My grandson who was in Iraq has an Alienware laptop which has Vista 32 bit installed.

He gave it to his dad and there seems to be some problem The Processor speed is like 5.5, the Mem. ram is 5.1, Graphics is 1.0 and Disc is 5.8, I am looking into this and I was wondering why I am unable to install the GeForce Program? My real question is, is the GeForce Graphics card in the puter or is the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter actually a very slow card and someone has taken the GeForce card out?

It is an Alienware Laptop First off I don't know a GPU from a nut and bolt. One of the disks gives you the option to down load the GeForce data and the puter unzips it and the when the install finishes , it says "It is not compatable with the Hardware" and exits. My real question is, is the GeForce Graphics card in the puter or is the Standard VGA Graphics Adapter actually a (very slow card) and someone has taken the GeForce card out?

My son did a reinstall

GeForce 8600m GT/8700m GT SFT-F17 support cd
GeForce 8800m GTX

Are the 2 that are listed in the Area-51 m17x Support Disk. It appears that it is necessary to install each of the items listed like Blue Tooth, the Speakers etc. and the GeForce listed above. When I go to install the above listed files, it unzips them, installs them and then a message appears that says they are not compatable with the hardware and aborts it.

I have just about given up. It appears that the unit has been opened due to the screws being a little burred. Is there a G Force card in the unit that could have been removed?

Through all of this, I didn't catch what the actual model number is for the computer. The CD is for a onboard graphics chipset. Can you post the model number for the computer?

I think I have made some headway with the Alienware computer. I was able to download a update from Nvidia, the disk was 86-87-88 mGTX and the update took it to 8900mGTX. Like I have said, I am not very adept at puters. The lights on the Alienware changed from a normal white to purple on the puter board. Will have to wait for my son to tell me what is going on, I have no idea how to do the Alien Wars. So for now it looks good, will post again. Thanks so far.

P.S. That baby does run hot.

Originally Posted by Patonb

That line of computer has changable backlites, so you probably hit the changfe button.
You have a beast of a computer, so its not surprising it's hot.

Enjoy the computer.

Actually the light changed after I sucessfully downloaded Nvidia upgrade for the unit. Son stopped by and was very happy with the results I had. He was able to down load a game his son was using in Hawaii while in the military. So thanks for all the help.