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Q963/Q965: Graphics driver crashes at the drop of a hat with games.

idata
Employee
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I know I'm probably wasting my time, since it seems that very few of the messages here get answered and Intel doesn't care about past products, but what the hell...

I recently bought an HP Core 2 Duo system with Intel Q963/Q965 graphics. After setting up the system, I installed the game Unreal II from 2003. As soon as the opening movie started to play, I noticed missing graphics. I went online and downloaded the latest graphics driver from HP's site (which this site says is the standard driver) and also updated DirectX to the latest available version.

This fixed the missing graphics issue, but I still can't play the game for more than about five minutes before the graphic driver crashes and I'm forced to reboot. When this happens, the game freezes, I press the power button, eventually the game closes, my desktop looks like it's in 320x200x16 and there's an error message stating "The igxprd32 display driver has stopped working normally." In other words, it crashed.

All I can find online are frustrated messages from people having the same problem and a recommendation to switch to an older driver. Of course if I downgrade, then I'm likely to have graphics issues like before, which is no solution. Also, I don't want to screw things up by applying an older driver and ending up unable to even use my system for everyday tasks.

I plan to buy a dedicate graphics card (as soon as I figure out which one), but in the mean time, I'm unable to play any commercial games because of this issue. Doesn't Intel bother to test their drivers?

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DArce
Valued Contributor III
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Hello,

I suggest using the games with the lowest settings available and try the game troubleshooting guide posted on the following URL:

www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-010486.htm

If you did try the latest generic driver and still it crashes, the problem might be compatibility at this point. Try checking with the game developed and confirm that in fact this video controller meets the minimum requirements to plays such games.

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idata
Employee
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Diego_Intel wrote:

Hello,

I suggest using the games with the lowest settings available and try the game troubleshooting guide posted on the following URL:

Yes, I've already done that. The game is patched the the latest version available from the developer. DirectX is updated to the latest available version. According to the Intel web site's driver detection routine, I have the latest available generic drivers installed. I've tried lowering all the settings in the game. The driver still crashes.

Diego_Intel wrote:

If you did try the latest generic driver and still it crashes, the problem might be compatibility at this point. Try checking with the game developed and confirm that in fact this video controller meets the minimum requirements to plays such games.

Unreal II doesn't have any special video requirements, just 3D acceleration and DirectX8 support, both of which the chipset has.

I'm not 100% sure when the Q963/Q965 chipset came out (I'm guessing 2005), but it should be able to run a game from 2003.

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