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[methylatedspirit]

Laptops mostly use integrated video (the type you find built into a motherboard). These use intergrated memory. i.e. they share the system memory. So a memory fault could look like a video card fault in those circumstances. There are memory testing tools, and there are Windows boot options that restrict how much memory can be used and mark found bad memory addresses.

You sure that scriver's laptop specifically uses integrated graphics only?

I took a look at what I think was the graphics cards. One had a barely legible Nvidia on it so I assume that was it.

Since this is (most likely) a single-GPU setup, there's only the CPU and the GPU on that board. One of them has an Nvidia logo on it, which probably is the GPU. Looking through TechPowerUp's database, unless this laptop's made a literal decade ago, it's impossible that this GPU doesn't have its own dedicated memory. Granted, it could be the same exact type as the system memory, but those two "pools" of memory are kept separate (unless the GPU's running out of its own dedicated memory and starts needing to load stuff into the system memory, but that's a different story).

[scriver]

Laptops mostly use integrated video (the type you find built into a motherboard). These use intergrated memory. i.e. they share the system memory. So a memory fault could look like a video card fault in those circumstances. There are memory testing tools, and there are Windows boot options that restrict how much memory can be used and mark found bad memory addresses.

You sure that scriver's laptop specifically uses integrated graphics only?

I took a look at what I think was the graphics cards. One had a barely legible Nvidia on it so I assume that was it.

Since this is (most likely) a single-GPU setup, there's only the CPU and the GPU on that board. One of them has an Nvidia logo on it, which probably is the GPU. Looking through TechPowerUp's database, unless this laptop's made a literal decade ago, it's impossible that this GPU doesn't have its own dedicated memory. Granted, it could be the same exact type as the system memory, but those two "pools" of memory are kept separate (unless the GPU's running out of its own dedicated memory and starts needing to load stuff into the system memory, but that's a different story).

I'm not entirely 100% on what "integrated" means. But if it means that the card is stuck to the motherboard and is not exchangeable, then it is integrated. I fiddled with it to make sure (no facepalms please ) and I also later found a forum post on the internet saying so (no I do not go about things the wrong way).

The laptop comes with two graphics cards, one intel with 1 GB whatever, and the Nvidia card that I think is the trouble with iirc 2 GB whatever. I believe those whatever numbers are the dedicated memory, right?

And anyway @Reelya in the quote: thanks again, I'll have to look into how to do that later when I'm feeling up for another go. Memory tests is part of the general status check program I ran and it didn't find any troubles with the memory at those times though.

Dumbass question--

When reassembled, did you apply fresh thermal compound? Please say yes.

What do you take me for, a complete noob to these things?

In other words, no I didn't
Thermal compound is not something I keep at home for at hand use, I'd have to build up muster enough to leave the house to get that.

I´m feeling rather apathetic about everything

Apathy is too much work to feel
Hold tight the Dream of Eire

[methylatedspirit]

I'm not entirely 100% on what "integrated" means. But if it means that the card is stuck to the motherboard and is not exchangeable, then it is integrated. I fiddled with it to make sure (no facepalms please ) and I also later found a forum post on the internet saying so (no I do not go about things the wrong way).

Technically, yes, the CPU and GPU are stuck to the motherboard, but the term would be "soldered". Those parts are soldered to the motherboard. There's theoretically ways to remove those parts and replace them with something else, but you'd need special tools and a lot of skill to pull off such a feat.

If my understanding is correct, an "integrated" GPU means that the GPU is literally part of the silicon of the CPU*. The GPU is integrated into the CPU. Since space is limited in the CPU, it has to get its memory somewhere else. This usually takes the form of sharing the system memory. It gets memory allocated to it, and this is called "shared memory"

A dedicated GPU, on the other hand, is an independent piece of silicon, dedicated entirely to being a GPU. In almost all cases, it gets its own independent pool of memory to work with. This is "dedicated memory". This memory is usually substantially faster than the system memory.

*I'm completely ignoring motherboard integrated graphics, since that's a whole 'nother can of worms, and that hasn't been a thing since the Core 2 era, around 2010.

The laptop comes with two graphics cards, one intel with 1 GB whatever, and the Nvidia card that I think is the trouble with iirc 2 GB whatever. I believe those whatever numbers are the dedicated memory, right?

See, Windows (I'm assuming Windows, tell me if it's something else) is being somewhat disingenuous when it tells you that the Intel one has 1 GB. What happened here is that the system (specifically the BIOS) tells the Intel GPU that it can have 1 GB of system memory to work with. This isn't dedicated memory, this is shared memory.

The Nvidia card sounds about right. (Technically speaking, even dedicated GPUs have shared memory. This is more for use in "emergency" situations, where there isn't enough dedicated memory to fit stuff (textures, shaders) into. The downside of this is that shared memory is really slow compared to dedicated memory. If you've ever turned up the Textures setting on a game up too far, and the game lags like hell, it's probably run out of dedicated memory, and it's loading textures into shared memory.)

