Help me be SUPERDAD

[xcrewchief 0]

My daughter is trying to play Let's Ride : Dreamer and is getting missing graphics while she plays. I am using the Intel 82865g graphics controller installed with my Dell PC. I have bought (and not removed from the box yet) a GeForce MX4000 graphics card that I think MIGHT fix the problem, but know that it is an older card and am unsure whether to try it or not. Any help would be appreciated.

[Sampson 0]

The game itself calls for a 3D card with at least 32Meg of memory and support for DirectX 9.1c. Then, again, it also depends upon whether your Dell has an AGP slot. So, there are a lot of "if's".

 

So, you will need to crack open the Dell first to see if there is an AGP slot. If there is and your 4000MX is AGP, you have resolved the first "if". If it does not have an AGP slot, you will need to go with a PCI card like the FX5200.

 

While the computer is still on and before you install anything, you will what to change your video driver to Standard VGA. After you do so, the screen will probably look washed out and ugly and probably Windows will be telling you that it has found new hardware. Ignore that, and shutdown the computer.

 

Once the computer is shut down install the card. Immediately after you turn the computer back on, you will have to get into BIOS. Usually, this means holding down the DEL button or whatever has been designated for the BIOS interrupt. It will say on the screen. In BIOS, you will have to disable the onboard video card. Then, depending on whether it is an AGP or PCI card, you will have to designate one or the other as the first card to look for. Save the settings on exit. It will reboot itself.

 

If all goes well, you will boot back into windows using the new card. If you are using XP it will tell you it has found new hardware and would you like to install the drivers for it. Cancel that. Now, if you have anti-virus running, exit out or make it go to sleep. Nvidia drivers do not always install correctly with the antivirus software running in the background. Take the CD that comes with the card, put it in the CD and let it come up to install the nvidia drivers. These will probably not be the most recent drivers and you can always install later ones from the Nvidia website if you want to. When it has finished, it will want to reboot. Let it, and when it comes up you can readjust your resolution to the way you like it.

 

Next, you will need to go to Microsoft DirectX's website and install Direct 9.1c. Don't know if your 4000MX will support it, but the FX5200 will. Install it, if it isn't installed on your machine.

 

After doing all of that, then you can try running the game.

 

Good luck.

[xcrewchief 0]

First of all, Sampson, thank you for your help. The MX4000 I have is for a PCI 2.0 slot, so that answers one 'if'. The main problem that I am running into is not wanting to open the box that the video card is in and wasting the 50 bucks I paid for it. The box says that there is 128mb of DDR memory, and it says it supports Microsoft DirectX OpenGL for Windows.

I hate to keep asking for your help, but is there any other help you can give me?

Thanks again

[xcrewchief 0]

One more thing, I have DirectX 9.0c on my machine, and tried to look for 9.1c on the DirectX site and could not find it.

Once again.....Thanks

[tool_462 0]

I have an older PC using the exact same card, and it will be able to run the game. I have used the PC for many many games up to Half Life 2 (all low settings ) which is still a very demanding game, even by today's standards. If you have any problems there is a huge thread about the MX4000 that is one of the most viewed threads on this forum. I started it a few years ago as skier_120 so you can take a look at that. If I had time I would link you but just sort hardware by views and it will be near the top.

[Sampson 0]

This would be the most recent DirectX: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;displaylang=en Just download it and install.

 

From tool_462 it seems that the card will run well with the game.

 

Just take your time, and walk through the steps above.

[tool_462 0]

Yep, should be no problem. I played many games on the card and the only one that wasn't supported was Battlefield 2. Just let me know if you have any questions setting it up!