Update Graphics??
 

How do you update your graphics driver? I have some Intel graphics card with a gig of ram, running XP on a Sony Laptop. How do I update my graphics driver, and does it cost money?

I hate to say it but I believe it does I'm not sure how much possibly in the 100s though

Driver updates should be free for your card.

To update your driver, you first have to know what type of card you have. To find this out, do the following:

Click on Start, choose run, and type in dxdiag. After the window loads, there should be some tabs. One of them should be labeled Display. Click on this tab. Look for the device name. Once you have the card type, go to the intel website and follow the instructions there for obtaining driver updates.

Once you have the driver downloaded, just run the app you downloaded. After it has completed, then restart your computer. Your drivers should now be updated.

Let me know if you need more help.

-Elo

Even though I wasn't having trouble with the game, I figured that updating my graphics drivers would only make things better. Right? WRONG!

I found the correct drivers for my card, downloaded and installed them, and merrily went off to play PotCO. As soon as I tried boarding my ship, however, I crashed.

Re-log and try again. Crash! And again? Crash!

So I used "System Restore" to undo the new driver installation and go back to the old ones. Haven't crashed while trying to board a ship since.

Strange, Storm. What kind of card do you have?

OK. I identified my chipset and found it on the Intel website. It says: Driver Downloads. Under that it says: Graphics Driver. And under that it has the download link. Here come the questions:

A. What will it do to my computer if I click download?
B. What are the possible risks? Can those possible risks lead to me needing a new system?
C. How long will it take?
D. If I don't like the update, how do I uninstall it, and is it easy (I'm a computer don't-know-it-all. I'm clueless, as you can tell).

A. It will open a download prompt asking you whether you want to save or open the file. I recommend saving it to a location that you'll remember and then opening the file.

B. There should be no risk in downloading a graphics driver from the intel website. If, for some odd reason, the install screws up your system, the worst thing that can happen is that Windows will BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). In which case, once rebooted, Windows should ask you if you want to boot up using the last known good configuration.

C. The download speed will be determined by your connection to intel. The larger the file, the longer it will take to download. The install speed will be determined by your computer's capability.

D. If you don't like the update, you should be able to do a driver rollback from the hardware manager. It is simple enough.

-Elo