New GMA 500 Driver

I have cross posted on the eeePC forum for the 1101 models as they have the same GMA500 driver issues: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php? ... 43#p677743

 

how do i get to this option?

 

Right-click somewhere on the desktop, choose Graphics Properties.
When the Intel window opens, choose Alternatives.
That should get you there.

 

thanks. this made hulu much more watchable.

 

I don't want to get into a "testing" program in order to improve my Acer's video performance by downloading beta software. Do you think Acer will eventually have these latest drivers for updating my computer? And if so, how long before they get around to it?

 

These aren't beta drivers. They are the latest drivers. Just go download them.

 

Acer isn't fast at updating their support page with the latest drivers. Not only the ones from Intel (the most crucial ones) but the audio and the touchpad drivers, among others. Try to find the latest drivers from all the 751h's components on the internet, so as to keep your machine updated and happy!

As James said, they aren't beta drivers. GMA500 is a hardware that Acer (and others like Asus) use unaltered in their machines, so they don't put any "modifications" in the drivers in order to make the hardware use correctly or better.

 

has anybody done any 3dmark benchmarks and comparisons with the Intel 5.2.1 driver?

also, what is the maximum resolution the 751h can output thru the VGA port? I've read that it's 1366 x768. is that true or can it output more, for example 1920 x 1200?

 

Max. resolution i tried by VGA in 751h was 1680x1050 and everything was ok didn't try higher res.

 

I occasionally output to my 23.6" LCD monitor (used for my desktop computer). It has a resolution of 2048 x 1152. That's HIGHER than "Full HD" resolution, which is 1920x1080.

HOWEVER, it only works if I'm outputting to the monitor by itself. If I try to run it as a second screen (extended desktop) it does not let me use the full resolution. So yeah, you can reach any resolution you want as long as you only output to a single screen. I will mention, however, that things slow down a bit when running programs at that high of a resolution.

 

Well, I decided to give the Intel GMA500 5.2.1 a shot. However, I'm not sure they're are NOT beta. It clearly says on the download page that they are intended for developers only (which I read to mean beta). Never the less, the driver does seem to give the Acer a little kick in the rear. I checked on youtube and also hula. The video seems to play fine in the window mode, but when I try to kick it up to full screen, the old bug-a-boo of dropped frames is back (although not nearly as bad as it was before installing the driver.

So, I give it a big THUMBS UP as window mode works for me. I'll never need to watch full screen video on my netbook. I reserve that for my other 2 Apple computers and mainly my new Samsung 46"er.

My main worry installing this driver was that it would screw up my Acer for surfing on the road which I'm about to do in "balmy" Florida for one week.

 

I personally think its better to refer to the driver version of the actual Graphics driver, not the release revision, ie my actual driver is Driver Version: 8.14.10.2020 - Ironically, intels Documentation contradicts itself - http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18527/e ... _7_gfx.htm - one time is says its driver 2019 and then later it says 2020. However it is 2020

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 500
This is the HF release version with 2020 driver build of the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver 500 for Ultra Mobile Platform. It provides support for H/W acceleration for Adobe Flash 10.1 in Win7 with Intel® System Controller Hub Chipset. Please see the below for changes from the previous versions

Some good fixes for us include
WMP/WMC][H264]Clips are not getting hardware acceleration - Fixed
System hangs on playing screen in full screen when play Transformers.mov (H.264) - Fixed
Black screen(0x116) occurs when playing a movie on WMP/WMC with full screen mode - Fixed

The release notes certainly show that they are far from making a perfect driver for us yet looking at the known issues list!

JK

 

I can assure I'm the person with the worst bad luck in the entire forum.

I'm not trying to get HD videos to work on my netbook, I just want to make something as simple as running old DOS games in fullscreen, properly. I tried all the GMA500 drivers from Intel and Acer, none worked. But I just found out the reason after a short Google search:

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18472/e ... xp_gfx.htm

The "Known Issues" list for the latest GMA500 driver is this (entire list contains 1 item) :

• Full Screen DOS will only function on the boot display.[/*:m:t7dj45ih]

So there's no possible way of running my old DOS games in fullscreen, under Windows XP. Amazingly, they do run perfectly in fullscreen when uninstalling the GMA driver and using the default/unknown adapter driver. But Windows Update is unable to automatically detect and install an own driver, and I can't set the 1366x768 resolution without a proper driver from Intel.

However, the release notes for the Windows 7 driver does not mention this Fullscreen lacking issue, I assume it was fixed. Quite absurd, considering that old DOS games barely work under Windows XP, surely they won't work under Windows Seven. The Known Issues list in this case is extremely long, it seems thay have just started working on this driver.

Anyway I'm about to migrate to Seven to try the driver, but I will appreciate if someone can confirm that whatever DOS game actually runs in fullscreen under Windows 7 with whatever driver. Thanks in advance.

 

My apologies, as I'm not well versed in running DOS games on current operating systems, but are you actually running games in DOS *directly*? Aren't there emulators that will work in Windows, like DOSbox, and hopefully solve the DOS full-screen issue for you?

Maybe try out a DOS emulator? That would hopefully let you play most of your games and save you the expense of upgrading to Windows 7 (which will probably be more problematic rather than less problematic with older software).

Check out:
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Basic_Setup_ ... _of_DosBox
http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Releases
http://sourceforge.net/blog/potm-200905/

 

Thanks, but the game I'm trying to is already well-patched (transport tycoon deluxe) and if Intel says that DOS full screen does not work, then I'm afraid this also applies to DOS box. I don't want to try it because it'll surely create more problems than solutions, my game runs perfectly in real full-screen because it's a DOS game adapted for Windows ages ago. The problem here is Intel and their lazy drivers developers that can't make a proper driver for something as simple as a full screen app. I guess this is another reason why the AO 751h is so cheap... you get what you paid for.

