If you are like me, you are using a “slightly” older notebook, in my case it is three years old.  I just recently purchased a Samsung 20″ LCD monitor that I wanted to hook up my laptop to for when I am working at home.  I hooked the notebook up to the display, installed the drivers and to my dismay, the notebook would not show the optimum resolution for my monitor. 

So, I went online looking for new drivers for my video card (in my case it is an ATI 345M IGP).  To my dismay, I was unable to find any official drivers for the card, so I was forced to look for non-traditional options.  I found two places where I could get custom drivers and I had the opportunity to try them out.

The first drivers I tried were the Omega drivers from Omegadrivers.net.  The install went fine and I tried them out for a few days.  I was impressed by the number of resolution options I was given - more than you may need, but basically you could hook up any monitor, projector, or tv to the laptop and the resolution that you would need was available.  Also, fo ryou gamers, you can install an overclocking utility to get the most out of your video card.  My only complaint is that sometimes you could see that the notebook was visually having problems displaying the correct resolution (at 1400 x 1050).  It was at this point I decided that I would try the other site I came accross.

I came across another website DriverHaeven.net.  What they offered is a mod tool that would modify the regular desktop drivers so that they would work with my notebook.  Installation was a breeze: I just had to download the most recent Catalyst drivers and then run the mod tool.  The advantage of this method was that you can use the regular catalyst control panel provided by ATI.  Aslo, I find that the drivers do a better job showing the resolution on my external monitor.

An upgrade to your video card driver will allow you to work better with bigger resolutions (for example with an external monitor) and may let you play some newer games.  On the other hand, even with a driver update, if your machine is a little older, you will still be limited by the hardware that is in your notebook.  So what I would suggest is try it out - if it doesn’t work to your likeing, you can always reinstall your original video card driver that came with your notebook.

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Recently, I decided I wanted to upgrade the RAM (random access memory) in my laptop.  Digging out my manual, I found that I could install up to 1.0 GB of RAM in the laptop.  So, I went to the store and purchased two 512 Mb sticks of PC3200 DDR RAM SoDimms for my laptop.

Returning home, I installed the RAM in the bottom of the computer.  Make sure you read your manual to find out where to put the RAM and how to install it.  Once I had installed the RAM, I went to start the computer.

Nothing happened…..

Checking to make sure I installed it properly, nothing happened again.  I made a quick call to the computer store where I purchased the memory, and after talking to them, they let me know that you need to have the exact speed of RAM that is matched to your motherboard.  So, in my case, the new PC3200 RAM was not the same as my old PC2100 RAM.  Arggh!  So, make sure that you keep this in mind when upgrading the RAM on your laptop:

Make sure that your new RAM matches the speed of the current RAM in your laptop when upgrading.

I will let you know how the RAM upgrade went (with the right RAM) in a later entry.  Just make sure to learn from my mistakes.