Where can I find the video drivers for my computer?

It is an unfortunate truth that many hardware for PCs are not accepted by all operating systems. A similar thing happened way back when I upgraded from Windows ME (what the computer came with) to Windows 2000 – the new OS did not support my sound card, so I had a silent computer.

If the video game is “choppy” you may not have enough RAM to support Windows 7 and the video game simultaneously. I would buy new RAM from a place like newegg.com (be sure to look through the reviews) and install it.

If you still have the disks that came with your computer, many of the drivers may be on those disks. If you don’t, you may be out of luck.

Try Can You Run It.

I alredy tried can you run it but the game is so shitty that is not even posted there lol.
Unfortunately the disks that i got with my computer don’t have it either.

The problem is that your Win Vista was a 32-bit OS and Win 7 is most likely a 64-bit OS and according to Dell.com, your PC, (Inspiron 531) is NOT listed as a Windows 7 compatible computer.

To resolve the issue, you may need to install a new Win7 compatible Video Graphics card.

In Windows 7 using the VESA driver or does it tell you a manufacturer and model number when you check? If it’s using the VESA driver then that’s probably why it’s choppy.

It’s possible you can get Windows 7 drivers from the manufacturer of the card. If it’s an AMD (ATI) card check their website, or nVidia if it’s an nVidia card. If they have an “all-in-one” driver get that since it’ll have drivers for most of the supported cards.

The downside to going to the manufacturer is that Dell will change the model numbers of the cards so that the manufacturers drivers won’t work, unless you do a bit of creative changing in certain files.

Here’s a direct link to Microsoft® Windows® 7 Compatible Dell Systems
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?journalid=85784115F7A5FE01E040AC0A63E96CA4&docid=364750

If you want to peruse your system’s Drivers, use the follwoing link to directly go to Dell’s Drivers & Downloads page for the Inspiron 531.
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&cs=08W&l=en&s=bsdv&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INSP_DSKTP_D531&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Contrary to @mrentropy statement, Dell does lists the manufacturer’s model number for the components used in a system.

@njnyjobs I never said they didn’t, I said they made changes to them. While it may say it has, I don’t know, an AMD 5200HD the card will report itself as an AMD 5201HD. Functionally it’s the same, but when AMD’s drivers asks the card what it is and finds out that it’s not in the list of cards that’s supported.

This is what they’ve done in the past. I don’t know if they still do it or not, or if they do for some models and not others, but if you know you have X card installed and the manufacturers drivers won’t install that’s why. Personally, I think it’s worth a shot.

Although, I was working on laptops at the time. There’s a good chance they don’t do that to desktop video cards unless it’s built on to the motherboard.

@mrentropy…sometimes, the number designation is an indication of whether the system is for an AMD processor or an Intel processor. This is the reason why device drivers will not work even though its model number is just off by a single digit off from the other model.

@njnyjobs I know. I’ve worked for Dell.

The 531 came with an integrated Geforce 6150 LE chipset which is non-removable. However a PCI-E slot is on the board so if you ever get itchy you can swap a nice new HD 5200 or better yet a GT 240 into it and have it bopping away like a nice new machine. However, if you just want new drivers, then look no further than here:

32 bit 7: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_32bit_197.45_whql.html
64 bit 7: http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_197.45_whql.html

Also as a side note, Windows 7 runs like a slug on anything less than 2GB of RAM. Most of the 531s came with only 1GB so you may want to throw some more in there. If you have a 32-bit OS there is not point in installing more than 3GB, but with x64 then the you can go crazy.