640x480 pix and 16 colours

[kitty]

I know this is similar to other postings but please stick with me here. ok having restored my pc using the restore discs the display has set itself to 640x480 and 16 colours. i tried the obvious ie changing the settings but no use. i downloaded the most recent driver for my graphics card but still no different. my monitor is plug and play and in the diagnosis there doesn't seem to b any conflicts for either the monitor or display adaptor. my pc says that all the drivers are working fine.
i have restored again and again yet nothing makes a difference.
also tried running msconfig using selective start up etc.
only thing i can find is in the msconfig when i look under system.ini in boot section there is a pencil icon next to display.drv=vga.drv im not sure what this means?
basically i am at my limit of knowledge now!! so anyone with more experience who can offer some ideas or advice i'd b so grateful.
thanks in advance- kitty.

[Fish]

What OS and video card are you using? If 98 it sounds like it's using the standard VGA display driver if you've checked for all other conflicts and nothing shows up. I'm not sure how to explain it ,but, VGA 640x480x16 setting causes Win 98 to disable the previous display.drv= .... line in the System.ini file and adds the line you say you are getting (display.drv=vga.drv) to the boot section of System.ini file. I'm not sure if I'm correct so don't make any changes by what I'm saying. Just trying to give you something else to look at.

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[Fish]

I overlooked the obvious here. Did you try reseating your video card?

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[kitty]

fish thanx for ur reply.
my card is an ati 3d rage pro and is the one which came with my pc.
to b perfectly honest sure if its removable or not.
i have went back into msconfig and unchecked the box with vga 640x480x16 but i now have a further problem of my pc freezing and the screen going black when i boot up.it looks like its loading in fine then when the win 98 password screen should arrive eveything freezes - then starts in safe as the previous attempt did not load.
the only way to avoid this it seems is to disable the system.ini in selective start up from msconfig.
im not sure what effect this has- u probably know more than me.
i am wondering whether i need a new graphics card? or whether this is something to do with the hard drive - i just dont know?
any suggestions.

[Fish]

I'm very afraid to say anything as my knowledge isn't like most here, but I try to give people other options to look at while waiting for replies hoping they can fix it. Like I said before, Please don't do anything you're not familiar with because I suggest it. Please Having said that.
In the boot section you probably have the standard VGA settings that Windows uses now. (At least that's my thinking) If you want go back and recheck the box you just unchecked.
The errors you were getting before are for your video not hard drive. That much I know. Hopefully if my suggestions don't work, someone else can help out. I will in the meantime do a search to hopefully find your problem and I'll post back later tonite if you still need help.

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[This message has been edited by Fish (edited 03-24-2001).]

[Fish]

Do you have access to another monitor that you can try? Or possibly a different video card you can try? I've been searching for more answers but can't seem to come up with anything. And again, try reseating your video card to see if that helps at all. And double check that you dl'ed the most recent driver. If none of this helps, post back and I'll keep searching.

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[This message has been edited by Fish (edited 03-24-2001).]

[kitty]

unfortunately i dont have access to another monitor tho next week i will be able to try another card to see if that makes a difference.
im worried i am gonna meet the same problems tho! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/redface.gif(
its almost like my pc is saying the monitor is not capable of any higher settings.
u know like as if i were asking a really high resolution on a monitor which only has the capacity of low settings? but i know this is not the case as i always had 600x800 and high colour settings before.
the driver is the latest i downloaded again today.
my monitor is plug and play and graphics driver etc pre-installed. i tried to use generic monitor settings but that just made the screen freeze completely on booting up!
in my system.ini it says display.drv=pnpdrvr.drv which i think means its now recognising the driver although when i enable this to load ie normal mode it still just freezes and goes black so im using selective start up still.
really appreciate ur help here - its so annoying and driving me crazy!!
fingers crossed
kitty

[Fish]

It's driving me crazy so too! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif OK, in the boot section it should say display.drv=pnpdrvr.drv so at least we are making progress. The reason I wanted you to try a new monitor is to narrow down the possibilities, so don't be afraid that that wouldn't work then also. It would narrow things down tremendously. What does it tell you in the "[boot.description]" for your video card? I'm hoping it will be correct there. I'm starting to lean towards you might have to get a new video card. But, let's try figuring this out first.

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[kitty]

ok in boot description it says display.drv=RAGE PRO TURBO AGP 2X ENGLISH
which is mine so thats correct.

[Fish]

Then the only conclusion I can think of if you have the right video driver is, it's either your monitor, monitor driver, or you need a new video card. I can't think of anything else. But, don't only go by my opinion. I'm hoping someone can jump in here and let us know if we are on the right path or not. Anyone else? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

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Pretend you see an evil wizard here, this scares you. It is wicked-
This is my avatar. And now I'm happy because I have one.

[This message has been edited by Fish (edited 03-24-2001).]

[bassvax]

I don't see any mention of the system specs here so as to gauge a specific reply, but here are some "left-field" suggestions:

Check the bios for the memory allocated to the display adapter...integrated video devices usually "share" memory with you RAM. A setting too low will result in a lack of support for higher resolutions. There may be other items in the BIOS settings that could affect the problem

Check the refresh rate setting on the video adapter settings (provided you can access this area)...too high and higher resolutions are not supported.

Aside from the advice given I can offer no more at this time...sorry http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif
I hope you have some luck.

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Jerry

[Paleo Pete]

Try booting into Safe Mode and remove all display adapters from Device Manager. Reboot and windows should find the video card and reinstall it. You might also remove the monitor while in Safe Mode also, windows should reinstall both when you reboot. That should also fix the system.ini problem since it will rewrite the file to correspond with the current hardware settings.

Then if you still have resolution setting problems you can install the latest drivers.

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[kitty]

pete
i have tried all you suggested before and none of this seems to make a difference unfortunately. even the system.ini still exists after removing all devices and rebooting but thanx for replying.
jerry
ok im not exactly sure how to check the bios for the memory allocation.
i think u r right that in my case its an integrated device - u say there may be other issues in the bios affecting it - what else should i look out for.
thanx
kitty

[kitty]

pete
i have tried all you suggested before and none of this seems to make a difference unfortunately. even the system.ini still exists after removing all devices and rebooting but thanx for replying.
jerry
ok im not exactly sure how to check the bios for the memory allocation.
i think u r right that in my case its an integrated device - u say there may be other issues in the bios affecting it - what else should i look out for.
thanx
kitty