red10
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display problem
I upgraded a PC to Win98SE for a friend of mine a couple of months ago. This is a pentium 233 mmx, 64 megs, onboard Sis video chip.Everything was happy, it went well. Recently his display went to some diagonal lines. Looked like the images were diagonal too. k...so I boot to safe mode, delete video driver and monitor. Reboot to command prompt, run regscan, reboot, let windows autodetect and install video driver(from the cd that came with the motherboard) and monitor. No help. Next I reboot to safe mode. I move that graphics accellerator silder all the way down. This time I can reboot in normal windows but can only display 16 colors. I move the accellerator to the next notch and reboot. Now I get back all my color options. I move the accellerator up to the next notch and boom.. the display goes screwy agian. When I get the
accellerator back to the second notch(from the left) and won't let you move it to the right anymore. I'm sure that before the display problems the slider was all the way to the right. It works like this for now but I suspect there is still something wrong. Oh, I don't remember exactly when in this process I did this but I ran the system file checker, it found a corrupt file and asked for the 98 cd to replace it. I don't remember the name of the file but it was replaced. There are no games on this PC. The only SW loaded recently was Juno Internet SW. No new HW. That I know of. Will the slider being on the second notch affect performance? What could have caused these changes? What gives?
accellerator back to the second notch(from the left) and won't let you move it to the right anymore. I'm sure that before the display problems the slider was all the way to the right. It works like this for now but I suspect there is still something wrong. Oh, I don't remember exactly when in this process I did this but I ran the system file checker, it found a corrupt file and asked for the 98 cd to replace it. I don't remember the name of the file but it was replaced. There are no games on this PC. The only SW loaded recently was Juno Internet SW. No new HW. That I know of. Will the slider being on the second notch affect performance? What could have caused these changes? What gives?
Did the PC come with a diagnostic disk? Many manufacturers include a hardware diagnostic program that you can run. It is possible you have a flaky video board. I have one computer that acts up like that. Kick the computer and the video works again. :) (I'm only partially joking about kicking the computer. Er, actually, I mean to say that I "manually adust the physical location of the internal components." Yeah, that's it. <grin> Don't kick you're friend's computer! LOL But do do the following:)
Make sure the video card is in securely. And see if the PC came with some hardware diagnostics and try to run those on the video card. Sometimes the video card just "goes" and it's time to replace it. Or sometimes it gets loose from moving the computer around and starts behaving irratically.
Also, make sure you have the most recent video driver. Many times the drivers on the restore CD's are not the latest drivers. Reason? Many OEM's mass produce the restore CD's and actually install your computer with a Master CD instead. Their master CD may have more recent drivers than the ones on the restore disk.
I doubt if its the monitor, but it wouldn't hurt to try it with a different monitor to see if the behavior is consistent. It would be good if you could actually try a monitor by a different manufacturer just to see what would happen with a different driver installed.
But check the hardware first. Your symptoms sound very similar to a video card problem I had recently. It turned out to be a flaky card in my case.
Check for updated drivers too. Sometimes older version have bugs that appear under certain situations. An updated driver could solve the problem if it isn't a hardware problem.
Make sure the video card is in securely. And see if the PC came with some hardware diagnostics and try to run those on the video card. Sometimes the video card just "goes" and it's time to replace it. Or sometimes it gets loose from moving the computer around and starts behaving irratically.
Also, make sure you have the most recent video driver. Many times the drivers on the restore CD's are not the latest drivers. Reason? Many OEM's mass produce the restore CD's and actually install your computer with a Master CD instead. Their master CD may have more recent drivers than the ones on the restore disk.
I doubt if its the monitor, but it wouldn't hurt to try it with a different monitor to see if the behavior is consistent. It would be good if you could actually try a monitor by a different manufacturer just to see what would happen with a different driver installed.
But check the hardware first. Your symptoms sound very similar to a video card problem I had recently. It turned out to be a flaky card in my case.
Check for updated drivers too. Sometimes older version have bugs that appear under certain situations. An updated driver could solve the problem if it isn't a hardware problem.
Also, is the Accelerator slider the only option effected in the control panel, or are other options effected too? For example, are there less resolution and color choices than there used to be?
If you start seeing that, then you probably have a video card or a monitor hardware problem. When the video driver cannot access those features it makes them unavailable to you. That usually indicates a hardware problem with the monitor or video card.
If you start seeing that, then you probably have a video card or a monitor hardware problem. When the video driver cannot access those features it makes them unavailable to you. That usually indicates a hardware problem with the monitor or video card.
have you tried :
a. setting the display adapter as one of the standard display types? this will identify it as a driver issue.
b. often the maker of the chipset makes a leaner and more stable driver than the oem, which usually includes a bunch of other unneeded fatware to confuse the issue.(ex I have a diamond viper 550, and since diamond drivers notoriously suck, I use nvidia's -the chipset maker-drivers. )
a. setting the display adapter as one of the standard display types? this will identify it as a driver issue.
b. often the maker of the chipset makes a leaner and more stable driver than the oem, which usually includes a bunch of other unneeded fatware to confuse the issue.(ex I have a diamond viper 550, and since diamond drivers notoriously suck, I use nvidia's -the chipset maker-drivers. )
ASKER
Thanks for your answers. I'm looking for a more detailed account of what the acellerator slider does. I'd like to understand what happened not just fix it. I mean the PC is functional now.
Otta: I realize I can use another video card and try a different monitor. This may fix it but I still won't understand what went wrong.
Wistex: First it's an onboard video chip
not a card. The slider has four positions I can now only use the first two. In the first I get only 16 colors.
In the second position I get all the color options. Third and fourth position are no longer avavilable.
jcmf: The only other driver I can use is
Windows' own standard VGA. This limits me to 16 colors.
If I used this driver sucessfully for sevevral months why can't I use it now. Wouldn't something have to have changed. I know the video chip may have gone bad or maybe even the monitor.I guess I'd like a more detailed description of how windows uses the slider. What does each notch enable or disable etc. Why would windows grey out position three and four. They weren't greyed out before. Is there a reason why this may happen other than a bad video chip or monitor? BTW, bios reports using 2megs for video. I guess i'm not looking for a fix as much as information.
Thanks again for your help.
Otta: I realize I can use another video card and try a different monitor. This may fix it but I still won't understand what went wrong.
Wistex: First it's an onboard video chip
not a card. The slider has four positions I can now only use the first two. In the first I get only 16 colors.
In the second position I get all the color options. Third and fourth position are no longer avavilable.
jcmf: The only other driver I can use is
Windows' own standard VGA. This limits me to 16 colors.
If I used this driver sucessfully for sevevral months why can't I use it now. Wouldn't something have to have changed. I know the video chip may have gone bad or maybe even the monitor.I guess I'd like a more detailed description of how windows uses the slider. What does each notch enable or disable etc. Why would windows grey out position three and four. They weren't greyed out before. Is there a reason why this may happen other than a bad video chip or monitor? BTW, bios reports using 2megs for video. I guess i'm not looking for a fix as much as information.
Thanks again for your help.
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Since Dew mentioned heat, you might as well check for dust. Dust will create irratic behavior in a computer too.
ASKER
Thanks everyone for your input.
You're quite welcome!
The BIOS should then bypass the onboard video, and use the video-card.
If you still have problems, then it's your monitor, not a video-card problem.