Gaming woes Inspiron E1505

I realize the Inspiron E1505 isn't a gaming powerhouse but I ordered it with the Radeon X1400 256 so I could play a few some decent games. Unfortunately, I've been getting some errors. Recently, I was trying to play Halo and I got the following error message;

"A problem occured initializing Direct 3d. Hardware acceleration may be disabled, please run DXDIAG."

I checked the directx settings and found a message saying that my display driver doesn't support directx 9+ and that I need an updated driver. I was wondering if the driver from Dell's site (the one I'm using now) is the latest driver or if there is a newer one I could try. Or if my video card is just can't run direct 3d on directx 9.

 

That is a bit odd. It looks like you tried Dell's most recent driver. Why don't you try this one. It is what I use on my ATI x300 in my Inspiron 6000. It is actually a better driver anyway.

http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati/win2k_xp.php

 

I play Halo on max setting highest res no problem. Check your directx version and also maybe reinstall because it sounds like a software issue.

EDIT: Wanted to add that im using all the lates Omega Drivers so maybe thats why I can play it well. The dell drivers are very conservative and give no room for improvement.

 

ive played halo on my e1505 with x1400 and it ran perfectly.

 

sounds like you have to update your drivers

 

Actually sounds like you downloaded the ATI updated drivers from Windows update...which is NOT good. Microsoft included those drivers...but they are only 2D. You need to go here:

http://www.ati.com/online/mobilecatalyst/

Download the latest from ATI. YES...they work...I have the E1505 and the ATI installer works on my machine...so should on yours. These are the Catalyst 6.9 drivers released in September...most updated from ATI. They include the latest 3D drivers for the card.

I can play Half Life 2, Far Cry (old, but I enjoy), and Call of Duty 2...all at 1680 x 1050 on my machine with Adaptive AntiAlasing enabled and games set to very high textures, etc. Smooth and beautiful!!!

Bob

 

great resource, looks like I've to be aware of some of these issues. Since I have ordered my E1505 few days ago and havn't received yet.

 

REALLY!! What are your specs??

 

that is wrong, the microsoft drivers have full support for D3D, they do not offer openGL support, as HALO is a D3D game, the MS drivers should work

 

Standard ms drivers do not support 3D AFAIK. even if they do, still don't use MS drivers... get drivers from either DELL or ATI.

 

I'm not advocating the use of MS drivers, the hardware specific drivers do support D3D though