Ok guys I have a question, I jus got this new pc a compaq presario sr1520nx, and i got rid of my old pc cause the guy said this is a gaming pc it has a Mirage2 128mb vid card, 512mb of ram and as i listed a AMD3100Sempron processor. now my old pc had 512mb ram and Intel Extreme graphics controller, now I play World Of WarCraft if any of u know it, and this new pc doesn't even run as good as my old one does, its laggy, slow on load ups to maps etc .. when my old pc would load right up and run quite smoothe with an exception of lag in Ironforge(WoW city), but this pc is all around laggy and I don't see the possibility of why it would run like this, now i talked to a guy sayin i could add a certain amount of memory to my video card, does that sound right? im wondering how i can do this myself so i can save the trip to the pc store/maybe having to get a new pc. would that have an effect on my gameplay. please respond thanks guys!!

what is happening is you have a intergrated graphics card , this is using your ram as video memory so your 128mb vcard is taking from your 512mb of ram so you currently have about 384mb of ram , also shared graphics cards are much weaker because the memory transfer is much slower . i suggest buying a new graphics card compatable with your motherboard , graphics cards have their own memory so you will go back to 512mb ram and graphics cards work much better than intergrated graphics . your games should run much better.

Whoever told you this is a gaming computer is a lying sack of crap. SiS Mirage2 graphics suck for gaming. At least the motherboard has an AGP slot so you can install a decent video card. You should also add another 512MB RAM. You're looking at another $150 investment to turn it into a gaming machine. I'm guessing you're stuck with it, so here's the specs:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00387087

This space for rent

true never believe salesmen, they are out to mkae a slae learn about computers thats when you can buy a real good pc. or have a freiend help you.

Hp Pavillion a1010n
Celeron D 340 2.93Ghz
512Mb of Ram
64Mb onboard Video Memory
Asus P4GV-LA Motherboard
160Gb Seagate Hard Drive
DVD/Rw+CD/rw burner & Reader

I find it hard to belive that anything could be worse than Intel Extreme Graphics Controllers..lol

Jam is right, that is definetly not a gaming rig, but that doesn't mean that you can't play games on it.

The salesman told you that it had a 128MB graphics card, this is partially true... it doesn't actually have a graphics card, it has an intergrated graphics controller built onto the motherboard, which you can set to take a maximum of 128MB from your system memory, it is probably only set to 32MB right now(check your system control panel and see how much ram it says you have). You will need to go into the bios and raise the amount of allocated memory to the graphics controller, raise it to at least 64MB and see if it runs smoother.

Another reason your system runs slow is that Compaq "bundles" so much crap with the computer when it's new, it takes up memory to run all that nonsense. You should reformat the hardrive and just install the operating system and drivers, and don't reinstall any of the other crap that came with your computer, just install what you will actually use and you will be amazed at how fast your system will be compared to it's current state

Don't put a question here.

how do u get to the BIOS settings? so u can change the allocated memory???

Reboot the machine. When the company name, Compaq, displays in big red letters on the Presario's screen, a cursor should appear in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Press F10, and instead of booting normally, you should see the setup screen for the Compaq's BIOS.

on some presario models you may need to use F12 or ctrl+F10, so if F10 doesn't work, try the other 2

once you are in the bios setup screen, go thru the tabs and pages (there won't be many things that you can change in a compaq bios) until you see a setting for graphic apperture size, and increase it to whatever you feel you need (up to 128MB), just keep in mind that this will take away from your overall system memory, but it is easily changed back using the same procedure

remember to save settings before you exit the setup screen

Don't put a question here.

Get a load of this....$200.00 gaming rig !!!

Not bad though if you need a cheap backup system especially with the 939 Sempron64.

I agree; computing.net does need an edit button.

"Get a load of this....$200.00 gaming rig !!!
Not bad though if you need a cheap backup system especially with the 939 Sempron64."

...again, the system that Sabertooth is referring to is also not a gaming rig, Compaq Presarios are not bad computers, but they are a far cry from gaming rigs. It take an entire system to make a comouter a gaming rig, not just the CPU. The Sempron 3200+ (but it sufferes from a small L@ cache) is ok, but as far as the rest of that system is concerned, you can't do much of anything on it, everything else it comes with is crap

This system can be viewed at http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=333129&pfp=srch1&ref=cj&pfp=cj You must pay $409 up front, then wait for the mail-in rebates (if you even get them at all)

Don't put a question here.

lol.. i apologize for the mispellings in that last post, i typed it too fast.. :-)

Don't put a question here.

"go thru the tabs and pages (there won't be many things that you can change in a compaq bios) until you see a setting for graphic apperture size, and increase it to whatever you feel you need (up to 128MB)"

Aperture is not the onboard video setting. ALL boards have Aperture setting in the BIOS, whether it has onboard video or not. The general recommendation is 128MB. Scroll down for an explanation:

http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_02c.htm

The system recommended by Sabertooth is cheap, but that's about all it has going for it. As stated above, it uses a Sempron64 3200+ with only 128k L2 cache. The board is based on a crappy chipset & has PCI slots only, so it will NEVER be a gaming rig. At least the SR1520NX has an AGP slot.

brazy,

I don't know how much you're willing or able to invest in an upgrade to turn this thing into a reasonable gamer. You could hold off on the extra 512MB of RAM for the time being & get a video card for about $100.

This space for rent

According to one of the guys that has this system and the OEM motherboard layout, it comes with one PCI Express x16 graphics slot as well.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=enâO©=en&cc=us&product=1127350&dlc=en&docname=c00378480

I agree; computing.net does need an edit button.

it has a PCI-e slot? woop-tee-doo

even if you bought a nice PCI-e card for it, the rest of the system still couldn't handle it, there is a reason that computer is so cheap.

Don't put a question here.

My advice is to upgrade the video card to something better. I have a SiS 620 video card and it sucks when it comes to gaming(it also has 8 megs of video mem)because it is old. So what i'm saying is don't go with SiS when it comes to gaming.

I sugest you get an ATI video card. They are around $150-$200CDN for a good 128MB card or $200-$250CDN for a good 256MB video card.

Irfankd<i/>

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My Presario SR1475CL (Ahtlon64 3400+, 1 gb memory) does not show any settings in the bios for AGP aperture...I just put a GeForce 6600 GT AGP card in , and the 3dMark benchmarks state aperture to be 4 MB, and NO fast-write capability....bummer