monitor stuck on 256 color 640 x 480 screen.

rovingcowboy · Joined: Jan 26, 2003 Posts: 1278

okay i told them to press the video card a little to make sure its in the slot.

they did a system restore and it did nothing which is about normal for that.

heres what happened. computer in living room,

working fine, shut down unplug everything and move to bed room.
plug it all back together and power up. screen now stuck in that default setting.

changing it in the advanced settings does nothing. every time they change the color on the settings tab for the monitor from the 4 color back to the 32 high color, and press okay or apply it changes to the 4 color and not the 32 color in other words its not taking effect. they are clicking the button for the joy of clicking the button and thats all.
at least that is what it seems like they are doing since it won't change.
they tried the update monitor drivers like the troubleshooter said to do.
and the monitor is one that should use the default drivers of windows.

so besides doing all the above what is it i missed that should be the way to fix the color setting on the windows xp pro's monitor.

just remembered about the last good boot option so i told them to do that.
not sure if they did it yet i just told them too.

thanks for the help again. i know it can be fixed i have done it before but what i did as i said above did not seem to work this time.
Confused

rovingcowboy · Joined: Jan 26, 2003 Posts: 1278

never mind yet? well maybe
just got a call from them saying they tried another time for the settings tab to take the 32 bit change.

but it came back up after trying to change them and said the video card needed driver updates. but it did not say that when they told it to update the drivers from the video cards properties panel?

strange, but i just wanted to get you the up to date info they are having with the error incase it helps you find an reason faster.

Cool

goretsky · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:53 am Post subject:

Hello,

Have the person go to the video card or chipset manufacturer's web site and download the latest device drivers for the video adapter and whatever operating system they are running.

The person can also check the display manufacturer's web site to see if a driver is available as well, in case there are any special features the person would like to enable that cannot be accessed through the generic monitor driver provided by the operating system.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

bern · Joined: Mar 12, 2007 Posts: 1432 Location: ann arbor

rovingcowboy · Joined: Jan 26, 2003 Posts: 1278

thanks for the answers guys hope it helps some one that might have the same situtuation.

i did tell them to check the cable but it was not loose,
the thing self checked for that update as i said in the last post i did above,
and it is working now. so it was a driver that some how got lost just by moving it? unless they switched monitors from the living room to the bedroom? but they did not tell me if they did that. and that would be a major cause for bad images even if they left the computer in the living room.

i bet that is what they did. switched monitors and did not tell me that peice of info.

cause i can't see hardware breaking that fast. but they do have a working image now on their monitor so it is FIXED.

Cool

cterrian · Joined: Jun 17, 2003 Posts: 59 Location: Atlanta GA Area

I had the same problem about 6 months ago with a GeForce video card. Turned out to be the refresh rate was set too high. You might want to have them check it.

Right click anywhere on the desktop and choose properties.
Choose Settings tab
Click on Advanced button
Click on Monitor tab
Choose a lower screen refresh rate by using the pull down menu. Choose 60 Hertz.
Ensure "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" block is checked.
Click Apply, and then Ok all the way out. Windows may ask to restart, just click Yes.

Hope this helps,
CT
Wink

rovingcowboy · Joined: Jan 26, 2003 Posts: 1278

yep i had them check that too, thanks Smile

but it was the out dated drivers on it this time,
which was brought on by the fact they switched monitors on me an did not tell me.

yup thats what happened they got a new monitor and set it up on the computer in the living room all was working .
they unplugged every then took it in to the bedroom only they switched the monitor out so the one in the bedroom was not on the computer in the living room. which is why it did not work on it when they booted up.

it seems lack of information from people is getting to be a normal thing.
how can any one expect to have any help if they don't tell every thing that was done to the person they are asking for tech help. either over the phone or online.? Mad

zlim · Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 2636