It's almost a common practice from Dell, but before you go through that ordeal of a reformat, why don't you un-install the games first.  Un-install the video driver and use a driver cleaner before you  install the latest driver from the web site.  Download and use a spyware tool to clean out any spyware,  defrag the hard drive.  Use your Disk Cleanup  program, set your eye candy on windows xp to Best Performance.  Re-install the games and make sure you temporally turn off your anti-virus software, which may interfer with the install of some games. Close out any running background programs and turn down some of the windows eye candy when playing games.  See if any of these help in your game playing. 

Other's will come onto this thread and assist you further

Dim 4400 ( June 2002 )
2.6 ghz (upgrade from 1.7 ghz)
768 MB 2100 DDR Memory
Gainward Ti 4200 128 MB Nvidia
XP Home plus SP-2
17 inch Dell LCD monitor (1703 FP)
AVG 6.0 Anti Virus

You can download a driver cleaner to get rid of the old driver completely.  When you uninstall a driver, it may still leave some code in the registry and it needs to be completely cleaned in order to install the new driver and not have a possible conflict.  I'll try and find one for you unless someone beats me to it

 

 

Message Edited by SR45 on 11-11-2004 05:01 PM

What computer?  What video card?

Airblazer

How have you fared with your X800SE?  I'm trying to choose a videocard for my new 8400.  GeForce 6800/GTO or 800SE?

 

running great..no probs with games whatsoever..far cry runs like a dream on it..for the price of it...great value for money although the 6800GT is only another €120 on top of it..although comparing 3mark scores there's not much difference plus in cs:source i score the same on the benchmark as other 6800GT which is very good.

Very interesting.

Surprising that the scores are so close.  The X800 SE only has 8 "pipes" vs 12 for the GTO and 16 for a real GT (after market).

Here are the stats I found on the forums at guru3D.com

These cards were previously released as an OEM for Dell, but i guess they've gone retail with it now... and it was PCI-E and I guess they're selling the AGP versions now.

X800SE, Vertex Shader 6, Pipelines 8, Pixel Version 2.0b, Clock Speeds: GPU: 425 // Memory 350 (700DDR)

Performance is above 9800Pro/XT, and probably below 6800NU (lack of pipelines 8vs12). But overall it is weaker than its older brothers (Pro/XT) and does come with DDR ram

 

also, here's a link to the retail site for the X800SE.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-431&depa=1

Computer Hardware> Video Cards > SAPPHIRE TECHNOLOGY LIMITED > N82E16814102431
Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 SE Video Card, 256MB DDR, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "102-A26126-00-AT" -OEM
Model# 102-A26126-00-AT Item # N82E16814102431
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI Radeon X800SE/425MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 256MB DDR/800MHz
BUS: AGP 8X
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub) + TV-Out (S-Video/Composite Out) + DVI
Support 3D API: DirectX 9, OpenGL 2.0
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@85Hz
Cable/Accessories: DVI-I to VGA adapter, S-Video cable, Composite cable, S to AV adaptor, HDTV cable, Power extension cord, Manual, Driver CD
OEM Bundle(See pics for details)

i was suprised myself..although apparently the dell one is a pared down X800XT with the pipes spliced..however you need a laser to rejoin them and no one has been able to do this yet..still value wise it's a very good card..