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display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?
Hello, hope someone here can help, though I've put the post elsewhere
too. I wanted a computer separate from my Vista laptop for specific tasks and have bought a refurbished Compaq Deskpro En, 886 mhz, 320 mb RAM, 20 gig hard drive. For a lot of simple tasks it looks fine, like this page, for example, but photos can look dotty, worse with Firefox (current version) than Internet Explorer (may be the standard W2k version, only had the machine a few hours). I'm using it with a mysteriously unbranded TFT monitor, 15 " that I bought from a friend. Been unable to check for drivers for that, not knowing the brand - neither does the friend. I know it works fine, and after swapping the CD Rom drive for a DVD Rom drive I had salvaged I've even seen it display DVDs pretty well with a freeware media player - no dotty appearance. The pc supposedly has NVidia Riva TNT2 display hardware, but when I used the NVidia site to try and update drivers I was told that no compatible hardware could be found. I've tried uninstalling both the display adaptor and the monitor and rebooting, only to get the same readings appear again on reboot. I've tried different mode settings for teh NVidia, and changed other settings, to no progressive avail - other settings are too big or too small. I have done all the updates for W2k, and it had the SP4 already present. I remember having older kit, running Win95 that temporarily had this trouble but was solved, but I am stumped for the time being. Is this permanent? Not a massive hardship, as my laptop's for the swish stuff, but I'd like to get this going as well as it can. Is the graphics card's limitations? Would replacing it - supposing I can recognise it inside there - get round this (though I didn't have to do that with the Win95 machine, which if I remember right was also a Compaq Deskpro). All advice much appreciated. Thanks. Lee |
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display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?
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#3
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display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?
Hi!
Hello, hope someone here can help, though I've put the post elsewhere too. I wanted a computer separate from my Vista laptop for specific tasks and have bought a refurbished Compaq Deskpro En, 886 mhz, 320 mb RAM, 20 gig hard drive. Nice systems. But you've got know what you have. There are three major configurations: 1. Desktop case. This has two drive bays side-by-side with the floppy drive opening underneath the rightmost one with the machine facing you. 2. Convertible desktop/tower case. Drive bays are all vertically aligned, one on top of the other. 3. SFF -- looks like a "shrunken" desktop model. One 5.25" drive bay, one floppy bay. Internally, the hard drive sits to the left of the CD-ROM. If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here? Of all three, it is *only* the SFF models that have nVidia video. All others use Intel 815 video and have an AGP slot where a video card or AIMM (video RAM) will be. And you're quite right, the latest nVidia 71.89 drivers won't install, with the installer complaining that you don't have any compatible hardware in your system. This is untrue, and the drivers will work. After setup fails, it leaves behind a folder full of drivers. Go to the Device Manager, find the display adapter and upgrade the drivers using the facilities provided there. Pick a GeForce MX100/200, and ignore the warning about compatible hardware. The nVidia drivers *are* smart enoug h to really know what you have, and will identify it correctly in the nVidia control panel. Of course, if you're using Windows 2000 or XP, both have a suitable nVidia driver built in. (Again, if that's really the video system you have!) Check your resolution and color depth settings--they need to match what the LCD panel is capable of or things will look bad, possibly in the way you describe. The graphics hardware in these machines is pretty good. Even the Intel 815 has dedicated video memory, something you don't see done very often. The nVidia chipset has at least 16MB video memory available to it, and can drive a 1280x1024 panel at 32-bit color perfectly. William |
#4
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display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?
Hold that thought...
Nice systems. But you've got know what you have. If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here? Desktop: http://greyghost.mooo.com/deskpro-en/DSC04143.JPG (640x480, 143KB) Tower (one machine in from the rightmost computer in the picture): http://greyghost.mooo.com/temp-blog-imgs/bench1.jpg (640x480, 54KB) And I thought I had a picture of the SFF...as many of them as there are crawling around here...you'd think I would...oh, well, I'll just borrow this one from an eBay seller. Seems fair enough since I bought that very machine: http://www.liquis.com/ebaypics/20080...-0042099-a.JPG (720x540, 35KB) William |
#5
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display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?
Yes, it's an SFF, and it's all sorted now - thanks very much all!
Except, I now have a problem with the floppy drive. See new post. Lee On Nov 8, 1:16*am, "William R. Walsh" m wrote: Hold that thought... Nice systems. But you've got know what you have. If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here? Desktop:http://greyghost.mooo.com/deskpro-en...43.JPG(640x480, 143KB) Tower (one machine in from the rightmost computer in the picture):http://greyghost.mooo.com/temp-blog-...h1.jpg(640x480, 54KB) And I thought I had a picture of the SFF...as many of them as there are crawling around here...you'd think I would...oh, well, I'll just borrow this one from an eBay seller. Seems fair enough since I bought that very machine: http://www.liquis.com/ebaypics/20080...-a.JPG(720x540, 35KB) William |
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