Video Card Ignorance

[bradclark1]

I have a 128mb ATI Mobility Radeon Xpress 200 Series in my HP Pavilion DV5000 laptop. I have 2GB of ram and I'm supposed to be able to up my video memory through my ram. Owners book doesn't say how and I couldn't find anything on ATI's site. There is nothiing that I can see in the advanced display settings.
Anybody help me out?

Thanks

[kiwi_2005]

You might have to enabled it in the BIOS. On startup hold down the Del key and she will load up the Bios. Although it might be a differnet key for your laptop.

Then once in look for video memory or something simular, sorry i can't remeber what the proper name is called, but there you should have an option to make your video memory higher.

[Gizzmoe]

Found via Google:

Reboot your computer and press F10 to enter BIOS
Go to the 'Advanced' tab
Select 'Video Graphic Mode'
Change to 'UMA'
Set 'Shared Video Memory' to preferred memory size

[bradclark1]

That was it! Ya'll the bomb! :D
Now I have doubled my vid memory.

I searched 15 pages of google and only found propaganda. Nothing technical.

Thanks,
Brad

[retired1212]

for ATI folks, this is one decent utility. No more screwed Catalyst control panel.

ATI Tray Tools
http://www.guru3d.com/article/atitraytools/189/

The reason I liked it so much.

1. Display of GPU and CPU temperatures
2. Basic and advanced overclocking stuff
3. Control on GPU fan.

and many more....

[bradclark1]

Thanks Oombongo. i'll give it a shot.

[bradclark1]

Nasty program.:down:
Put my computer in a blue screen/restart loop. Had to go safe mode and disable it.

[retired1212]

really?

It is working great here. X800XL user.

[tycho102]

I tried the Catalyst drivers one time, several years ago, and I'm still scarred from the experience. The new Nvidia 91.xx's are making my anus bleed, as well. I hate the new Forcewares.

Anyway. Go to http://www.guru3d.com. Download the ATI "Tray Tools", in the modified ATI drivers section. By "right clicking" on the tray icon, you've got everything available to you. Make double-super-mega-Xtreme certain that you peruse the "Advanced Tweaks" section. Some games play better with different options selected. I'd have to reboot this computer into Windows to be able to tell you what all to turn on.

I will also recommend "Mainboard Monitor (http://mbm.livewiredev.com)" (AKA Motherboard Monitor). It works with most mainboards (unless you've got something really funky, like a 940-pin quad Operteron), and goes really well with system overclocking -- if your laptop will even overlock.