zozefina
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Problems changing resolutions in Games
I am running on an Athlon 2800+, Win XP Pro (build 2600, not SP1) with a MSI VGA card FX5600. Everything works perfect about changing resolutions and color depth. Because of my 19'' monitor I decided to keep 1152X864X32 resolution. The problem is that when I try to play a game in a resolution other than 1152X864, the game starts only as an icon and text (minimized) on the taskbar. When I click on it, it is maximizing for seconds as black screen and then again on the taskbar. When I managed with some tricky ways to arrange the resolution of the game at 1152X864 it works fine. But when I installed FIFA2004 which doesn't support this resolution I simply cannot run the game. I hear sounds or music but the application is minimized on the taskbar. I do have the latest drivers from MSI, I even tried the latest generic drivers from NVIDIA with no results. I have installed directX9.0b (tests show that direct3D works allright). I also disabled from the mainboard BIOS the AGP8X but still the same thing with AGP4X. I don't know what else to try. I really need help...
Thanks
Thanks
ASKER
I changed back to DirectX8.1 but that didn't fixxed the problem. The monitor's drivers are the right ones from Hitachi. The whole insatallation was from the begining in a new SATA hard disk and the problem started from the begining.
Have you tried uninstalling the NBidia Detonator (or other generic drivers by NVidia), this doesnt include the drivers for the graphics card. I had some strange problems linked to screen resolutions after I installed the Detonator drivers.. so myabe you are also having a similar problem.
Otherwise I cant really think of any other things that would cause this problem.
A few other things you could try would be to firstly use the DirectX Diagonistics tool to make sure things are working fine. You can do this by trying "dxdiag" in the Run window from the Start menu.
The next thing to ttry would be to make sure the games werent set to run at a resolution your computer cannot do. Try switching your monitor resolution to something like 800x600 and then running a game, any difference?
Otherwise I cant really think of any other things that would cause this problem.
A few other things you could try would be to firstly use the DirectX Diagonistics tool to make sure things are working fine. You can do this by trying "dxdiag" in the Run window from the Start menu.
The next thing to ttry would be to make sure the games werent set to run at a resolution your computer cannot do. Try switching your monitor resolution to something like 800x600 and then running a game, any difference?
ASKER
I have uninstalled the Detonator drivers, since they didn't fix the problem, and I work with the drivers from the MSI card. Running "dxdiag" everything seems to work fine with directX 9.0b. What I noticed is that the available resolutions in my system starts from 800X600 up to 1600X1200. The classic 640X480 seems not to be available! Perhaps this is not relevant but I think some logos of game manufactures starts with this resolution. Just a thought..
That could be causing the problem... Even though that res doesnt show up on the systems, it should still be supported. I have access to a few computers that also do not have the 640x480 res. I will test out a few games on those for you tomorrow (28th) and let you know what happens.
ASKER
I run the "dxdiag" and found out that on the Display tab when I tried to run the Direct3D test I see nothing but a massage "You cancelled the test by pressing a key" although I didn't press any key! The DirectDraw tests run normally and in the DirectX Files tab I have a "No problems found" message.
ASKER
Another observation from Internet. Someone else had exactly the same problems (directX3d tests cancelled by pressing a key and the games minimized on the taskbar). The problems solved by uninstalling Norton Firewall!! Unfortunatelly I haven't Norton on my system...
ASKER
I finally got it !!! I got into the "msconfig.exe" file, in the tab "startup" and I disactivate the startup item "gd_chost0000_el" which seemed suspicious to me. All of a sudden when I restarted my system... no problem! Everithing was working perfect. Special thanks to "shamstar" for the attention.
Cool! Its great you've fixed the problem...
... now you can get back to enjoying your favourite games! :-)
... now you can get back to enjoying your favourite games! :-)
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If it doesnt, they can you tell me if you've always had this problem or whats changed since the problem started happening?
Normally the screen should change resolutions to whatever is needed and supported by the game automatically. Make sure you have the correct monitor drivers as well.