I purchased Best Buys top of the line Toshiba laptop only because the "Geek Squadie" assured me that I "WILL" be able to play NWN2 on it, albeit perhaps, not at full graphics capability. So armed with more money the following week I purchase NWN2, strat guide, builder guide and go home ready to have a truly marvelous time. After installation, I start the game and receive a message that NWN2 cannot find a valid 3D device and will now close.
Needless to say, I was "disappointed".
My laptop meets all the specs for minimum and some recommended features, but it does not recognize my graphics chipset. I believe it really should be possible to play it.
I even tested my laptop on games I had but could not play at full capacity.
I could never even finish HOTU because my old pc couldn't handle it, and it was a complete breeze at full capability.
Freelancer was another that I could not play fully featured, but at least it offered me a choice, "Does not detect valid 3D device, do you wish to continue anyway"? I entered yes and once again, it's a breeze with full caps.
Then I tried "Halo", a game I could never play because it requires capabilities similar to NWN2 and is also very 3D intensive and again my laptop played it through at full caps like a charm.
And the same with Homeworld2, another game I could never play.
Now I realize these titles are a few years old now, but it does tell me my laptop has that kind of capability, and it handles texture and lighting just fine in my other games. I know it wont be optimum, but it should play. Is there a work around to at least get NWN2 to let me try and see if it will work?
I have the Mobile Intel 945GM family chipset.
dual 1.66
128 vid
2 gigs sdram.

Your feedback will be appreciated.

What type of video card is it? An ATI radeon mobile 9x00? A Nvidea chipset? Which number?

As far as I can tell, the Molbile Intel 945GM family chipset is it, built directly into the LT motherboard. Freelancer and Homeworld2 both listed it as my device.
I hope I'm not wasting your time and mine here, I just knew that with the diversity we have here someone might know if there was a way I can at least make the attempt.
It also shows me you can't necessarily trust Best Buys expert "Geek Squad" tech heads.

No you can't. As far as I know, that's an onboard graphics chip, way too bad to run anything like NWN2. The rest of the laptop is top notch, however.

Are you sure that's your vidcard and not your processor? It sounds like a CPU to me.

[ 12-16-2006, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: JrKASperov ]

Some others have had issues with the 945, but supposedly have a fix.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums...8353&forum=116

Yes JrKASperov, you are correct it's an onboard chipset which is why NWN2 has a problem with it.
I just checked out the thread Zebodog posted and the guy does in fact have the same Intel chipset and has found the way to get NWN2 to run with it and with higher caps than he initially believed.
I'm going to reinstall and see if it will work for me.
I want to thank both of you for your desire to take the time to help me with this, I truly appreciate it. I'll post later and let you know if it works for me as well.
Thanks again gents!
And Zebodog I posted in the NWN2 link you provided crediting you with directing me there.

[ 12-16-2006, 08:31 PM: Message edited by: The.Relics Avatar ]

It worked! I fully updated first then d/l the work-around and it runs beautifully. I'm going through the tutorial now and so far I have not experienced any difficulties at all.
Thanks again so much!

Must be a powerful onboard chip then [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Heh, I keep having visions of being in the middle of the game and hearing a nasty crackling sound, sparks and smoke streaming up through the keyboard from a massive overload [img]smile.gif[/img]

Better keep some Vodka handy then.
Not as much for the puter as for yourself though;)