If you have one of the Netbooks which has a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500 (GMA 500) then you cant play old games like Age of Empires 2, Diablo, Warcraft , Starcraft etc due to direct draw/OpenGL issues with the default driver. The Default driver is really bad and buggy.
So here is a driver which will allow you to play these games and more on your netbook. Its just that i still play AOE i had to find a solution and not disable GMA 500 to play it.
This applies to most 11.6″ notebooks being powered by GMA 500. Some examples are Acer Aspire One 751,Asus Eee PC 1101HA,Benq Joybook Lite U121 Eco,Dell Inspiron 11z, MSI Wind U115 etc etc . For a complete list visit http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Graphics-Media-Accelerator-500-GMA-500.12614.0.html.
PS: GMA 500 is a really underpowered Video Chipset, With Drivers which make it even worse. Avoid it at all costs.
compatibility errors with asus eeepc 1101ha..driver doesn’t work…
I correct: driver works, external monitor doesn’t work
Cool! But I have BSOD after several runs OpenGL game (I test it on “Yo Frankie!” game).
I have Dell Inspiron 1010 netbook.
Will there new version of this driver?
Hey, so i couldn’t get the installer to work; “All the components are not installed properly. Please try reinstalling.” error but can’t get past that, any ideas?
I had this error if I try run installer from utilities directories.
But if first change video card driver manually in Device Manager and point driver in driver directory, then installer runs successfully.
Excellent, thanks that worked a treat; would never have thought of doing it that way. Now to stop AOE2 from crashing after starting game play haha
i can’t get it to install from utilities or device manager, it doesnt let me select the folder after i select update driver.
Anthony, you must select not automatically updating driver, but manually selecting driver. There is this option. Seek it.
Got a problem…
When I try to install the driver with device manager, it say that the best driver is already installed, how to remove my currently driver and copy this driver ?
It doesn’t work.
“But if first change video card driver manually in Device Manager and point driver in driver directory, then installer runs successfully!”
I’ve done it, but the error is the same “All the components are not installed properly. Please try reinstalling.”
I found the solution.
I copied in the installation folder of starcraft a program called scloader that activate the windowed mode of the program.
I hope it could be useful.
I’m Italian sorry for my english
And in windows 7 somebody have prove???
It made my Sony Vaio P Play warcraft 2 in vista perfect but, vaio p uses high res screen 1600×768 so when using this driver it limits the screen to lousy 1024×768, on the vaio p it really looks bad!! corrupts screen.
This is definitely very beneficial to everyone! I have checked the links since we also have a netbook here and these are all great!Cheers
Love you, you are my hero.
works fine
fits every time to screen, but it’s better than no StarCraft
Asus Eee 1101HA, not fast enough for new games, not a good driver for old games, a PC without any gaming function, but with your work it’s possible to use it also for some games
thanks a lot
Dude you are me hero as well lol I tried EVERYTHING when i got my netbook so that i could run starcraft but to no avail nothing worked. And completely by luck while searching google for solutions to running diablo II fullscreen in directdraw I found this. Simply amazing thanks dude, Now for some starcraft time in between classes yeeeeeeeeee!
P.S.
To those who were confused about the installation this coming from a veteran mac user and a newbie to the pc world (well some experience) go to control panel->display->settings->advanced->adapter->properties->driver->update driver->install from a list or specific location->then choose “Dont search. I will choose the driver to install” then point it to the driver folder in the download from this page and there should only be one file that shows up select that one then restart like it tells you THEN you click setup.exe in the utilities folder of the GMA500_XP folder and install that and then it will ask you to restart again and then after you restart all your 8 bit 256 color games should work oh and this worked for my MSI WIND U110 Good luck!
Works great on my Acer 751h! But there is one annoying thing: I cant find now where i can set the peoportion settings. So I get 640×480 8-bit but without black bars on either side of the screen. That distorts the image.
Sorry for my English, greetings from Russia.
you guys are awesome.
i have been searching tweaked driver for GMA 500, thinking that netbook will be able to play starcraft.(in full screen!!)
it worked like a charm.
first, uninstall the current driver, then update it manually.
it will work like a charm.
forgot go mention….
i have an acer aspire A750 with GMA 500, not GMA 950
Is there a way to make this work on windows 7?
Hi everybody, Somebody can help me to play Starcraft on a Dell Inspirion mini 1010 ?
As my English level, my Computing skills are quite low, I just downloaded the driver linked on this page, what should I do now ?
How can I install the driver ?
Thank you