I recently bought a new fujitsu siemens laptop with windows vista installed. It has the graphics card "VIA Chrome9 HC IGP WDDM". (which I was told was good) I installed the Sims 2 onto it and began playing but the graphics are terrible! (walls and floors completely blurred). Can anyone help me?

Maca136 skrev:

Have you updated the drivers?
Via is NOT for gaming.
3dnews.ru/motherboard/via_vs_ati/index3.htm
Even a lowly ATI Xpress 200 beats it. You should consider returning the computer if the shop sold you a product that can't meet the demands you stated to them. Have your sights set for Geforce 7600 or ATI x1600 for gaming. At minimum ATI x1400 or Geforc 7300 which have it's own graphic memory and doesn't steal from the main memory.

I would suggest a driver update but to be honest, that is not what I would consider to be a gaming graphic chipset. I am sure that is a good chipset for office work and such, but if gaming was a priority then you would have wanted a laptop with an nVidia or ATI chipset. Otherwise you are just taking a gamble.
As you know, the major downside to most laptops is that they are not very upgradable beyond memory and hard drives. This is especially true of laptop graphics so you really have to buy it for not only what you need it to do now but also what you might want it to do in the future, like gaming.
________________________________________ Brent Harrelson IT Director Alpha & Omega Communications, Inc (843) 249-7372 ext. 303 "Maca136"

Supported video cards:
* ATI Radeon(TM) series 8500 or better (9600 or greater required for Vista) * 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500 * 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800 * X300, X600, x700, X800, x850 * X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
NVIDIA(R) Quadro(TM) series Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4
NVIDIA GeForce series GeForce2 GTS and better (GeForce 6600 or greater required for Vista) # GeForce 2, 2 GTS # GeForce 3, 3 Ti # GeForce 4, 4 Ti, 4200, 4600, 4800, MX 420, 440, 460 # GeForce FX 5200, 5500, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950 # GeForce PCX 5300, 5900 # GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800 # GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950 (Or better) # GeForce 8300, 8500, 8600, 8700, 8800 # GeForce 8400M GS, 8600M GS/GT, 8700M GT (Or higher) # S3 GammaChrome # S18 Pro # S18 Ultra Intel(R) Extreme Graphics (see note below) 82865, 82915 and above
NOTE: If you have a non-T&L capable video card, such as Intel Extreme Graphics, then you need at least a 2.4 GHz processor.
"Maca136" wrote:

"Nick"

Just because EA's README file doesn't list the video card as "Supported" does not mean it won't work with the game. If you have problems with an unsupported card you're on your own to get it running.
In your case the VIA Chrome9 is fairly weak, but the problem you describe is the video card drivers not correctly interupting instructions from the game and DirectX. Updating the driver for the card could help.
viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=36&CatID=2900&SubCatID=185
The driver here was released 7/12/2007, download the file (where it says "Click here to begin free download"), run the file that gets downloaded and follow the prompts. Reboot if it tells you too and try Sims 2 again.
If it STILL gives you the same problem then the game may not like the card. Check support.ea.com for game updates for your version of Sims 2. Occasionally a game update will also address graphic issues.
Don't listen to all these guys that say your computer sucks, most computers today will run most games, espically a game thats 2-3 years old like Sims 2, Unfortunatly some require a little updating before they'll work correctly.
Can't stand people that say, "You're computer isn't good enough" when it is good enough, but just may have hardware that the game wasn't originally intended for. Doesn't mean the game won't work, just gotta work it a bit.
-A.