Tip #3989 - Graphics Card Blues
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Graphics
Card Blues
Have you ever tried
to play a game or use software that involves a lot of graphics or anything
of the sort, only to get a pop up message telling you that you need to
lower your screen resolution? Or, maybe even lower your color quality.
Either way, if you have, you probably find this extremely annoying, am
I right? Well, this pop up can happen for a number of reasons. Today,
I will talk about the top three reasons and I'll also give you some hints
on how you can fix the problem yourself.
The first cause of
this could be that your graphics card cannot handle such a high screen
resolution, color quality or both. Most users who use Windows have their
screen resolution set to 800x600, 1024x768 or something relatively close.
If you have accidentally set it to something higher, your graphics card
may not be able to handle all of that very well. The same goes for the
color quality. Most people have it set to a good quality, but some just
have it too high. This is one reason why you keep getting that darned
old pop up! The way to fix this is very simple though. Here's how:
Simply right click
on your desktop and select Properties.
Once you have the
Properties window open, select Settings. You will see
a screen that looks similar to this screenshot:
That is how I have
my computer set up. This is where you can change the screen resolution
and color quality if you need to. I would try this method out by setting
the resolution and quality to the lowest possible settings. Once you do,
make sure you click Apply and then see if your program
works. If it does, great! If not, stay calm. There are a couple other
things you can try.
The second thing
that could stop your program from running correctly is that you don't
meet the system requirements needed. I know many programs require you
to have a certain amount of RAM memory and whatnot, but some programs
need you to have a certain amount of video memory as well. Check the program
and see if it lists the system requirements for graphics. If so, the way
to check and see if you meet those requirements is rather simple:
Go to Start,
Run and type "dxdiag" (without the
quotes) into the box.
Once you have made it this far, hit OK. Another window
will pop up and look very similar to this:
Click Display
at the top and it will turn to a page that will look somewhat like this:
If your page doesn't
include too much information inside the Device area,
skip to possible solution number 3. If your page does show plenty of information,
look to where it says Approx. Total Memory. If this is
lower than what your program requires, you are going to have to take some
extra steps. You will need to go to a computer store and ask if they have
video cards that meet your requirements. Usually, a good computer store
will even install them for you. After this is done, you should be able
to run the program. If not, please proceed to the next solution.
The third solution
is one that many people will have to use if you just upgraded to a different
operating systems, rebooted your computer completely or just fired up
a brand new computer that hasn't been updated with drivers.
The easiest way to
update your drivers it to follow part of the process in the second solution
above. Go to Start, Run and type "dxdiag"
into the box. Then click Display. You will once again
see the screen that should have all your information on it. If it doesn't,
you will probably need a driver update. This is a very simple procedure
though, so don't panic!
Look in the box that
says Drivers. This is the place that should have your
information. It might not have a lot, but it should have some. The main
place to look for your information is in these highlighted areas:
If there is any information
under the Main Driver option, put that and the words
"driver download" into the Google search engine
(or whatever search engine you like to use).
Click on a result
that looks promising. Follow the steps provided and eventually, you should
be able to download a driver for your graphics card. Drivers vary from
manufacturer to manufacturer and they download differently from different
Web sites, so just keep trying to find one. Once downloaded, you will
need to let the Install Wizard run. Once the wizard has run, if you do
the whole "dxdiag" part one more time, you should see a whole
lot of information that wasn't there before. If not, contact your computer
manufacturer or if possible, the company that manufactured your graphics
card. They will be able to give you the drivers that are most up to date.
I hope this tip helps all of you who are in need of getting that one special
program to run. Good luck!
~ Dylan Essing
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