Updating Video Card Drivers

[Graceheart the Leopard]

I tried to run Minecraft on my old laptop today and I got the following error:

      Bad video card drivers!      
      -----------------------      

Minecraft was unable to start because it failed to find an accelerated OpenGL mode.
This can usually be fixed by updating the video card drivers.

Is there a tutorial out there that shows me how to update my laptop's video card drivers?

 

[mdwh]

Do you know what make of graphics card it has (usually Intel, AMD/ATI or NVIDIA)? (You can check in Device Manager.) I usually find it easiest to go to the graphics card manufacturer's website, and download the drivers from there to install.

How old are we talking about - does it meet the minimum specs?

 

[GoodGame]

There's plenty of help if you google "minecraft open gl driver" on minecraft websites and youtube.
There's no simple answer, since it matters greatly what generation of and build of computer you are using, as well as what model and make of GPU (if any).

You have to figure out if your computer as native Open GL support basically, and download a hotfix/driver from whomever made the component that has some kind of Open GL support.

If you're going to update a driver for a video card, I recommend downloading the recommended driver (usually newest/last made for your card) first, backing up the old driver (or at least note the version so it can be re-downloaded in case of problems, then uninstalling the old driver. Reboot the computer, install the new driver, and reboot again if needed. Then test the installation on Minecraft and other software that you normally use.