Curse

kalirae · Aug 10, 2010, 11:53 PM // 23:53

So I have a Dell Inspiron 1764 which I bought a little over a month ago. I was delighted when I purchased it and chose to fill it's precious insides with only one game: Guild Wars. I'm new to the game, but I missed MMO's since I quit World of Warcrack so many years ago, and thought the game would be easy for my new baby to handle.
After playing for an hour or so (sometimes I get two out of it, sometimes only 30 minutes), my computer screen turns a freakish color (I've seen green, blue, purple, and yellow so far) and a loud screech emits from it's bowels.
There's no minimizing this... I have to reboot to escape it.
I don't get any error codes when I log back on. It's as if nothing ever happened to my lappy. Well, except the abrupt restart, of course.
I contacted Dell, thinking that it was an overheating issue, and they turned me away with "it's a software issue, since windows 7 isn't supported by this game" and so forth. A few people have told me that 'it's overheating, sounds like it...' but Dell disagrees.
So I contacted the Guild Wars Gods (and Goddesses) and they told me that my puny little video card, which is an Intel HD Graphics (Core i3), is the cause of all the madness.

I don't know who to believe or what to think. I'm no techy. I don't even know how to post my comp stats on here for ya'll that know what you're doing.
Either way, I'm saving up for a new video card and a nice cooling system... the cooling system I have picked out but... I fear getting a video card as I have NO IDEA what I'm doing.

So... I guess I'm posting here to see what ya'll think. It's infuriating that this machine that I baby like no other is refusing to play the one game that I took the time to convince my friends to play with me.

tijo · Aug 11, 2010, 12:25 AM // 00:25

First things first, there's no way that you'll be able to upgrade the components of a laptop so you might as well forget that. Unless you were planing to upgrade a desktop in which case by all means go ahead

.

Anyways to check you temperatures you could download a monitoring program like Everest or HWiNFO32: http://www.hwinfo.com/download32.html. I'm not sure you will get readings for your IGP but you will get temps for your hard drive and processor. Once you have those readings, you can post your temperatures here.

From looking on dell's site you might have a radeon HD4330. Since like you said you're no techy, press the windows key + R. In the run window that will open type dxdiag and hit enter. Click on save all information, save it somewhere and copy the text in the file here. This will tell us everything we need to know about your computer.

EDIT: As far as cooling goes you can always get a notebook cooler to help reduce heat.

EDIT2: Before some says it, it's possible to upgrade certain laptops to a certain extent but it's usually a very delicate and complicated process, lots of disassembly involved in most cases.

Elder III · Aug 11, 2010, 01:30 AM // 01:30

Well if you have the INtel 4500 then you are probably ok, you won't get very good FPS or even be able to turn all the settings ingame up to the max, but you should be able to play it at least. Like Tijo says though, we need more info to really help you out.

*note - Dell support knows about as much about their product as the average grandmother does.... ignore what they tell you 9x out of 10x.

preimmortal · Aug 11, 2010, 07:42 AM // 07:42

Well, I think I had a similar problem on my old laptop. It was a really weak laptop (integrated graphics with a 1.8 ghz dual core). Sometimes, when my processor would get too hot (70C or above) it would screech and make a really loud noise even though there was nothing wrong with the screen. I would have to let it cool down for 3-4 hours 'till I could use it again.

I think you should test to see if your laptop makes the screeching noise when it is under a heavy CPU load. Like scanning your computer for viruses or defragmenting your hard drive. If my theory is right, your laptop will make the noise again and you almost be certain that it is an overheating problem.

Dell is obviously wrong about it being a software problem unless the screeching is coming from the speakers. I am 90% sure it's either the processor or the heatsink if the noise is coming out from the air ducts in the back of the laptop. As for the screen becoming discolored, my guess is that the video card is either defective or just not powerful enough. Seeing as how it's an integrated card, I would not be surprised if it's both.

Unfortunately, the only way I fixed this situation was to buy a new laptop. tijo is right about the graphics card not being upgradeable to the general consumer. Most graphics cards you find on the net are made for desktops which have much more customization options. I think since you just recently got this laptop, maybe you can either RMA it (if you are still allowed to) or send it to dell and have them fix it for you.

Quaker · Aug 11, 2010, 03:55 PM // 15:55

Sounds like overheating. First thing to do is to go into Guild Wars and turn down the graphics settings.
One simple thing to try is to get into Guild Wars, go to Options, and under the Graphics tab try "Auto Detect" and see if it changes anything. Another thing to do would be to turn down AA.

Madeentje · Aug 12, 2010, 11:28 AM // 11:28

Go check with a monitoring program such as GPU-Z if it really is overheating. It most likely will, but you never know. If you weren't running it on rather low setttings, you better do, or use the "auto detect graphics".
If it is overheating there's not that much you can do about it. Although these laptop coolers work pretty well, I recently bought this one: http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPa...duct_Id=472610.
You could also just put something under the end of your laptop, so there's more space between your desk (or wherever you put it) and the laptop itself. Then the fan has a better airflow. But the laptop cooler does that as well ^^.