cant change screen resolution

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by tritonobx, Feb 27, 2009.

  1. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    All was fine til upgrading memory to 1GB from 256MB. Everything else is fully functional. All devices are working properly. I did the memory upgrade to support the minimum 512MB required to view MSN videos. They still won't play. More concerned about sudden inability to change screen resolution. I've searched all pages of this issue and don't find a clear recommendation or diagnosis. Running XP on a Dell desktop.
     
  2. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    Have you tried reinstalling your graphics driver?
     
  3. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    Thank you, and I haven't. Happy to try that but I'd need direction on the procedure, and where to begin. Is it done within Windows or do you go to a site to look up the driver for reinstall? I'm stuck on my preferred 800 x 600 but want the capability to change.
     
  4. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    Which Dell do you have? You should be able to go to their website and get the latest graphics driver from them, and from then on, just doube-click on the file nad follow the prompts on the screen.
     
  5. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    It's the Dell 4600C Dimension desktop. It's Intel Extreme Graphics 2 with Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller. I've located a video driver for the graphics controller but it's version number is earlier than my current one and appears to be for A09 bios whereas current bios is A09.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2009
  6. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

  7. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    Thanks again. I'll give it a try and check back.
     
  8. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    The driver you linked to I notice is not for the 82865G graphics controller in my system. My current driver version is also newer than the latest version available on the Dell site for the 82865G. So is the Intel Springdale G Integrated video driver you linked suitable or will it conflict? Thank you for your time and patience.
     
  9. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    My mistake... grabbed the wrong link. This is the one I should have posted the first time. :-o
     
  10. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    Hi. I went thru the installation til it advised that my current version is higher. The install attempt terminated at that point. I've checked all over the Dell forums and support too. Still puzzled why the memory upgrade seemingly caused this. I removed the matching pair of 128mb memory modules and simply replaced them with two matching Dell 512 modules.
     
  11. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    The graphics driver uses a part of your installed RAM, and in an effort to be smart your computer has made a little "mental map" for which part. That allocation table is based on your old amount of memory, and when you changed the RAM, the table no longer matches the amount of installed RAM. Reinstalling your driver forced the computer to rebuild that allocation table, based on the new amount.

    Can you find your current driver file, either on your hard drive or on a restore disk, and reinstall it that way?
     
  12. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    In system 32 I found a CoInstaller dll file with the correct version number, and other dlls relating to the version number with descriptions such as Uninstall Utility, Controller Hub, Direct Draw Driver, Component GHL Driver, and quite a few others. I checked in the hardware device manager to discover all these driver files in system 32 for the 82865G controller. No driver has actually been reinstalled at this point.
     
  13. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    In my Windows XP Pro install, the drivers are in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers, but that is the installed drivers, not the installation files.

    Without a way to get your hands on the driver file for installation, it's going to be very hard for you to reinstall it...unless you can uninstall it, and reinstall it on reboot, but I would not advise trying that until you know you have a driver available for installation.

    Another way to talk your computer into accepting the new amount of memory would be to increase the amount of memory gradually. Put in the two 128MB sticks again. Replace one of them with one of your 512MB sticks. Reboot and make sure everything is working. The replace the other 128MB module now and reboot again. It might not work, so I wouldn't get my hopes up, but you've nothing to lose from trying. :)
     
  14. tritonobx

    tritonobx Staff Sergeant

    Thanks so much. I feel like it can get resolved at some point. May try the tip on the incremental memory increase. I've learned some things just by dealing with the issue. :)
     
  15. Mimsy

    Mimsy Superior Imperial Queen of the MG Games Forum

    At least you know what you need to do... that's half the work. Good luck! :)
     

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