MY graphics

qwertplaywert

Hi.i have a laptop with 240 mb ram[ i think the other 16mb is used for graphics] and have a free pc card slot,that according to the manual supports`16-bit PC Cards and CardBus PC cARDS.


what is the best graphics card i could use thrgouh this?

Anti

There is no way to upgrade your laptop to a better graphics card. sorry

qwertplaywert

so is there ANY thing i can use with this open slot/@?

8T8

Nope PCMCIA was never intended to support graphics cards, there are one or two out their but they are 2D only.

It mostly services USB, ethernet, WiFi, Firewire controllers that sort of stuff.

I imagine whatever is in the laptop that has 16MB of RAM for graphics is probably a basic 2D device as well. As stated can't be upgraded the best you can do for the laptop is to upgrade the RAM and the hard drive.

qwertplaywert

you can ugrade the hard drive?

and i bought ram a few weeks ago........didnt register after i installed it
getting somebody to put it in this week

maybe i want the graphics to play world of warcraft, but it donest seem i need more graphics, as when i install it,the only min spec i dont have is 512 ram[soon to be]

8T8

Yes you can upgrade the hard drive to a more faster & bigger model, personally I'd recommend the Hitachi 7K100.

However you need to locate the area where the hard drive kept usually it is accessible like the RAM with a compartment that can be unscrewed but certain laptops made it very difficult to access.

RAM on notebooks is a tricky affair especially on older models that can be picky about the RAM you use, it is highly recommended to buy RAM from Crucial as their memory advisor tool can give you the modules that are 100% compatible.

Lastly adding more RAM may not solve your problem of WoW not running, WoW needs a minimum level of GPU that has hardware TnL & 32MB of RAM. By today's standards that's extremely basic but I fear yours may be even pre-date that level of tech required for WoW.

What make laptop is it and what kind of graphics chip does it have as the chip could be 2D only which means WoW will never run. Go into the display properties tab and it will say such & such on plug and play monitor etc.

qwertplaywert

i installed new ram yesterday [256mb]

its a toshiba A2 , i dont have a clue what graphics chip,dont know how to find out

another q- now i have 496mb[16mb being given for graphics]
can i increase the amount given to graphics?

christophicus

You might be able to , you would have to go through the bios to do that though. Are you able to get into the BIOS?

qwertplaywert

.........what are bios

christophicus

they are teh system settings which are saved onto the actual motherboard itself, they tell teh computer to boot up the components in a certain a order , and what speed the CPU and memory to run at, among other things. Since you have never heard it before, id recommend against going into the bios without doing alot more research because there is a possibility you can mess up you machine really bad.

BopNiblets

There was that external graphics system someone (Asus?) released a while ago...

Ahyes, here it is:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops/asus-xg-station-is-worlds-first-external-laptop-graphics-card-226648.php

Don't know nuthin about prices or availabilty though...

Bah, it's even posted in a thread, which I've only seen now.

8T8

The Asus external graphics card isn't compatible as it requires the Expresscard interface which replaced the PCMCIA interface. Plus it is not available either the product was a concept device.

qwertplaywert the bios is basically a small layer of software configuration that sits between the hardware and the OS. Toshiba probably hide the menu on boot but when you press a key it will bring you into the bios menu where you can alter settings related to the hardware in the laptop such as the amount of system RAM that is allocated to the integrated graphics.

Usually the key is the delete key you press just after the machine turns on but before it boots into Windows however Toshiba may use a different key without knowing the exact make and model we cannot tell you.

I cannot find any more info on the Toshiba A2 you mentioned other than a Toshiba Tecra A2 is that your laptop ?

If it is that laptop then it uses the Intel 855GM integrated graphics of which it just about meets the requirements for WoW.

If and only if you are certain you have the Intel 855GM update the graphics card driver by downloading it from here this is important for fixing bugs in the display driver when it comes to games. Also later versions of Intel display drivers allowed the amount of RAM allocated to the graphics chip to be configured within it's control panel under Windows so it may save you having to go into the bios.


Before doing any of the above just to make absolute certain you are not installing the wrong display driver go into the device manager and expand the section called "Display Adapters" if it lists an "Intel 82852/82855 Graphics Controller" then you have the same one as above if not then write down what it is and post it here.

(To get to the device manager go into the control panel and open the system control panel then click the hardware tab and then click on the device manager button)

(Oh yes there also may be no need to alter the memory settings for the graphics as Intel use a dynamic allocation system so when you put more RAM into the notebook it grabs more RAM when you run a game, this link explains more and shows you where you can confirm if the dynamic system is running.)

qwertplaywert

it is tecra.........forgot to mention that when stating what website

so can i install any video cards into it?

8T8

No you can't the Intel integrated graphics cannot be replaced, re-read my post above it explains everything.

To recap
* Confirm the graphics chip in the notebook if it is Intel install the updated graphics driver.

That should be all you need to do try running WoW after that.