Speed ​​up graphics cards for old laptops

Graphics cards over 3 years old are often removed from the support list by the manufacturer and are not "enjoying" new driver (driver) utilities. The "players" of the IT community have come up with their own solutions.

When the desktop video card is outdated, you can easily remove and upgrade it by plugging in a newer one. The same problem with laptops is much more difficult and hardware upgrades are almost impossible. ATI products, one of the world's top two graphics card manufacturers, have become popular for years before Intel jumps into this market with integrated graphics chips.

After being bought by AMD, ATI's old products are not supported much. Most are not on the list of the latest Catalyst Driver drivers. Owners of laptops with discrete graphics that cost thousands of dollars must use outdated drivers, even if they are not compatible with new operating systems like Windows Vista.

These laptops are now quite cheap and favored by Vietnamese popular users. Of course they have to use the old driver that came with the default from the laptop manufacturer (OEM). In some cases, if you have lost the installation disc or upgraded the operating system, you must use the available Windows driver much more limited, without tweaking the performance of the graphics card.

Step by step editing the ATI graphics card driver

The IBM ThinkPad T40 and T41 laptops are still popular with consumers because of their durability.Photo: Sina.com

1. Download the necessary software:

First, download the latest Catalyst driver from ATI's website here. Note to select the correct operating system on your computer. If you still find your graphics card in the list, you are still supported. If not, you download the product of the same type.

Then, download Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 here. Perform installation after downloading MSXML 4.0.

Finally, download the DH Driver Modder driver editing software here. Extract ZIP file to a separate folder.

2. Steps to proceed:

With Windows Vista, you need to turn off user checking (User Account Control - UAC) and restart the computer. Although this is Vista's security feature, users complain and often turn it off. However, you can turn it back on after the driver editing process is complete.

You then run the Catalyst Driver file downloaded from the ATI site. Follow the process according to the instructions on the screen, when the software fills the file to the hard drive, ask if it is installed on the system again, then stop the installation (Cancel). At that time, the entire driver package is in the folder (folder) in the form: C: ATISUPPORT8-2_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_xxxxxDriver (where the number xxxxx is the driver version).

DH Driver Modder ( Screenshot ).

Run DH Driver Modder software. Click the Browse button to select the folder containing the new Catalyst Driver files to be extracted. Then click Modify button to proceed to edit the necessary files. When the editing process is finished, exit the DH Driver Modder software.

Switch to the folder containing the Catalyst Driver installer (C: ATISUPPORT8-2_vista32_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_xxxxxDriver), select the Setup.EXE file to run. When installed, Windows will warn this driver is not certified. You only need to accept the installation.

When the installation process finishes, restart your computer and enjoy the performance tweaking utility with your graphics card.