Amazingly the native and lame Windows driver CAN run it in fullscreen at 1024x768 or 800x600. Is there any way to get an XP driver via Windows Update? I couldn't do it with the New Hardware install wizard, which simply didn't find a proper driver at all, and I haven't tried with Windows Update website yet. Any info will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

I don't think a driver from Windows Update would help you. All of the driver versions for this chipset are available on Intel's website. Right now you are running the standard VGA driver. The reason this works is because all graphics cards must be able to run basic screen functions using this standard so that you will have an image even if no driver is yet installed or when running in safe mode.

What you really need is some way to force the generic display driver to run at 1366x768 resolution, since the real display driver does not work at full-screen with DOS applications. I was unable to find a way to do this with a brief search of the web, so I don't know that it's possible. You may just have to live with running at the standard resolutions and aspect ratios for you DOS based programs and swap drivers for when you want to run at normal resolution. Not very convenient, I know. The problem with this graphics card is that it's not one that Intel designed and it was made for mobile phone and PDA platforms (a version of it is in the iphone for instance). And they never did get around to writing good drivers for it. We are sadly all Beta testers here...

 

I have ALSO been experiencing major problems (hangs and blue screens) trying to run Older DOS games on my light weight MSI and Dell Based GMA-500 machines. I figured it was the smelly graphics drivers. We TRUELY need a decent driver for these GMA-500 based machines. They should NOT be sold to consumers with out WORKING drivers. Come on INTEL ??? Millions of these things are being sold and half of peoples programs don't work. These old DOS games run Fine on 5 year old Lenovo machines. Too BAD 5 year old LAPTOPS are so much BETTER than new laptops. I would recommend that everyone just BUY older business laptops and not the NEW lighter laptops because the new ones DO NOT have DRIVERS that support the programs and videos they wish to run. Lets speak with OUR DOLLARS. I truely believe Microsoft and Intel are frustrating millions with these cheeso new operating systems, new software versions and unsupported graphics adapters. YOU are REALLY much better off running XP HOME and Office 2003 on and OLD BUSINESS CLASS laptop or an older alienware for newer games. We desperately need a GOOD GMA 500 driver for XP. XP is STILL the best operating system out there ... even IF Microsoft isn't making trillions of NEW Dollars on it. XP Home is definately a better seller than Win Vista/7 on ebay. That should tell you something. Microsoft would have been MUCh better off fixing some of the minor Win XP inadequencies than producing Vista.

 

Why would they spend all the time and money developing good drivers for XP? It's an obsolete OS and it doesn't make business sense for them to do so.
XP selling better than Vista/7 on ebay does tell me something. People are afraid of change. You may have gotten used to the interface and are afraid to try a different approach for doing the same thing. I find that my files are way more organized and with almost zero effort under Win 7.
Yes XP does run faster than Vista. Thats a given. But Windows 7 also runs faster than XP. Not only on my 751 but on EVERY computer I have tried it on. This includes an old Pentium M 1.0ghz with 512 mb RAM. That is BELOW Microsoft's minimum system requirements. And it ran BETTER and was 10 times more responsive than running XP. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements
I am a DJ and do a lot of things with music on my computers. XP audio sucks! There is so much distortion on XP compared to Windows 7 or even Vista. The audio sounds so much cleaner on Vista and 7. These are with soundcards that are well supported under XP, and are also not cheap.
Yes XP does use less hard drive and RAM than Windows 7. But really with the price of hard drives now, does the extra few gigabytes of hard drive space matter that much? And as for the RAM usage, it's not as much about how much RAM it uses, as it is about how EFFICIENTLY it uses that RAM. And XP my friend is not very efficient.
In fact I think the only real benefit I can think of for XP is that I can get 2 or 3 more frames a second in World of Warcraft. Of course that doesn't matter anyway when you are already getting over 60 frames per second. Hardly worth going back for.
I also use touch interfaces, which XP sucks at. There really is no comparison in this category. It's like comparing a Geo Metro to practically any other kind of car out there. In this case XP is the Geo Metro. XP is the 3 cylinder care compared to the 8 cylinders on Windows 7.
You may not agree with what I say, but since you want to invite people to look at your points, I invite you to look at valid points and stop being so closed minded about the subject.
As for speaking with "OUR DOLLARS", I have. I purchased Windows 7. I supported the great job they did. I have NEVER purchased a license for any Microsoft product before, thinking they weren't really worth being paid for, since they were crap products. This OS changed that. Office 2007 too. I am a big fan of Apple's and have liked their OS's way better than any of Microsofts. That is until Windows 7. The latest versions of both Apple's and Microsoft's OS are the best OS's in the world.
As for the ability to run DOS games. If you aren't going to use DOS directly, then use a freaking emulator. There is DOSbox. And it you truly don't like that route, you could also use VirtualBox to start up a REAL dos operating system in a virtual environment. By the way, it's free.
I have NEVER had a program I couldn't run on Windows 7. Not a single one. If you can't get it to work, then you are doing something wrong, not the OS.
And yes I agree that Intel really messed up when they shipped this GMA 500 product. I already preferred AMD to Intel, and after having used their GMA 500, the next computer I purchase will have and AMD processor.
Stop being so closed minded and give this new "cheeso" operating system an actual chance. If you don't like the interface, you can always turn it off. You can even make the taskbar look like it did in Vista, so that its not all just buttons.