Or at least, rethink it through before buying one…
This is a personal rant towards Acer, with an advice undertone: really, really investigate the computer or laptop you want to purchase, because you might get an unhappy surprise later, when the laptop doesn't meet your expectations.
Note: I wrote this post in 2014 and restored it from the archive in 2026. The problem it describes, The Settlers 6 refusing to start with "At least 70 MB of available video memory required", was eventually fixed by a GOG.com patch in 2015. See below.
Acer Aspire E1-530
Last week my girlfriend and I bought a new, not very high-end Acer Aspire laptop for her. An Aspire E1-530 to be exact. To be honest, the laptop works pretty great considering its price. But… You can't increase the minimum amount of video memory in the BIOS! Why is that important? Freedom of choice of course. Freedom to do with the device what I please. But Acer won't let me and takes away that choice (and thus my freedom).
Another reason is: my girlfriend likes to play games. One of her favorite games is The Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire. The Settlers game series traditionally is an MS-DOS game that you can still play on Windows. Released in 2005, The Settlers: Heritage of Kings is for an older Windows version and there shouldn't be a problem playing it on Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10, right?
Oh well…
Unfortunately, Ubisoft has built in a ridiculous video memory requirement; when you start the game, the game checks if the minimum amount of video memory is at least 70 MB. The game quits if it doesn't meet that requirement, complaining:
Graphics adapter does not meet requirements
At Least 70 MB of available video memory required, only 62 MB detected.
Various topics about this existed on the (now closed) Ubisoft forums.
For this game to run, an increased amount of minimum video memory is required, which should be able to be set through the BIOS. Now, because of Acer's choice not to let customers fiddle with certain BIOS settings like the minimum amount of video memory, my girlfriend can't play her favorite game anymore. Thanks Acer. I really hope you will give out a BIOS update with all options unlocked.
BIOS modding anyone?
Anyone experienced with BIOS modding? 🙂 The latest BIOS version at the time was BIOS_Acer_2.06_A_A.zip (version 2.06), from Acer's download site.
Ubisoft
This post is also a call to Ubisoft: please remove this ridiculous requirement with a patch.
Onboard video chips don't have dedicated memory. They all use shared memory from the RAM installed on the system and reserved to the video controller through a technology called DVMT (Dynamic Video Memory Technology), which dynamically adjusts the amount depending on how much is needed. This amount starts out low (62 MB for instance) and is increased when necessary.
Update 19-9-2015: a patched version of Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire is available!
GOG.com patched their version of Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire
After a post on the GOG.com support forum, their tech team stepped in and wrote a patch for Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire. This patch solves two problems with the game:
- The one with the game crashing and showing an error about insufficient memory when there were 2 GB or more of VRAM
- Not being able to change texture details when using integrated Intel HD graphics
If you really like the game, head over to GOG.com to purchase the game.
Did you know you can play old games on Windows with DOSBox? See How to play classic MS-DOS games on Windows 11 with DOSBox.
Oude spellen spelen op Windows 11/10 and Settlers 5 Heritage of Kings op Windows 11 / 10 spelen (in Dutch)
Updates
- Update July 2014: Ubi won't patch the game The Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire…
- Update March 2015: the current BIOS version offered by Acer is still version 2.06 (released 2013/11/11).
- Update 5th September 2015: the current BIOS version is still 2.06…
- Update 19th September 2015: GOG.com released a patch for Settlers 6, Rise of an Empire, see above.