Over the last few days I've been using my old Fujitsu Siemens notebook, which runs on an old hardware (it is not worth mentioning its specifications). It had Windows XP installed and after a few crashes and a lot of lagginess, I decided installing Windows 7 on it, hoping it would run better afterwards. So the installation went smooth, but I got stuck at what I was afraid of, the drivers. Almost anything worked out-of-the-box, but in a limited way. For the video card, which I want to talk about, Windows 7 used some sort of basic graphics driver, instead of using a dedicated one, which meant very sluggish graphics and improper resolution (had to find the right one by myself).
Basically, S3 (the company who manufactured ProSavageDDR) dropped the support for this graphic card, along with many others, leaving on their website only links from where you can theoretically download the drivers. Theoretically, because the download links are broken, and now (at the time of writing this article), even the webpage is down. But the main problem is that many of the other download links (from other websites) for the driver for ProSavageDDR are down, broken or link to nowhere, so it is quite difficult to find the driver for this graphics card. Moreover, the support has been dropped when the driver was designed for Windows XP or earlier, so there was no driver for Windows Vista or 7 created.
However, I managed to find the driver on a website (link posted below), and I even successfully installed it on my laptop and it works more than decent. The idea is that you can first try installing it normally (double click that file), or, if that fails, you must install it in compatibility mode: right click the file -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Check the box from "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)". Then, just reboot and you should see at Screen resolution the name of your graphics card. If that happens, it means that everything is OK.
Download link: ProSavageDDR driver (Windows XP and 7, confirmed to work).
Thanks a bunch!
ReplyDeleteYES - it worked fine as far as the name of the graphics card has changed from "Standard VGA" to "S3 ProSavageDDR".
ReplyDeleteHowever, the display resolution freezes at 640x480 and cannot be adjusted. The selection field is greyed and the up/down arrow in that field is without function.
Before the driver update my laptop was running with 1400x1050.
Assistance is very much appreciated. Thanks.
I really don't know what to say to be honest, the point is that I don't have that computer anymore. It used to work with all the supported resolutions back then, when I used the driver. What computer do you have? That was a Fujitsu Siemens C1020 laptop.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, the drivers worked when installed in Compatibility Mode.
ReplyDeleteThank you ! The drivers worked in compatibility mode ! I have searched for working video drivers for Windows 7 for an old machine of mine, for nearly an hour before encountering your page.
ReplyDeleteMan, you're awesome. I wanna be like you. Big ups!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Worked great!
ReplyDeleteThe drivers you link to on 4shared are currently available directly from the S3 website... Here is the link: http://www.s3graphics.com/en/drivers/legacy_software_archive.aspx
ReplyDeleteHowever, the default "Standard VGA" driver that Windows 7 selects is equally functional.