Why won't my laptop run the games it should be able to??

Hello, I have a Toshiba Satellite A135-S2276 (CPU: Intel Dual Core 1.66 GHz, RAM: 1.5 GB, Video Card: Radeon Xpress 200M, OS: Windows Vista Home Basic). This is a rather low end computer I realize, however, I have problem running games such as HL 2, TF 2 and CoD 2, but can run Oblivion with a low framerate at medium graphics settings. Now, I know that the title of this thread makes me sound uninformed, however, I do know something of gaming and computer systems. So here is my query. Why can systems with the same graphics card and lower CPU and RAM run games that my notebook can't? Should I change OSs?

 

Try getting the newest drivers.... maybe. But vista, although home basic, does take up quite a bit of RAM and that video card isn't super good.

hmm...

 

I have the latest drivers, that was the first thing I checked. My real issue is that when I try to run HL 2, the graphics flicker and stutter and then I recieve an internal engine error (I've reinstalled it and the same thing happens), TF 2 won't even start to run, the APP just crashes, and CoD 2 has a lower framerate on the lowest possible settings than I've ever seen. I've tried overclocking and I've searched to no end on how to fix this stuff and I'm at my wits end. My ultimate goal is to run CoD 4 (it runs, it just lags like no other and the game itself actually puts my hardware at decently high settings for default) and so I'm beginning to wonder if I should give like linux or something a try.

 

You may have to force dx7 for some of the games. The graphics card you have is very weak and can't cope with most newer games.

 

your video card.............to be quite honest is about as useless as me. i'm suprised that it runs oblivion.

 

please tell me how much do u score at 3d mark 2001 SE?
I score 4000 with my celeron 1.6GHz and the intel GMA945 graphic adapter and 1 GB ram. how about you?

 

I can understand with newere games but HL2 isn't new by any stretch of the imagination and the source engine isn't either. I've read from several sources reports of how well HL2 and CoD 2 wok on the Radion X200M but my comp can't even run them. And though the graphics card is weak it can and does run Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, UT 2k4, NWN 2, and other graphics intense games on fairly good graphics settings.

 

try to change drivers, try many different drivers just to test if they then can run it

 

Please, please post some screens of Oblivion. I can only run it at medium with a good resolution... I would love to see the framerates you are getting.