Drivers for ATI Mobility Radeon 9700

[Nifty]

I have a recurring graphics problem with my laptop's graphics card. I occasionally get severe screen distortion when running 3D games, its apparently random and no amount of settings tweaking can fix it.

On attempting to locate some replacement drivers for my GPU i came accross the problem that there are no drivers designed for my Sony by Sony or ATI. Can i just download the latest drivers from ATI and use them or will that be just as unstable becuase they are not intended for my Sony system?


Maybe my problem is not GPU related (although i reckon it is). I can only describe what i see as lots of artifacts as if my GPU is overheating but they are everywhere and i mean everywhere, pixels seem to get drawn in the wrong place resulting in almost a blender effect. The problem even spills over into the desktop so when i close the game all my icons are fuzzy and distorted, but other areas are fine. This problem can happen as soon as i boot a game so im certain its not simply GPU overheating.

Its not a serious problem; it only happens occasionally and a reboot fixes it, but i would like it not to happen in the middle of playing games!

[nick_pan]

 until/if Sony release some new drivers.

that was a good one..:smileywink:

[kee-lo_]

Tyger's right, don't make a mistake which could cost you £1000;s

[Nifty]

Yeah thanks, i dont think i will risk unsupported drivers. Its not a severe problem just a bit annoying. If its a GPU problem then i can have it fixed on my insurance (although my ppl usually take 6 weeks to fix anything. [Say no to coverplan])


TY!

[kee-lo_]

Mastercare are worse...

[Nifty]

Mastercare is Coverplan. Dixons, PC World, Currys, and The Link are all part of the one evil company that is DSG Retail Limited, who will try and make you buy Mastercare / Coverplan.

Word of advice just dont buy from any of them for anything, buy it fom saaay John Lewis who usually give a free years extended warranty anyway and it costs a mere fraction to add extra years.

Kicks self for not buying from them in the first place! [ I would go into all the trauma Dixons + Mastercare gave me but thats a whole other subject!]

[kee-lo_]

Yeah I like John Lewis for that

[K-tch]

Okay, so installing the regular radeon or catalyst drovers from ATI is a bad idea, so I won't try that.

My graphics card sometimes when I try to play a game turns my system unstable.
Radeon 345m chip (max 128megs shared memory.

My question: is it worth is to sell my 415m and buy a vaio with a radeon 9200 ? The site sais they have 64megs VRAM. What is that? Is that dedicated memory, or does this card just use 64 megs of your regular ram?

Playing games is only needed when I'm bored, so it's not a major issue.

[nick_pan]

ive got the radeon 9200..

not that much better. It does have 64mb of dedicated video memory which makes a difference but its still a slightly weak card for todays games..

depends what you play really..

I wouldnt sell your current laptop for a laptop with the 9200, espeically if games aren't your priority..

If u do plan on selling it, then try look out for an a series with a 9700 with 64mb of mem, thats a better card.

[kee-lo_]

If you can get a good price and have some spare cash then do so.
Myself I'd get an RA104 desktop if you don't need something portable

&#@k I said I'd stop PLUGGING the RA!

[CrunchyArmadillo]

I have tjis exact same problem on my VGN-A197VP. I found an intermediate solution that should do the job. Use the omega driver set and declock the core speed.

I decreased the core from 391 to 324 to begin with, and i achieved stability without much noticable effect on performance. I've been gradually increasing it to find the turning point and Im currently at 364.

I guess that this would invalidate any warrenty but since the product wasnt working in the first place and that Sony/ATI dont seem to be adressing the issue I dont think they have much to complain about. After all it is a design fault.