WTF is wrong with my 1520

i received my 1520 yesterday, and it has been nothing but a disappointment so far. I have tried to run the crysis demo twice now, both times my computer totally locked up before i could even play(locked up on cutscenes). Now i just installed The Orange Box, i go to play half life 2, and it locks up before i even get to the Half life 2 menu, WTF!!

im going back to my old emachines m6805, this is ridiculous, please tell me im missing something here

edit: I have xp NOT vista

 

What are your system specs?

 

Computer specs? What version of drivers are you using?

 

update your drivers

 

im sorry i totally forgot to post my specs

1.83ghz Core 2 duo
1gb ram
256mb 8600m gt
80gb 5400rpm hdd

 

Update your drivers using the latest 169.28 from Laptopvideo2go.com. Follow the instructions there.

 

I wouldn't worry about the Crysis Demo. It played okay on my computer but I had to run at low-medium settings. My friend who bought the game said the final version runs much smoother than the Demo because they hadn't optimized the demo yet, which is understandable. Check out my specs below. Some things to keep in mind are that you only have 1 GB RAM, which is barely adequate for Vista alone, let alone Crysis.

And for your specs, shouldn't it be 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo and shouldn't your hard drive be 5400 rpm, not 5600 rpm?

carldaru

 

Yeah the 1GB ram could def be a problem... crysis requirements : http://www.crysis-online.com/Information/System Requirements/

drivers are also definite possibility...

 

updated the drivers to the 169.09 and ran TF2 fine, tried to play Crysis demo again, i got to the cutscene where you are in a plane with soldiers, all of the soldiers skin was pure yellow, and everything began to get progressively more yellow (armor, backround) and then, you guessed it, it locked up again.



another important detail, im on XP, not vista. and all of the settings are on medium with the resolution at 1024x768

so thats 3 lock ups with the crysis demo, 1 since the updated drivers, i understand its not a big deal and that i should have more ram, but i should be able to at least get past the cutscenes, i am yet to actually play the game!!

oh yeah and one more oddity, my computer randomly boots up in 1024x768 INSTEAD of 1280x800, any help?

 

I ran crysis fine on med settings with 2g ram and 16.09 drivers on my 1520. Buy a 2gb stick for 30 dollars and update your drivers from laptopvideo2go.com, and It should run fine. You can even OC your card wit rivatuner. My 1530 runs Crysis slightly better, but the 1520 should handle it on low-med settings.

 

so now with the NEW drivers i still got those weird yellow graphics for where the soldier's skin should be, what does that mean? any help?

and is the RAM configuration in my laptop 512x2 or 1gbx1?

 

i got an engine error warning while playing TF2 that said it ran out of paged pool memory or something like that, and while i play TF2 i always have a OS paged pool memory low red text warning in the upper right corner. I also got those yellow graphic problems on the ammo/health locked and brief black artifacts for the few seconds i was playing the game

Is my laptop basically useless until i upgrade the RAM?

I just tried to run HL2, you guessed it, ANOTHER total lock up and i had to turn off the laptop. When turning it back on i got a weird system check thing by windows it said:
"The type of file system is NTFS"
"The volume is dirty"
CHDSK is verifying files (step 1 of 3)

it completed the steps and booted up like normal, booted up into 1280x800 then SWITCHED into 1024x768....

please help me, my laptop is incapable of doing things(running HL2) that my old emachines m6805(A64 3000+,768 RAM, 64mb 9600) could do

 

help anyone?

 

another bump...

 

Try adding another gig or 2 of virtual memory.

 

why can it not run hl2 tho? thats absolutely ridiculous, my 768mb RAM emachines laptop could play it fine...

i cant even get to the Start up menu before it crashes

and whats up with the weird system check that i got?

 

That's because you technically have 200 or less MBs of RAM (Vista is a RAM whore) and to run those programs, it take at least 400MBs, from my experience.

Try removing some of the programs through task manager.

 

Nvidia hasn't gotten their act totally together yet when it comes to drivers, but I occasionally get a BSOD playing games as the graphics driver hangs and fails to recover... That issue could be affecting you... To determine if that is the case, next time you have a lockup starting in TF2 hit the Windows key and force the start menu to load. If a driver failure is the case the driver will recover when the game isn't in focus...

