At least bring common sense to the table
Used to be a Video Problem (skip to reply #8)
Published on February 27, 2012 By BoobzTwo In Personal Computing

Older Sony VAIO laptop @ $1,500.00 on sale   Model VGN-AR750E
Intel Core 2 CPU model T8100 @ 2.10, 2.10 GHz
4 GB installed 3GB usable (32 bit windows 7 ultimate)
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card

When I power up now, more times than not, I end up with a split screen. The right 1/3rd of my display appears on the left side of the screen followed by the left 2/3rd of the display and that is annoying to say the least. Some times this will persist for longer than a day no matter how many times I restart (can only use forced hard S/D) because of my second problem. The display expands such that the bottom part of the screen is out of sight (low) and because of that, I am prevented from using the start menu.  And I have no access to the task bar at the bottom. If I minimize anything … I don’t know how to fetch it back easily. This problem started cropping up a couple of months ago but has gotten progressively worse (more often and longer lasting). It is fast enough to play say Bioshock (reasonably well) but not Bioshock2. Any bottom line suggestions … besides the obvious???


Comments (Page 2)
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on Feb 28, 2012

When Bethesda announced the hardware requirements for Skyrim, I realized that my 2 year old laptop wouldn't cut it. After considerable research, I purchased an MSi GT780DXR for US$1900. This laptop has no problem running Skyrim with all graphics settings at maximum at 40-60 frames per second. This laptop has CPU and GPU turbo capabilities and an additional cooling fan.

Intel Core i7-2630QM

NVIDIA GTX 570M, 1.5GB GDDR5

17 inch display, 1920x1080

HDD: 1.5TB, RAID-0

RAM: 16GB DDR3

DVD/BD R/W

THX Sound

USB3 and HDMI

802.11 b/g/n

Windows 7 Home Premium

on Feb 28, 2012

Do you really need your gaming setup to be mobile?
No, not really ... and I have been rethinking this a bit more thanks to the above suggestions. Considering that my relic has been used for much more mundane things than kicking some alien asses, I could be more reasonable with my portable platform and still upgrade my desktop where I do like to trash the competition. I am such a child (as in a candy store) when I get into this 'got to have it all' mentality. Geeze ... does that mean I need to rename this post again ... oh woe is me, hahaha. I do need a portable platform but it doesn't really have to be able to duplicate my desktop performance, where all serious games are enacted. Guess I need to turn the desktop on and see what I can do there for an improved gaming experience, and then compare my notes.

After considerable research, I purchased an MSi GT780DXR for US$1900.
Nice machine and if I act now I can get it on sale (List $1,899.99, sale price $1,898.98) hahaha. But I am going to hold this back for now and see what expense would be involved in upgrading my desktop to the 21st century and then go from there.

 

on Feb 28, 2012

Well my windows experience index on the 'big boy' is 5.9 based on the HDD data transfer rate ... everything else if 7.2 or higher (is that good today?) ... and 4.5 due to the video card on my soon to be target. I am guessing this may necessitate solid state drives for a starter. Any idea what index number I should shoot for ... or is it all benchmarks today? I have the 3DMark something or another around here ... that would probably be more specific.

on Feb 28, 2012

Just on the desktop/laptop debate, i got 7.9 WEI across the board on my new PC for under $1300. Not that i put a great deal of stock in WEI since it can be hacked to show 9.0 if you like....

on Feb 28, 2012

Oops ... wrong post, sorry.

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