New Dell laptop

[tonyvdb]

Hi everyone, my current laptop is now dead and have bought a new Dell. Below are the specifications and was wondering if it would run Trainz '06? Its not nessisary but would be nice if it did.

Studio 17 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz/1066Mhz FSB/3MB cache)

System Color Option Jet Black

Memory 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz

Built-in Keyboard Options Standard Keyboard (included in the price)

LCD Panel Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)

Video Card 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650

Labels Windows Vista™ Premium

Hard Drive Size: 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64 Bit

Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0

Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

Sound Card Soundblaster X-Fi Hi Def Audio - Software Enabled

Wireless Networking Cards Intel®WiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Card

Camera Module Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam







Battery Options 56 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)

Hardware Support Services 1 Year Limited Warranty w/1 Year Return To Depot Service

Direct Line Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year

Processor Branding Intel® Centrino® Processor

 

[Kennilworth]

Hi

All your specs are much higher than my 4 year old laptop and that runs both 06 and TC3 fine. It doesn't like 09 though. Just load it up and try it.

Regards

Brian

 

[saintjimmy]

My laptop runs Trainz 2006 nicely, but it has slightly different specs than yours. Mine has a slower processor but a faster graphics card.

Copied from here:

• AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra ZM-85 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Mobile Processor​

• Genuine Windows Vista

® Home Premium 64-bit with Service​

Pack 1​

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• 15.6" Diagonal High Definition​

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HP LED BrightView Infinity Display (1366x768)​

• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4650 (M96) with up to 2815MB total available
graphics memory with 1024MB dedicated
• 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)​

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• LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer
Support
• HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone
• Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
• 12-Cell Lithium-Ion battery​

• 1-Year Free Hardware Technical Support

It runs Trainz with anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering on max, and still gets good framerates, so I would thing your 3650 could probably run Trainz without them, but it would definitely run Trainz 2006 just fine.

Good luck

Kyle
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[Vern]

See my post here...

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=44363

for problems using all versions of Trainz on a Dell laptop. Mine is a 1520 Inspiron but it's possible the issue could affect other models. From what I can gather from the error messages, smething TRS is doing is causing the video driver to stop working.

My suspicions are pointing at TS2009 having corrupted something as I recollect TRS2006 worked okay prior to installing the latest version.

One other thing to note about Dell's. They provide machine specific drivers which are not necessarily as up to date as the Nvidia reference drivers, as I found out when I tried to update i/c/w the above problem. As Dell (and Nvidia) don't recommend using the standard Nvidia drivers you are inherently stuck with an out of date machine.

If/when I can afford to replace this laptop, it won't be with another Dell. Superficially attractive with the lower price but overall probably better with a different brand.

 

[saintjimmy]

One other thing to note about Dell's. They provide machine specific drivers which are not necessarily as up to date as the Nvidia reference drivers, as I found out when I tried to update i/c/w the above problem. As Dell (and Nvidia) don't recommend using the standard Nvidia drivers you are inherently stuck with an out of date machine.

I know when I downloaded the ATI driver for my laptop, I had to select the driver for Windows 7 64 bit since ATI's 64 bit Vista driver only has the Mobility X1000 series and earlier. I don't notice any difference in performance, and there doesn't seem to be any problem in Vista either. On my older laptop with nVidia (from HP too), I had no problems upgrading drivers for it, but then again, it had a very basic GeForce Go 6150 LE that couln't play Trainz that well, so I never bothered with it for games besides the standard Windows games.

I don't have 2009, but if there is a TrainzDiag, then try running that whenever you upgrade the drivers (although you probably already tried that).

I just checked nVidia's website, and it says to update the BIOS via Dell's website then download and install the drivers. That is the page for the GeForce 186 32 bit drivers for 8000M series and up, so try that.

Just my observations

Kyle

 

[guthrieb]

Video Drivers for Dell (and other) laptops

Hi guys,

Can I suggest LaptopVideo2go? http://www.laptopvideo2go.com

They have the lastest drivers modified to support a wide(r) range of mobile graphics chipsets. I've been using them for years on my Dell XPS M1730 without a hitch.

Thanks

Bruce

 

[Vern]

Digging a bit further, it appears Dell laptops fitted with the 8600 Gfx chip and the 1520 in particular have a nasty reputation for overheating - looking around some of the tech forums have revealed numerous problems on these machines when used for "gaming". While it's strange the problem is not consistent when running other applications, I'm resigned to opening the thing up and seeing if the heatsink(s) on the CPU and GPU need reseating with thermal paste (preferably Arctic Silver). I've also read prolonged use running hot can dry out the solder on the GPU and this may need to be "reflowed", think that is a last desparate measure as wielding a soldering iron around the innards of a laptop is a recipe for disaster if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[tonyvdb]

Well, It took the plunge and bought the Dell. It arrived today however I am at work so I have not tested it yet. I will be upgrading ASAP to windows7 as well so hopefully TRS will run.

 

[Captain_Collins]

You should have no problems at all. Enjoy your Dell, you will be able to see the quality immediately.

Cool points to anyone who can work out if I am being sarcastic or not.

 

[tonyvdb]

It runs TRS really well, I am very happy with it:Y:
Its quite a bit better than my desktop PC. even at 1440x900 the frame rates are nice and smooth running my route.

 

[Wessex_Electric_Nutter]

I've also read prolonged use running hot can dry out the solder on the GPU and this may need to be "reflowed", think that is a last desparate measure as wielding a soldering iron around the innards of a laptop is a recipe for disaster if you don't know what you're doing.

Thart issue affects all nVidia GPUs from the 7 to the 9 series and you actually don't need a soldering iron! The chips use something called a "Ball Grid Array", basically balls of solder that when heated, stick to a pad on the motherboard.

If you end up with no screen, or a GPU failure (like I have, on the same computer 3 times), get a hot air gun, hold it about 15-20cm away from the motherboard at around 500-600C with slow air, for 2 minutes. Do all sides of the chip and keep the gun moving, then reassemble. It should now be fixed. It will last a little while, until it cracks again (the stresses with the GPU, causes it, same with the materials.), so you need to do the process again. I've had mine fixed by Cambridge Laptop Repair (Cost £145!) and then by my dad (nothing) and I wish I saved it. It wasn't until I did some research, that I found out how to fix it.
There are various tutorials on youtube on how to do it and if worst comes to the worst and you need a GPU replacement (but can't replace the card), you can go on ebay and ebay your chip number, I've got 2 spare nVidia GFG 7600s, incase I need them. Again, the process is very straight forward, no soldering required, just blast hot air and get one side of the chip to remove it, use a lot of flux and remove the excess on the board with a desoldering wick, place the new chip within the lines (which should be acurate enough for you to position the chip, if not, don't do it!), heat and it should be soldered on.

This method needs a few pointers beford hand. Firstly, make sure you are in a "nothing-to-loose" scenario, incase your chip burns up, because of a short (you can't tell this either), make sure you have balls of solder on the bottom of the chip, make sure you know the almost exact alignment of the chip and that you have some equipment to do it with. (I'm not responsible for any damage, I'm just only advising what you can do.).
Hope this is inspiring.

 

[Vern]

Well the good news is, a couple of software changes seem to have entirely cured the crashing problem.

1. Switch off autosave and...
2. Ensured in Vista the Auran folder Properties have all the admin rights ticked under "User" which they are not by default.

At least for TRS2006 that has removed the grey screen crashes and stalling of the video driver. Can now use Surveyor for an extended period with solid stability. Haven't tried 009 yet but I would imagine the result will be the same.