Graphics Card for Acer Aspire X3812

Hi Everyone
First post, be gentle.

I recently bought a new computer. My old computer was 8 years old and had onboard graphics. I do not play a lot of games but could play Championship Manager2008, NWN and Oblivion fine.

My new PC is an Aspire X3812, 3GB Ram, Windows 7 64 bit. My systems info tells me that the onboard graphics is the Intel G45/G43 Express chip.

I can play NWN and Oblivion fine on this but not CM 2008. It starts ok, I have the initial screen and the football that breaks the glass then I am left with a black screen. I cannot regain control at this point and have to turn off the pc.

I have used the windows troubleshooting and tried running under XP SP2 and SP3 but to no avail as I still get the same problem.

I started windows in debug mode and got the same but with this error message "Direct 3D failed to initialise" I then updated the drivers but still the same. I am confused that an 8 year old business PC with onboard graphics could cope but not this new PC?

I realise that the onboard graphics card isn't too good but its only CM 2008?

I have looked at upgrading the card but the problem is that the pc is low power (220W) and low profile. The only card that I can find that seems remotely usable is the Galaxy GeForce 9600GT product.

This is meant to be low profile but would it fit in my pc? It states that the min psu required is also 300W. So that looks like a NO then?

If it would fit would I be able to get a 300w psu that would also fit into my low profile machine?

Hind sight is a great thing and maybe I should have bought a better pc but money is tight and I can't afford to replace it.

Do I need to upgrade the card and the psu? Is there some other way round this? Any help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards
B.

Disable Aero, boot and test.

Yes, you can get a low profile PSU for your machine. I will help you ID one if needed, but this is a driver/DirectX problem.

Casca said:

Disable Aero, boot and test.

Thanks for the reply Casca. I disabled Aero and choose the windows basic, rebooted but the problem is still there?

From my dxdiag ------------------ System Information ------------------ Time of this report: 4/24/2010, 13:07:36 Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.100226-1909) Language: English (Regional Setting: English) System Manufacturer: Acer System Model: Aspire X3812 BIOS: Default System BIOS Processor: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz (2 CPUs), Memory: 3072MB RAM Available OS Memory: 3038MB RAM Page File: 1230MB used, 4841MB available Windows Dir: C:\Windows DirectX Version: DirectX 11 DX Setup Parameters: Not found User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent) System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent) DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode ------------ DxDiag Notes ------------ Display Tab 1: No problems found. Sound Tab 1: No problems found. Sound Tab 2: No problems found. Input Tab: No problems found. -------------------- DirectX Debug Levels -------------------- Direct3D: 0/4 (retail) DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail) DirectInput: 0/5 (retail) DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail) DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail) DirectSound: 0/5 (retail) DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

We may be looking at the wrong forest.

Right Click the offending program. You can choose to run the Program Compatibility wizard, or you can select Properties/Compatibility and set the app to run in one of various OS modes.

Casca said:

We may be looking at the wrong forest.

Right Click the offending program. You can choose to run the Program Compatibility wizard, or you can select Properties/Compatibility and set the app to run in one of various OS modes.

Hi Casca As I mentioned in my original post "I have used the windows troubleshooting and tried running under XP SP2 and SP3 but to no avail as I still get the same problem." What I meant by that was that I had used the troubleshooting to check compatibility running it both as XP SP2 & SP3. The problem still persists. My computer tells me that I have DirectX 11 but when I look at MS download site they only have DirectX 9 for download. Should I download and install this? Have you any other ideas what the problem might be. Any help would be appreciated. B.

Casca said:

We may be looking at the wrong forest.

Right Click the offending program. You can choose to run the Program Compatibility wizard, or you can select Properties/Compatibility and set the app to run in one of various OS modes.

Hi Casca

I have tried running the game under the Compatibility setting of : Window 7, XP SP2, XP SP3, Vista, Vista SP1 and Vista SP2. All as/not as administrator, All with Aero On/Off.

I still have the problem! Any ideas?

Regards
B.