My laptop:
HP Pavilion ze5400
Intel P4 2.66 Ghz
60GB HD
Radeon IGP 345M

I love my laptop, it works great. But I can't play some newer games
due to the horrible onboard video card. I want to upgrade it, but I've
been told it's impossible. I'd prefer not to spend much more than
between $100-150 on a new card. So can it be done?

If not, is there someway I can get my computer to support programmable
shading, so I will at least be able to play The Matrix Online?

---

Clarification of Question by nmaster64-ga on 05 Mar 2005 17:58 PST

Not sure of the motherboard model, but the computer is a HP Pavilion
ze5468CL to be exact. Running Win XP Pro (SP2, all updates) on 512MB
RAM.

Not likely, as the laptop most likely has video integrated on the
motherboard or a graphics chip on the motherboard.  It would be rather
expensive and complicated to modify either of these components.

You can find a more complete answer by checking out
http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=339080&rl=1

or in the next few weeks I will be adding the question to my blog ... 

http://www.cheap-refurbished-used-laptops.com/

I hope that is of some help.

David Perlmutter
UsedLaptops.com, Inc.

Yes, it is possible to do that. I have a Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop
that I bought in March 2003. Now it is June 2005 and I recently was
asked by a friend of mine if I wanted to upgrade and told me how much
it would cost to get the upgrade done. He is actually upgrading my
memory card as well as getting a new graphics card so I won't be able
to tell you the exact price for the graphics card alone although I
think I can make an accurate estimate based on the price of my
upgrade.

So here is the information for my upgrade and then I tell you below
the estimate price for your upgrade:


  Kingston 1 GB DDR 2 Memory Card running at 500 Mhz speed

  DDR 2 technology is twice as fast as oringal DDR technology
  
  So the above memory speed would be equivalent to 1G Speed
  if you take in to account you have the power of 2 DDR Memory cards in one.

  128 MB ATI Radeon PCI Express X300 Graphics Card

  The total cost of my upgrade is 80 US dollars

  He actually has contact with a good friend of his and he is a
Cerftified Computer Technician as well.

  So let's say you wanted to upgrade your graphics card to something
like my near future one. I would say 50 dollars.

   Hey, sometimes you just happen to be in the right time at the right
place and get really lucky. That is the case with me.