Questions from new user

Hello I recently got a vostro 1500 and I got the smart value with the only upgrades being the truelife screen and webcam. I have seen alot of talk about the performance of the 8400m GS on the forums. Well today I got my first game for my laptop, gta san andreas. I had heard that the graphics card can handle medium level settings but I tried the game on my vista machine with resolution 1280x800 and "very high" settings. I drove around really fast in a car and the game did not seem to be slowing down at all but I thought it would. Is this just because the game is older or is my card a freak of nature? I haven't messed with anit-aliasing yet though.

Also, I have looked on laptopvideo2go for drivers, I understand the whole concept of drivers, I just don't know if I should even mess around with it when I have heard it could negatively affect the system as well as help it. I am happy with the performance of the laptop so far so if it ain't broke don't fix it right?

ANother thing, I am looking to upgrade the ram because my gadget sidebar usually shows about 50% of my stock 1 gig being used when I am doing absolutely nothing but looking at the desktop. Only thing I added to the system processes so far was a anti-virus program (avast) and I got rid of norton. Will 2 gigs of RAM be enough for me? My other uses for the comp are multimedia things like photshop, 3d animation, flash, video editing and running a digital vinyl system (torq, serato, etc) when I dj. That is the most demanding things I would do with the laptop, nothing more.

 

Well San Andreas really isn't that new, nor is it that demanding, so having it on maxish settings makes sense.

With laptop2go it's a little more complicated then normal drivers, as you have to download the modded INF file as well. Remember to install drivers you need to uninstall the previous driver and restart first.


For your memory issue, if you have a 1GB stick, you should be able to just buy another 1GB stick and through it in. I'm not sure if the Vostro can handle more then 2GB or not though, so someone else will have to answer that.

 

Vostro can handle 4GB

 

Yes I knew already the max ram is 4gb, I just don't know if that would be overdoing it if all I need is 2gb for what I mentioned.

Another thing that just came to mind is I am using a ps2 controller with a "ps2/usb adaptor" I got from radio shack. I have been spending quite some time configuring it to work like the regular ps2 game. I just can't get the pause menu worked out. I have no idea what the game labels the pause menu as so I can switch it over to the ps2 controllers start button. Esc button seems to be the only way. It also will not recognize the d-pad for the change radio station buttons.

 

It can, but chances are it shipped with 2 512MB sticks, and you will need to replace both modules. It will only have 2 slots.

2 GB will certainly suit your needs. I heard that a 32-bit OS (like you probably have) can't even use 4 GB. Or if it can, it is certainly the MAX.