Hi everyone. I'm trying to use Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7.5 on my Sony Viao PCG-VX88 with an Intel 82815 Graphics card. Of course now I find that the card is too old to run DirectX 9.0 3D, which is apparently required by the Media Creator. I checked for a new driver on the Intel site, but they no longer provide updates for this card; the last one came out in '02 and since I got the laptop in '03 I kind of doubt it would do any good. (if you want, see this old thread for some back-information I researched regarding this whole DirectX problem.)

Does anyone know of where I could get a third-party driver or patch or something that might enable my system to run DirectX 9.0, or am I doomed to install a new graphics card?

If I do need to install a graphics card, does someone have any advice about how to go about doing this? I've upgraded my desktop PC multiple times, but I've never even looked in my laptop. It has a little bay in the side that is apparently for some kind of upgrade cards, but I don't know what, exactly... can I use that for a new graphics card? (and should this paragraph be posted in a hardware section of this site?)

Anyway, please pick a part of this to respond to and let me know what you think. I could really use some help. Thanks!

Sorry to say, not many laptops have upgradeable video subsystems, you'd have to do some serious research, or call the manufacturer to find out. Most of the time the video "card" is built into the motherboard in the laptop and can't be replaced.

On the other hand, there shouldn't be any reason you can't "install" DX9, you should be able to do that, even if your card can't take full advantage of it.

So it may be you need to find a different media creator? Or look into the video upgrade option, if possible. But nothing should be preventing you from installing DX9.

Sorry if this is redundant, I didn't read the "old thread". Getting late you know

cheers

Thanks for the info. Nope, not redundant at all. I do have DX9 installed, but I guess the program requires that my card use it in a certain capacity which it's unable to do. Oh well. Unless anyone else has another idea, I guess I'll just have to try a different program (any suggestions?). Thanks again!

A quick Google search for stuff like that should find a lot of options I would think. But take a look at Nero's software: www.nero.com. They might have something.

I guess it depends on what you want, if you're looking for something for creating video, editing video and putting together movies, then there are a lot of options. If it's just burning you need, Nero or some other DVD burning app. Just look at the system requirements for each one I guess.

happy hunting

Thanks again; I'll check out Nero for sure.

The funny thing is, Media Creator didn't say anything about DX9 until I'd installed it. Neither does Nero, but here's hoping!