Other than that...

What are you TF2 settings?

I have no problems performance wise in TF2...

 

what operating system are you using? Vista may not be making available as much memory as XP was? (Just guessing here, I don't really know, just heard Vista uses/requires more memory)

Also, it sounds like there might possibly be either a hard drive or memory error. Try running low level checks on both, make sure anything that is found is logged so you can review it. These take a long time, but it's the only way to know. If you've got some bad memory, Dell can get you out some new sticks pretty quick.

I'd also try using only stock drivers for everything, nothing modded until you resolve the problem. Your best bet for error free operation is the drivers Dell supplies, even if it is not the best option for performance.

 

Are you running a clean XP installation? If not, getting rid of the bloatware, programs your don't neeed, and unnecessary background processes may help.

 

I have xp, not vista(Since i just recently got my 1520, they dont even offer vista with the 1520 configurator now)

my settings are all at medium for TF2

Hmm how would i go about doing this?

no im not, but i got rid of a couple of the bloatware on my laptop such as the google desktop,toolbar, and dell media things, most of it is still on my laptop but not all. How badly does bloatware reduce performance? and how can i do a WinXP clean install?

thank you everyone for your replies, they are much appreciated!

 

Usually, gamers reinstall Windows as soon as they receive their new machines. A clean install is one where an XP disk (in your situation) is used, rather than the recovery partition, or system restore disk from Dell which includes all the bloat.

If you're unfamiliar with reinstalling Windows, this is a pretty good time to learn, however, it isn't entirely necessary. Decrapifier can get rid of most of the junkware. CCleaner, carefully used, can pretty much clean up the remaining odds and ends. You also might want to take a look at this (lower left side Features) to help you with the startup apps and background processes.

 

did i get an XP disk with my 1520? i got the system restore disk, dunno about XP...

and also how can i test my RAM and HDD to see if they are working correctly?

 

im going to call today and probably send it back, there is no excuse for it to be performing this badly, something MUST be broken. There is absolutely no reason it should not be able to even get me to the menu of half life 2...

i also attempted to run portal and it took a good 5mins before i got to the menu screen

 

bump.....


i really need help guys, if i can avoid sending my laptop in it would be much better, i need help diagnosing the problem (and stop saying i need more RAM, i have enough to to play HL2,it shouldnt be behaving the way it is.)

 

You can test your RAM with Memtest. This may help, as well. Didn't realize it also contains Memtest. Also, you usually can go to the hd manufacturer's site for help.

Have you cleaned up your system yet? I still think that's your best bet, Blitz. I remember reading an article in Hard OCP about a year or so ago, where in a test of a Dell XPS 400 (think that's the right model), the gents doing the review were having the same kinds of problems you're experiencing, including not even being able to load certain games. The solution: cleaning the bloatware. Sorry, but don't have time at the moment to dig up the link for you. Good luck.

 

how do i use memtest? and whats the best way to remove all the crap from my XP drive

 

do you really think cleaning up my system would allow me to play HL2? i dunno...

 

From a very cursory look at Google on the use of Memtest: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic62524.html

This is the Hard OCP article I mentioned earlier, Blitz. I don't know if the bloat on your machine is as bad as was on the tested machine, but it did cause gaming problems.

The best way to remove junk is to install a fresh copy of Windows, but as I said earlier, you can do a pretty good job of cleaning using the methods, tools and links from earlier posts.

If you are wary of doing these things, maybe sending your machine back is the best idea for you.

 

it said something about taking out my ram if i am running it in dual channel, im pretty sure i would have to do that because Dell ships their 1520 1gb as 512x2 right?

 

My laptop is no longer able to play TF2. After taking about 15mins to retrieve server info and connect to the game it will promptly lock up on the first screen of loading into a game with about 2secs of game noise looping over and over again. And after i hold down the power button to shut down this piece of ****, it boots up into the lowest resolution.

I have NEVER been more frustrated with a computer before in my entire life.