Upgrading the graphics card on an old Dell Vostro 3500 Laptop

BenEadir

Hi all,

I have a 5 year old Dell Vostro 3500 which I used as my work laptop until 2013 and since then it's been mostly used as a back up web browser. My 10 year old has now gotten into Minecraft and the laptop is now more or less hers!!

It performs OK but only on the lowest graphics setting, something like 2 render distance whereas 16 is the max.

Is there any point trying to upgrade the graphics card on the laptop? Would it be an easy DIY job (having built a gaming PC with my son over Xmas I'm now an "expert" :rolleyes:) or would it just be throwing good money after bad?

It's got an i5 M520 processor @2.4GHz, 4GB RAM and is running Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

EDIT: I've just noticed in Device Manager that the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" has a yellow warning icon and when I click on it the properties pop up box says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" and under the Resources tab it says "This device isn't using any resources because it has a problem."

I've tried updating the driver but it says the driver is up to date.

Perhaps the problem isn't that the graphics card isn't up to snuff perhaps its because the graphics cards is banjaxed!!

Either way it looks like I need a repair/replacement of some sort.

Any suggestions?

Here's an original review of the system - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Vostro-3500-Notebook.30323.0.html

TerrorFirmer

You'll need either a new laptop or build her a desktop as well! Nothing else can be done in this case.

BenEadir

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

You'll need either a new laptop or build her a desktop as well! Nothing else can be done in this case.

:mad:

challengemaster

BenEadir wrote: »

:mad:

Almost all laptop graphics cards are incapable of being replaced. This is because it's not so much a graphics card (as you'd think of in a tower PC), as a graphics chip soldered straight onto the laptop motherboard.

justsomebloke

you are probably no longer checking this for updates but...make sure you have downloaded the graphics drivers for your laptop from the dell support site and not just leaving it to windows to do. Dell laptop graphics cards are pants and some have their own set of drivers independent of the manufacturers ones. so make sure to run the dell ones as oppose to letting windows pick them up automatically

BenEadir

justsomebloke wrote: »

you are probably no longer checking this for updates but...make sure you have downloaded the graphics drivers for your laptop from the dell support site and not just leaving it to windows to do. Dell laptop graphics cards are pants and some have their own set of drivers independent of the manufacturers ones. so make sure to run the dell ones as oppose to letting windows pick them up automatically

Thanks just come bloke, I'll try that. Running the standard windows check always reverts with confirmation that the driver is up to date.

FYI when I uninstall the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" The graphics performance improves significantly and Minecraft will run on 12 render settings with no lag for a while but it eventually reverts to choppy and laggy performance and the "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" with the yellow icon eventually re-appears.

BenEadir

justsomebloke wrote: »

you are probably no longer checking this for updates but...make sure you have downloaded the graphics drivers for your laptop from the dell support site and not just leaving it to windows to do. Dell laptop graphics cards are pants and some have their own set of drivers independent of the manufacturers ones. so make sure to run the dell ones as oppose to letting windows pick them up automatically

FYI that worked a treat!! I downloaded the Dell Direct app which detects your system and recommends driver updates etc. One of the updates recommended was the specific Nvidia driver for the graphics card which installed correctly and now instead of Display Adapters in Device manager showing Intel(r) HD Graphics - Standard VGA Graphics Adapter it shows Intel(r) HD Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 310M which I know is probably a poor quality graphics card/chip but at least with the correct driver it seems to be back performing as it should and Minecraft is running butter smooth on render distance of 12 chunks which is pretty good compared to the 2-4 chunks max it was capable of running at previously.

Really appreciate the suggestion Justsomebloke.

the_syco

Maybe look into getting a cheap SSD drive? If you don't use the DVD drive, you can get a caddy to put your current HDD in it's place, and boot Windows and a few games off. Either that, or get more RAM.

120GB SSD will probably be around the €70 mark
Two sticks of DDR3 SO-DIMM will probably cost around the €80 mark
I'm using memoryc.com as the source of my pricing, as they do free delivery, and I use them as they're local to me.

Maybe best asking the lads on the Minecraft forum if either will give you much of a boost, however.