[scriver]

That was actually I noticed something was wrong first. I was playing M&B2 and it was really slow and stuttery when whrn I last tried it it flowed fine. So I checked into the performance options to see if they had reset to super high during any of the intermean updates but it seemed fine. Then when I exited it warned me that bla bla something something and I noticed that the nice little field for how much memory was needed read 1500 out of 120. So somehow I had gone from having enough by far numbers to be more than a thousand behind. This was when I first started thinking there was something up with the video card.

Later that evening I updated my Nvidia drivers and that's when it all started coming crashing down on me.

[Reelya]

I'm not entirely 100% on what "integrated" means. But if it means that the card is stuck to the motherboard and is not exchangeable, then it is integrated. I fiddled with it to make sure (no facepalms please ) and I also later found a forum post on the internet saying so (no I do not go about things the wrong way).

It's not as simple as "stuck to the motherboard". A regular video card is attached to the PCIe bus, it has its own memory etc. Most integrated system don't even bother with any of that. Some high end laptops have the actual graphics card soldered onto the motherboard, but most only cram some circuitry onto an entirely different chip, such as the one that does audio, networking or the CPU. It's like saying you don't need a set of screwdrivers, because you've got one "built in" to your Swiss army knife. Yeah, technically that's a screwdriver, but it definitely isn't the same as owning screwdrivers.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/can-shared-graphics-finally-compete-with-a-dedicated-graphics-card/

Suffice to say, that video that's directly bolted onto your motherboard is nothing like what's in a dedicated video card, so most laptops use that stuff too rather than worry about somehow trying to cram a video card in there.

[scriver]

My nvidya card is a GeForce GTX 960M, for what's it's worth

[Reelya]

I figured it might be. The main reason is that NVidia used to be in the "bundled graphics" market, but they got pushed out because AMD and Intel both decided to make their own on-chip graphics, so there was no room for nVidia there anymore. So if in has nVidia nowadays it's probably classed as a gaming laptop specifically, since they even bothered to go to a third-party vendor.

Haha, one question worth asking is whether there's actually some onboard video (from the chipset maker) actually hidden away there that they disabled. Also, does it have either a VGA port or an HDMI port? Try projecting to a TV.

[scriver]

I'm not sure if it counts but there is the other card, which is an Intel HD Graphics 530 which according to this wiki is an integrated card.

I believe this is what I'm leaning on right now.

[Ulfarr]

I'm not sure if it counts but there is the other card, which is an Intel HD Graphics 530 which according to this wiki is an integrated card.

I believe this is what I'm leaning on right now.

It is an intergrated one, but not on the motheboard itself . The 530 series are used in the 6th (?) generation (aka skylake) intel CPUs.

[Reelya]

"Intel HD" is the el cheapo range of Intel built-in video (like Ulfarr said, it's just a doohicky inside the CPU, not an entire piece of hardware). Gaming on something like that's just going to be nasty by definition, which I'm guessing is why you want to get the nVidia option working. I'd expect that the laptop comes with the Intel HD thing mainly because the CPU already had it in there and they can't exactly get the CPU without it.

[ChairmanPoo]

Depends on what you want to do with it. With a good processor many games run well despite the intelHD.   Just on top of my laptop's list:
Battle Brothers,
Dead Celld,
 Fury Unleashed,
Torchlight 2,
Urtuk,
Neverwinter Nights 1
Darkest Dungeon
Bad North
Factorio
Crusader Kings 2
Stellaris
Kerbal Space Program
Superhot


And many more. Thats just a taste

[scriver]

Can't run le CK2 unfortunately, I've tried.

But I can run my old FF games. Maybe this time I'll actually finish them.

[Ulfarr]

"Intel HD" is the el cheapo range of Intel built-in video (like Ulfarr said, it's just a doohicky inside the CPU, not an entire piece of hardware). Gaming on something like that's just going to be nasty by definition, which I'm guessing is why you want to get the nVidia option working. I'd expect that the laptop comes with the Intel HD thing mainly because the CPU already had it in there and they can't exactly get the CPU without it.

It is the cheap option but it can perform decent enough depending on your needs. I 've been using it since 2016 when I decided to hold back on my pc budget thinking I'll buy a better one soon but then I 've never really had any convincing reason to upgrade.

To add to ChairmanPoo's list:

STALKER (COP, COC, ANOMALY, COTZ)
Skyrim (modded but not with the very high res textures stuff)
Kenshi (with the reduce foilage/rocks  mod...not the prettiest experience but it is playble and it only lags in certain places/camera angles)
Mount & Blade: Warband (lots of large mods, the only one that I had trouble running was Gekokujo Daimyo which lagged everytime the game upadate what was happeing in the world though that might have been just a ram issue)
World of Tanks / Warplanes (it had it's ups and downs depending what the current patch was, I haven't played in years so I don't know how well it holds up now)
World of Warships (worse performance than WOT/WOWP but still playable again I haven't played in years so I don't know how well it holds up now)
Wasteland 2

[delphonso]

Can't run le CK2 unfortunately, I've tried.

But I can run my old FF games. Maybe this time I'll actually finish them.

That's nuts, CK2 runs on almost everything. Sorry to hear about the computer.

[scriver]

It can't create a graphics device