ATI Video Driver

I'm having problems with crashing in Civilization 4 and I think it's a driver issue. I previously posted this in the Games forum so I hope I'm not breaking the rules, but since then I've found some new info. Not trying to bump, just thought I might find more answers here.

Running on a Dell Inspiron laptop E1505, Intel T2300 Core Duo at 1.66 Ghz, 1 GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon X1300, Windows XP Professional SP3.

At random times, usually farther into the game and when a movie or animation begins (even just moving units or choosing city production), I'm kicked out to the desktop. First window says: "Failed to allocate video memory. Please try reducing your video settings." Error reads: "File:\Source\Main\Civilization 4\SDKs\Gamebryo2.0\CoreLibs\NiDX9RendererNiDX9SourceTextureData.cpp,Line:314"

I have also received this error: "File:\Source\Main\Civilization 4\SDKs\Gamebryo2.0\CoreLibs\NiDX9Renderer\NiDX9VBManager.cpp, Line:1019"

Neither the vendor nor 2kGames has been able to help. I have tried to update my video driver on the ATI site at http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...7&lang=English but receive the message "Setup did not find a driver compatible with your current hardware or operating system. Setup will now exit."

When I look at the driver in the ATI Catalyst control panel the driver number has a "Dell" extension. I assume that means that the driver was written for them and for this card. Is it possible that I can't update the driver for that reason? And if so what happens if I uninstall the old driver completely then try installing the ATI non-Dell version?

I attached two text files that 2kgames asked for zipped into one file. They are attached in the Civilization 4 thread I created in the games forum. One is Dxdiag.txt and the other is msinfo.txt.

2kgames even suggested I uncheck everything in MSConfig then restart and run the game but that was no help.

Thanks as always and I hope you can help! And I'll never buy a "pre-made" computer again.

 

Halo,

Thanks for the response!

DirectX version 9.0c 409.0000.0904. I actually have version 1.74 of the game, an update from 1.61. The game sets resolution when it starts, but I have tried setting my screen resolution all the way down to 600x800 before starting the game and it doesn't help. On the other hand I didn't think of changing the resolution in the game options so I'll do that as well. That's what happens when you work with us rookies.......

I think I'll try your suggestion for updating the driver, and thanks for the link to Driver Sweeper. I see no reason why any ATI driver shouldn't work, but I'll sure backup everything before I try it!