My brother just broke his new laptop - returned.

[bobby 55]

Aha, an external HDD is good. I'm sorry if I confused you, it's okay to put 32 bit programs on 64 bit ( it's backwards compatible) as long as it isn't Windows 32 bit operating stuff.

[Massaca]

Ah, cool. Won't have to re-download everything then.

Um, here's another question, they listed it with this:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M with 2 gig dedicated graphics

but dxdiag tells me this:

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_15F21043&REV_09
Display Memory: 1696 MB
Dedicated Memory: 64 MB
Shared Memory: 1632 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)


Is that the wrong bit I'm looking at or did they just lie on the website? And the 540 card isn't listed there.

[bobby 55]

If you're referring to this: Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz), that'd be your laptop's screen. Resolution is 1366 x 768, 60Hz is the screen's refresh rate, and the 32 bit in this case is referring to the colour depth of a pixel. The 64 bit in Windows refers to data processing.

[gamer0004]

I presume he's referring to the memory bits. Which are odd. I'd say: go to the nvidia control panel, then help -> system information, and check the "total available graphics memory" and "dedicated video memory". The latter should be 1 GB, the former can be higher.

Wait, waaiit. It's because the dedicated GPU is not active I guess. You can probably switch between the dedicated and integrated GPU (with nvidia optimus I believe). There might be a button in the top left corner of the keyboard part of your laptop. Press it to see if anything happens.

Otherwise, there should be an nvidia icon in you, er, menubar? I have no idea what's it called. At the bottom right of your screen there are a few icons (a keyboard in some cases, a sound volume thingy and the time). There should be an arrow or small triangle there. Press it and you should see a green nvidia logo. Click it and you should be able to switch between modes.

[bobby 55]

Erk, my mistake. Sorry Massaca, I've got bits on the brain.
I misunderstood:

Is that the wrong bit I'm looking at

.

[Massaca]

lol, no worries, poor choice of words on my part. Yeah, I mean the bolded parts

I'd say: go to the nvidia control panel, then help -> system information, and check the "total available graphics memory" and "dedicated video memory". The latter should be 1 GB, the former can be higher

.

lawhSsv.png (7.08 KiB) Viewed 6716 times

Couldn't see a button on the keyboard but I went to the nvidia control panel and noticed the graphics processor was set on "auto-select" so I changed it to "High-performance NVIDIA processor"

After that I checked DxDiag again and it says this:
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
DAC type: Internal
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0116&SUBSYS_15F21043&REV_09
Display Memory: 3761 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2014 MB
Shared Memory: 1747 MB


Guess it's going all out now.

Didn't see the NVIDIA icon in the popup menu on the right side of the task bar but there was a different one that took me to the NVIDIA control panel and brought up a box in the top left corner show what programs were using the high performance one instead of the integrated one. It was empty, then I loaded up FEAR 1 and it's icon appeared in the box. Checking the NVIDIA control panel, most programs are set on integrated whilst the games and a couple others are set on global (which is now set to high performace NVIDIA processor).

There were quite a few options for the high performance NVIDIA one that I just don't want to touch

I guess it probably isn't necessary really but it's good to know that it's there just in case.

Now I gotta see about getting applocale working on it...

[AEmer]

If you want to be certain it's there, do the following:

Start button, right click on "Computer", select properties.
On the lefthand bar, select the top option, which should be "Device Manager".

That should give you a collapsable treeview of your computers devices. One of them, display adapters I believe is its name, you can open, and you should be able to see your geforce card.

The laptop will generally select whichever card is more appropriate; the bigger one demands more power, so most of the time you'll be running the smaller one.

Fear was probably already running on the nvidia card when you played it last.

Also, don't worry about all the options in nvidia control panel. They're, for the most part, irrelevant to your usage and you should just configure things from within your games. The only one I use is the one that lets me limit pre-processing, since that reduces the screen lag. I generally run with 1 prerendered frame because I want v-sync, which is the synchronous update of the entire screen (which requires prerendering the entire picture before showing it to the monitor).

If you find that a game is unresponsive, just keep in mind that there may be a simple fix and ask around for one.

Also, I know you people down under have slow internet connections, but you will want to redownload as many programs as possible. Of course, there's an easy check before you move stuff over from the external drive however: Attempt to run it while it's on that drive.

If you can't run it from there, then it won't matter where you put it; it won't run on the new computer.

This is because programs themselves generally don't care where they're located, just that they interface correctly with the operating system. Part of that interface is often build as you install the program, so if you simply move it over, that interface will still be missing.

Part of that interface is keeping track of the location of the program. Either the OS interface doesn't matter to the program, in which case it'll work, or it matters, in which case it won't work nomatter where you put it.

There are som very old and very poorly programmed programs that don't work like this, and where the exact location _will_ matter, but generally it won't. And as has been said before, if you want to move something over but don't know if it's 32 or 64 bit, just put it in the program files x86 folder folder (which is the 32 bit one).

Also, the extra drive you've got? It's just an extra drive. You can use it for anything. Movies, music, programs, games, anything. Just install stuff to it and it'll work out where exactly it wants to be, or you can sometimes specify it. Steam is a good candidate to place there, anywhere you want it....though if you make your own program files folder, other programs might not be installed to it unless you get spelling and attributes right, so untill one is created by an installation, I suggest just plopping things down whereever you want (maybe put everything within a folder called temp, so you're reminded to move it about later, just make sure not to install anything to that folder because then you might not be able to get rid of it without breaking something).

Hope that helps.

[Massaca]

Hope that helps.

Yes, very much. Thanks. Checked what you said and it was listed there, all good. Re-downloaded everything I wanted and got everything set. Plenty of space left yet anyway but good to know that HDD is fine.

[gamer0004]

It's most likely just one HDD but divided into two partitions. All modern Asus laptops I have used had this. I don't really like it, but it's supposed to make (in most cases rather slow) laptop HDDs somewhat faster. I would recommend installing Steam to the second, larger, partition, otherwise you'll run out of space.

[AEmer]

Steam is one of the programs that doesn't mind being moved around after being installed, fortunately.

And yes, I presume it's just a single physical hard disk with 2 logical hard disks partitioned onto it.

[bobby 55]

This overheating piece of crap I've got has a 50 gig partition for the HP stuff and the remaining 450 gig has everything else. If I ever manage to have a surplus of cash again, I might get that Asus laptop myself. I don't really need a laptop, not being a student or businessman, but it would be nice to have when travelling, or as a backup if the *cough* desk top needed repairing.