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    Half Life 2/ATI-200M/Toshiba/HELP!

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by superman5150, Jan 24, 2006.

  1. superman5150

    superman5150 Newbie

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    ABSOLUTE NEWBIE - Bear with me!

    This is my first voyage into laptops. I've always been on desktops, but got a new laptop for college this summer.

    I just got a TOSHIBA SATELLITE 380 (a105-S101) 60gb HD (5400rpm) with ATI Mobility RADEON XPRESS 200M gfx.

    I tried to play Half Life 2 on it, but it's dying on me. The audio is jerky at times, and it WILL NOT let me change any of my video settings, like textures/models/shader. All I can really do is change the resolution settings and adjust the darkness.

    I've updated my drivers and changed the Direct X to a lower version. The only thing I haven't done from what I've read all over these forums is installed the Half Life 2 source that came with the game. I just chose to install the game, not the 80 gigs of extras.

    I'm not interested in photo realistic settings, I just want to play the dang thing!

    Am I just screwed???
     
    superman5150, Jan 24, 2006
    #1
  2. REDFROG

    REDFROG Notebook Evangelist

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    you want to have the latest direct x installed, dosnt matter what card you have you still need it.
    the latest is Direct X 9c

    whats the half life 2 source?
    source is the engine that the game runs on soo... it has to be installed its part of the game.

    and counter strike: source is one of the best online games ever you are realy missing out if you havnt insalled that.

    your not screwd the 200M can play the game.

    how much ram do you have? you need at least 512 to play decently.
     
    REDFROG, Jan 24, 2006
    #2
  3. superman5150

    superman5150 Newbie

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    What if I upgraded my memory from the standard 256mb up to 1 gig? Would that help at all?
     
    superman5150, Jan 24, 2006
    #3
  4. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    You only have 256MB in there? I have no idea how you are even running it.

    Get 1GB, will help A LOT.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Jan 24, 2006
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  5. Jason

    Jason Overclocker NBR Reviewer

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    256 is the minimum for HL2. And I have tried running HL2 on an older P4 1.4 with 256 RAM, 32 Nvidia Geforce 2. It was so darn laggy it wasn't even funny. The extra RAM will help a lot. You should be able to play HL2 with your 200M at low settigns and nothing higher. The 200M isn't for gamming though.
     
    Jason, Jan 25, 2006
    #5