced, we only played age of mythology for 5 minutes and the computer crash, everything locked up. The computer is a 1ghz p3 with 256MB memory, and the only software installed was XP (from recovery cd done by best buy) and the game itself. Any help is appreciated.

Thanx

 

[BlueWeasel]

Don't you think the problem could be the fact that you have less than the minimum system requirements? You have 8mb on the lappy and the game needs a 16mb video card (probably w. hardware acceleration).

 

[azev]

Don't you think the problem could be the fact that you have less than the minimum system requirements? You have 8mb on the lappy and the game needs a 16mb video card (probably w. hardware acceleration).

Actually this is what I am trying to find out. Could it be possible that having less than the minimum requirement crashed his laptop ? I always thought that not having enough video memory only going to make the game laggy or not as smooth.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: azev

Don't you think the problem could be the fact that you have less than the minimum system requirements? You have 8mb on the lappy and the game needs a 16mb video card (probably w. hardware acceleration).

Actually this is what I am trying to find out. Could it be possible that having less than the minimum requirement crashed his laptop ? I always thought that not having enough video memory only going to make the game laggy or not as smooth.

I agree with ya. It seems to me having less than the minimum would mean the game would not run at all or run poorly. However, it's something that needs to be looked into...

 

[azev]

I agree with ya. It seems to me having less than the minimum would mean the game would not run at all or run poorly. However, it's something that needs to be looked into...

Ok, but how would you find out that his might be the cause ??

 

[Creig]

Sounds like more of an overheating issue than anything. Five minutes at 100% CPU and 100% GPU is about right to experience locksup/reboots if there's insufficient cooling. Otherwise it simply wouldn't run at all or run slowly/choppy.

 

[Creig]

Have your friend check the laptop BIOS. It might be using shared system memory in which case you SHOULD be able to allocate more memory as video memory (16mb). If it does use shared memory and 16mb isn't an option within the BIOS, check the laptop manufacturer's website to see if there's a BIOS update that will allow you to allocate more memory as video memory.

 

[azev]

Have your friend check the laptop BIOS. It might be using shared system memory in which case you SHOULD be able to allocate more memory as video memory (16mb). If it does use shared memory and 16mb isn't an option within the BIOS, check the laptop manufacturer's website to see if there's a BIOS update that will allow you to allocate more memory as video memory.

Will do.
We are just trying to find out about all the possibilities which might cause this to happened.
The computer was crappin up just about everytime we turn it up, then best buy has done crappy job trying to fix it.
They said that if they cannot fix the computer after 4 times, they will replace it with something new. Everytime best buy take it in, it always comes back with other things not working. The last invoice states that they replace the whole thing basically, motherboard, keyboard, mouse, memory, and drives. We were able to play the game for 10 minutes and thing started to lock up again. We brought it back to best buy and ask for a new laptop as the warranty states, but they blame us for playing games that require more memory than what the laptop has. Well, after arguing for a good 15 minutes their manager promise that they will get it fix this time.

 

[Mloot]

When I first got my desktop w/integrated graphics (4mb), I tried to play a game that called for an 8mb video card. The game would lock up after 30 seconds, requiring a complete restart to get back to Windows. I think you are just trying to get the laptop to play a game that it doesn't have the hardware to run.

 

[Idoxash]

My older computer "PIII-S 1266mhz, intel mobo with ingfx on windows 98) at the time on 98 with the lates bios only let 4mb but the new gfx drivers let 6mbs. I was able to play tribes 2 at 640 by 400 res with everything on half and it did ok enought to play bots. on xp i was able to put 32mb of ram to the ingfx and was able to play tribes 2 at 800by600 decent. So yeah i've played few other games like tribes 2 and aom on a lower ram system and it played it without crashing. I also got an ati pci 7000 to mess around with and aom would crash around 5 mins into the game, i got a msi gf4mx440 and it played the game greatly and so did the ati 9000pro i got later. My point is yes you can play some games with less then the min but they will be badly played.

--Idoxash