Amar Galla’s Weblog

Recently Nvidia updated their Forceware drivers with a new version, and I wanted to update the drivers for the Nvidia Geforce FX 6200 Go chipset on my laptop. Nvidia claims that their drivers supports a Unified architecture and it was strange that their latest Forceware drivers failed to update my laptop saying that it did not find any compatible hardware.

Thus I began to research on the topic to find why an Nvidia driver failed to detect the 6200 Go chip in my laptop. To sum up my findings in short, the Nvidia unified architecture is actually valid. It means, that for all Nvidia chipsets there is just one single device drivers. So the latest Forceware drivers are bound to support my Geforce 6200 Go chip. But the installer is configured not to install on any mobile version of the graphic cards, thus allowing the laptop maker to support the mobile driver and bring out a customised driver for their laptop. The downside is that I have to wait till my laptop manufacturer releases an updated driver.

However, there is a way to bypass the wait for a manufacturer and install the latest Nvidia drivers. You will loose out on any customisation ( if any ) by your laptop manufacturer. But you can get the latest updated device driver from Nvidia itself to run your graphics chip. The decision on which cards the driver installation will support, is in an INF file which contains definitions of all the different manufacturer customised chips. The downloadable drivers from Nvidia do not contain these definitions. All you have to do is find your laptop manufacturer codes and put it in that file by hacking the installer. And you are all set.

Seems to complicated and too much of a hassle? No worries… Just head over to http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ who release a modded version of the driver as soon as Nvidia releases a new version. This site has definitely been a great help in getting Oblivion up and running on my laptop and getting my system to support the latest Nvidia driver.

If you are wondering where I have been, I have been battling to get Oblivion to play on my laptop and it just keeps crashing. Thankfully a new Oblivion patch is in the works and so I guess I will hold my Oblivion adventures till the patch comes. So hopefully you will see some good posts from me soon.

I reached Coventry on 8th April thinking that I will be greeted by the whiff of spring air. Far from giving me a taste of spring, the weather gods decided to greet me with a cloudy and rainy day. To top it off, it snowed on the 9th night.

Am currently sitting in London since yesterday and the weather was predominantly rainy. Today it is cloudy and windy. Makes one wonder, where have all the seasons disappeared?

I was in Calcutta, India between 12th March and 8th April. Generally spring weather in Calcutta is very pleasant and temperatures are around 25 – 30 degree celcius. But it was completely reverse of UK. Temperatures touched 43 degrees which is generally one of the highest temperatures in summer around end of May. This was end of March. Average temperatures hovered around 35 – 40 throughout my stay.

I also made a short 2 day trip to Bangalore around end of March. Bangalore climate used to be cool and pleasant with temperatures around 12 – 20 degrees. It was around 25 and above there.

Such drastic change in climate makes me wonder if we are loosing our weather? Effects of global warming are seen very drastically in all parts of the world. Temperatures are become more and more extreme. It seems that the joys of spring and the beauty of autumn will soon be lost forever. If nothing is done and we keep on burning fuel and heating the planet at this breakneck speed, our children will never experience pleasant and enjoyable weather which we did at one time.

We should all at least make some effort to save the planet in our day to day lives. Small things like closing the tap while brushing our teeth, not letting the engine run idle, switching lights if we leave a room, using public transport whenever possible will go a long way if we all do it. If everyone of us, keeps a plant or two and tends it, think of the number of plants which will increase on this planet. Let’s everyone at least make some effort. It will definitely make a big difference.

My holidays are finally over. Will be travelling back to Coventry tomorrow. Hopefully from next week, I will be able to write more regularly. With the Office 12 NDA partly lifted, I will try to write a bit about the new revolutionary Office.