Detecting laptop graphics card?

I have a laptop which I'm attempting to install some games on but am having problems.

I keep getting strange errors relating to the graphics card which seem to suggest some kind of problem - perhaps a missing driver ("Unable to initialise Direct X 8.1...Make sure you display drivers are up to date" - I'm running the latest version of DirectX so that's not the problem).

Whilst the laptop is inferior to a new P.C, it's other specs (memory - 512MB, cpu - AMD Sempron) seem resonable enough to run older games so I'm not sure that it's just the graphics component is too weak.

I'm really looking for a way to work out exactly what graphics card the laptop has (I think it may be an integrated card if that makes sense) so I can work out what I need to update (or whether the card is too weak to manage games).

I assume you have win xp

What graphicscard does windows say you have?

goto device manager
Rightclick on ''my computer'' and select properties. goto hardware/device manager. Check Display adapters

What version do you have?
Doubleclick on the graphics which appears under display adpaters and check version tab

the latest directx is 9.0c as far as I know.So there is a higher version than you have but this is not important now. You need the latest graphic driver first

Yes I'm running XP.

Direct X 8.1 is what the game needs to run. I downloaded a version from MS a few days ago, and I get a message saying I have a newer version when trying to install V8.1 so that isn't the problem I think).

I'm not sure I have a display part in the device manager (as in the image). The Video Controller also shows an error (not sure whether that is relevant).

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i49/SeK612-3/LTGP.jpg

Wells that your problem.
if you post your laptop make and model it would be alot easier to help.
you could also try windowsupdate and choose custom, and see if it comes up with any drivers for it in the hardware tab.

I'm not 100% but I think it's a Acer Aspire 3004WLMi.

ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/note...driver/vga.zip

heres the graphics driver fromt he acer website.

That worked great, thanks :)