VGA graphics offline

[LukeyJB]

Hey, I've recently had my laptop returned from the repair center and I've installed The Sims 3. Now, before I sent my laptop to them for repairs Sims 3 worked fine, now it has a problem with my Graphics. I get an error message saying:

"Unable to start game

Device 0 cannot run this title.
No supported video graphics card detected. Please check your system hardware."

I ran EA's Easy Info V3 tool and everything passes their tests except from the 'Display Adapter Memory' Sims 3 requires 13kb and mine was showing 0kb. I looked at the advanced info and it showed that the 'Standard VGA Graphics Adapter' is offline, I was looking into this a bit and found that I actually need to download this from my Graphics Manufacturers website. I went onto Acer and couldn't find anything, I have never been good at looking for and installing patches and updates for my hardware and always need help with it because I don't have a clue what I'm doing.

Can anybody help me with what I need to download, where to get it and how to install?

I have an Acer Aspire 5536 Laptop and the graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics

 

[Leeky]

Install the latest Radeon drivers from ATi. www.ati.com

Top right of the page, download drivers...

Select Notebook graphics
Mobility radeon series
Mobility radeon HD 3xxxx series
Finally select your OS, and then click view results.

From the page which opens, download the "Catalyst Software Suite"

Once downloaded, install it, and then reboot your notebook.

Then try the game again.

 

[LukeyJB]

I was on that page earlier and was a bit hesitative on installing it as it said in bold at the bottom "INSTALL AT YOUR OWN RISK so that kind of threw me off of it! Thanks, I'll install it and post results tomorrow (early morning tomorrow!)

 

[Leeky]

Unless it specifically says in the results page your laptop isn't supported, you should be quite safe to install it.

Its always wise to have the most up to date catalyst software installed any how.

 

[LukeyJB]

What results page? I'm no good at this stuff

 

[Leeky]

What results page? I'm no good at this stuff

The results page that opens once you've filled in the details in my first as explained in my first post.

On that page, it will clearly tell you any manufacturers it doesn't recommend you use it with.

Whats your OS, and I'll look for you now.

 

[LukeyJB]

Windows Vista 32 bit. thanks!

 

[Leeky]

Operating System(s)

Windows Vista - 32-Bit Edition; Windows 7 - 32-Bit Edition
Products Supported

Catalyst Mobility is a notebook reference graphics driver for with limited support for
system vendor specific features. Support is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7
to be used at your own risk.

The Installation Verification Software will prevent driver download on certain notebook
products. This is to protect against the installing of drivers that may disable features or
functionality provided by the system manufacturer. If unacceptable behavior is
experienced using Catalyst Mobility it is recommended to revert back to the driver
provided by your system vendor for your specific platform. Please check with your system
vendor for the most recent drivers for your notebook.

The following notebook graphics products are supported in this release:

* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5800 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5700 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5600 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5400 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5100 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4800 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4600 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon 4100 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3800 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3600 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon 3100 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2700 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 Series
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 Series
* ATI PowerXpress enabled notebooks using AMD chipsets

The following notebooks are not supported in this release:

* Any notebook launched after this driver release.
* Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel chipsets.
* Toshiba notebooks (please check with your notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
* Sony VAIO notebooks (please check with your notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
* Panasonic notebooks (please check with your notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Given that information, your fine to go ahead and install catalyst.

The download link is here: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/920...mobile/10-7_mobility_vista_win7_32-64_ccc.exe

 

[LukeyJB]

Ok, thanks man. I'll have to do it tomorrow, I'll post information here!

 

[LukeyJB]

Are you sure this will fix my VGA problem?

 

[Leeky]

It contains the drivers required to recognise your graphics card in your notebook. I can't tell you 100%, as there are so many variables. You don't exactly have much to lose. lol.

 

[LukeyJB]

Okay thanks, I'll do it now

I'm installing now and I've got the Overall Progress at the top bar and on the bottom bar it says 'Currently Installing: Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable and it's not moving on from there...

 

[Leeky]

It'll take a little while mate.

 

[LukeyJB]

I have a problem. During the installation, I had to leave the laptop unattended so I went to lock it as usual but instead of pressing Lock I pressed Restart. When I pressed restart, all the windows closed and I had the blue vista background and it said:

'Updating: Update 28 of 98, please do not power off or unplug your machine'

and it said that all the way until 98, then did the usual 3 step configuration and put me back on my laptop, this process took about an hour. Was that the whole graphics driver update during that time?

 

[LukeyJB]

Ah! It worked, EasyInfo shows a pass at 256MB, and I thought I only had a 58MB.

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Leeky]

Ref your second from last post: It sounds like it was doing updates at the same time.

No worries, glad it worked for you.