Graphics Card Issue - Common Faults and Fixes

Is your graphics card issue down to incompatibility, or is it just your card is not powerful enough?

Being Realistic With Your Graphics Cards Performance
Of course upgrade your graphics cards video drivers to try an eek every little bit of performance from it, but you must be realistic, an older video card is not going to run most of the latest games properly, or even high resolution videos may be too much for it.

This is the time to think about upgrading your graphics card as this may be the only way to resolve your graphics card issue , if you have a desktop computer which is several years old then options are limited as graphics technology has moved along a long way in a short space of time and many older computer will have a AGP graphics slow, where as newer computers have PCI Express graphics slots, this means that just about all manufacturers have stopped making older AGP cards, which means there are literally no really powerful AGP cards.

In this instance the only option is the replace your whole computer or motherboard.

If you have a laptop with a graphics card issue the problem gets even worse, just about all laptops have graphics cards which cannot be upgraded, and the only realistic way to get better graphic performance is to replace the laptop for one with a better graphics card, checkout our page on laptop graphic cards

Has your video card ever been able to run this video or game?
If your graphics card issue is related to problems running a game or a video, has it always been like this? If you were able to run an application, video or game but now it will not run then it’s a problem, but if you have never been able to run it, the chances are it’s either a limitation or compatibility problem.

Limitation Problems
If your graphics card issue turns out to be a limitation of the card or other dependent hardware then upgrading is the only way to go, this is actually pretty straight forward as Windows has a built in monitor that can actually tell us where the bottleneck of the system is, for example when running the video or game look at the processor and memory utilization when its running, if either is very high this is the bottleneck, but if neither is running very high then it will probably be the graphics card.

Compatibility Problems
A compatibility problem may be able to be resolved in two ways, the first is a graphics driver update, which can be found on the card manufacturers website.

If there is no update available check for an update for the application you are trying to run, as many have updates to correct such problems as incompatibility.

If you have been able to run the game or video and then for some unknown reason it won’t run or is very slow?

If this is the case something must have changed, please see below for a quick resolution list.

(1)   System restore back to the last time it worked ok

(2)   Check windows processes to make sure nothing else is tying up the processor, ram or hard drive

(3)   Clean up the computer, defragment the hard drive and run chkdsk /f to check for any Window/hard drive problems.

(4)   Reinstall the game or try running the video from another player.

(5)   Reinstall the video driver, this can be achieved by right clicking on Computer or My Computer and Selecting Manage – Device Manager – Find the Graphics card – Right Click Uninstall and then it will reinstall the driver.

If you need a new graphics card read our computer video cards page, find out more about what makes a good and a very good graphics card, find out how much you need to spend to get the right one for your needs

Have a new video card you would like to install? Not sure how? Usually it’s very easy to install a new graphics or video card just make sure you follow a few safety tips such as earthing yourself and you’ll be up and running before you know it

Laptop video card cards – Laptop video card upgrades may be limited but there are some possibilities, find out what upgrade options are there available, and what is the easiest way to improve the graphics performance of your laptop, read the good and not so good things about laptop graphics.

Do videos lag or stutter on your computer? Software or graphics card issue ? Find out what causes these problems and more importantly how to fix the most common.

Would you like to use two monitors on your computer? Regardless of whether you have a laptop or desktop computer did you know there are ways to setup two monitors giving you twice the display space for very little money as the cost of monitors is pretty low

Checkout our first video card issue article where we look at common issues caused by hardware problems with many simple fixes for them

How to find out what video card you have – If you want a hand finding out which video card you have in your computer read more here to find out many ways to find what graphics card your computer has.

Find out how to get the most from your laptop video card in terms of performance and stability by upgrading drivers, making sure hardware acceleration is set to maximum, more here..

Looking for a notebook computer? Make sure your get one with the right video card for your requirements or you could end up having to replace it sooner than you think, find out about graphics cards with shared and onboard memory advantages and disadvantages.

Headaches and computer monitors – If you have to use a computer for long periods of time make sure its setup correctly it’s totally free and only takes a few minutes, did you know poorly setup computer screens are a big cause of headaches and eye strain.

Your graphics card issue issue find out more about miscellaneous problems graphics card limitations and incompatibility including a break down of how to pinpoint and resolve issues

Connecting your computer to your TV – Connecting your pc to your TV means you can give your videos or games a whole new lease of life, once you watch videos or play games on a large LCD or Plasma TV a laptop or desktop computer screen just does not compare, find out how to do this and how easy it can be.

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