Dell Inspiron XPS

I just installed Second Life on my Dell Inspiron XPS...with a 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. On first run, I got an error that I had an out-of-date driver for my chipset...I tried to follow the instructions posted on Intel's website for updating the files, but I couldn't get that to work, so I visited Dell's support website and installed the chipset driver that was posted (ironically) today. I'm still getting the same message though...the game seems to work fine except for occasionally slow redraws, which could be the fault of my internet connection. Anyone know if this error is a problem or if I should just continue ignoring it?

Thanks!

I had the same problem when I got my Insipron 9100, the problem is with the drivers and that dell sucks when it comes to updating them personaly I use an unofficaly(but better in most cases) suppported driver set http://www.omegadrivers.net/ these work perfectly on all ATI Radeon mobile chipsets hope this helps a bit I should have splurged the extra bit for the XPS, now I have to void my warrenty to install the 9800 mobile eheh

From what I'm told, (I haven't owned an ATI video card in years.) the Omega drivers tend to be the best. (I guess it makes sense that I'd like them...) Though, if you find stability to be an issue, there are a few other 3rd-party drivers that you might try -- see my Troubleshooting page, section A, 2d.

Thanks guys, I'll give it another shot tonight.

I booted up last night with no problem (even before trying to update drivers again), but I got the Omega drivers anyway. Everything seems to be working A-OK.

Thanks!

Reviving this old thread on the offhand chance anyone else is in the same boat:

I've had the original Inspiron XPS (3.4 Ghz P4, 2GB RAM, 256 MB Mobility Radeon 9800) for almost two years now, and was almost at the end of my rope as I saw system performance drop off drastically, with heat and noise increasing just as much, to the point where my colleagues thought I was plugging in a hair dryer

I tried all the usual suggested steps to update performance, and was still only getting around 2 FPS in SL. I eventually had to uninstall the client as it was completely unusable.

Then the latest release of the client comes out, claiming AGP support for additional ATI cards. Now while I don't exactly know what that entails, I thought I would install again to see if the little checkbox for AGP was still ghosted out. It wasn't. Woo hoo, I thought, but to no avail.

So that took me down the road of updating my drivers. After some research I read that ATI's Catalyst drivers for desktop machines can be installed with a 'Mobility Mod' (http://www.driverheaven.net/patje), and that the end result was supposedly more stable for this system than using Omega drivers (if you're planning to go down this road, you might also want to read up on using 'Driver Cleaner' - its been mentioned in other technical threads here on the SL forums).

However, while the driver seemed stable in the short time since installation, still no joy with the SL framerate.

After reading some threads on other boards from people equally upset with their expensive paperweights there were several suggestions that the hot-running XPS is set up to throttle its CPU speed back when the fans cannot cool it down properly, and to ensure that the fans and more importantly, exhaust grilles at the back of the unit are free of dust. Dell has service manuals online with instructions on how to remove the fans but its pretty easy to figure out nonetheless.

I'm embarrassed to say how much crud was back there. But the difference is UNBELIEVABLE! After restarting the first thing I noticed was how quiet it was now. The second thing I noticed was that I was now getting 35-40 fps! Between this and the new drivers (and perhaps the AGP support enabled in the client) it is like I have a new machine

oh, good idea. I'm getting out the duster.