Video gone lame- 4 colors max.

Hi all, thanks in advance for your input on this one.

I recently purchased a used flat-panel MAG monitor. It looked a little fuzzy, so I fiddled with the refresh rate, put it back, and then looked for a driver for the monitor...no luck. Just enough knowledge to cause trouble. I then updated the driver for my onboard Intel graphics card... the 845G, I think. Things went downhill from there. I have reverted to the old video card driver, and the problem persists:

I am stuck in 640x480 with 4 colors! No other options appear.

When XP Home boots, four screens appear, showing a log of the bootup. The boxes are titled diagnostic traces, dispatch \tfsnifs, dispatch \??\tfswifs, and DrvmCDB. Not sure if this is related. When I poke around my startup files, I see reference to CGA and EGA, but not SVGA or VGA. My old monitor, which I have set back in play, is a Compaq 7550. There is no mention of this monitor on there website. Looking in the device manager, all seems normal. Newer driver not available for the video card, it tells me.

Did I somehow burn up my video card? Thanks, -Chaz

 

Well sir, the first course of action in your case would be to reinstall your video drivers. Here's how (Note that you need administrative proveldges to do this!):

1. Right-click 'My Computer'
2. Select 'Manage'
3. On the 'Computer Management' window, click 'Device Manager'
4. In the right-hand side, expand 'Display Adapters'
5. For every item listed here, right-click, and select 'Uninstall'
6. Confirm that you wish to uninstall by pressing 'OK'
7. Restart your computer

Now, when windows starts up, it will automatically re-install your video card drivers. Let me know how it goes for you.

 

Thanks very much for help with this one. I've been fussing with it for so long that I forgot to mention that I had already tried new drivers.

When I first hooked up the flat panel monitor, things looked fuzzy, so I started tweaking things like the color/gamma settings and refresh rate. Looked at driver properties to see if there was something specific for that type of monitor. Finding nothing, I went to Intel and downloaded what I thought was a newer driver, and installed it. That's when my resolution went to the can. I did a rollback to the old driver, but the problem persists. That's what makes me think I may have burnt the video card (onboard).

Just got back from my local shop with a card that they say is, um, AGP (?) rather than PCI. I have one brown slot open that they told me the card would fit, but it does not. Almost- the notch is in the wrong place, as if the card would go in fine if I could turn it around. UGH! Makes me anxious to learn more, so I can avoid problems like this in the first place. Thanks again.

 

first find out what Video card you. Whats your chipset?

 

This is almost certainly a driver issue, and from the sounds of it, you're not certain which one you've installed!

Let's try letting Microsoft find drivers FOR us. Please do the following:

1. Right-click 'My Computer'
2. Select 'Manage'
3. On the 'Computer Management' window, click 'Device Manager'
4. In the right-hand side, expand 'Display Adapters'
5. For every item listed here, right-click, and select 'Update Driver'

Windows will now search its driver cache, as well as online (assuming you let the wizard do so) for a suitable driver for your device. This will usually find the latest (not to mention correct ) driver for the video card you have installed, but if not, we will need to know the make and model of your video card. Then we can link you directly to the drivers.

 

bad idea the MS driver cache lacks OpenGL support in there drivers.

 

You did it!

You know something? I had my keys in hand to go buy another PC as I have a project due tomorrow. I had already tried updating the driver, and I could tell that the new one was installed; now my driver was listed at 82845G/GL/PE/GV instead of just 82845G. But, the problem had gotten worse, so I rolled back to the old one. When you suggested updating the driver, I thought "been there, done that, but let me do it again so I can tell him that nothing happened".

This time, when I installed the driver and rebooted, the problem was solved! I can't thank you enough for your patience and interest in my problem. I'll hang out at this forum in the future, as I'm sure to learn a lot. I'll spread the word about how helpful you've been, and I sure wish you the best of luck.

I would not have tried installing new drivers for a second time, so I'm glad you took me down that road. -Chaz