XP wallpaper: NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP

I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP Professional
computer and the XP installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert) is now sort of
blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a problem
with displaying a XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak the
NVidia display properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in the blue
sky background. The blue sky background appears in small square chunks. You
can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be able
to assist a video beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark

Mark Findlay wrote:
I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP
Professional computer and the XP installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert)
is now sort of blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a
problem with displaying a XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak
the NVidia display properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in
the blue sky background. The blue sky background appears in small square
chunks. You can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be
able to assist a video beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark



Are you running your desktop in 32bit color? Are you using a crappy LCD
panel? Is that the original uncompressed image? I believe the original
wallpapers are bitmaps, not gifs.

Your hardware is fine, either the source image is dithered or you have a
driver setting set improperly. Good luck!

What type of monitor do you have? That seems like an odd resolution unless its a typo.
--
Dave Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+

"Mark Findlay" wrote in message
...
I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP Professional computer and the XP
installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert) is now sort of blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a problem with displaying a
XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak the NVidia display
properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in the blue sky background. The blue sky
background appears in small square chunks. You can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be able to assist a video
beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark

set 32 bit colour ?
fix your drivers ?

"Mark Findlay" wrote in message
...
I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP Professional
computer and the XP installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert) is now sort of
blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a problem
with displaying a XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak
the NVidia display properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in
the blue sky background. The blue sky background appears in small square
chunks. You can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be
able to assist a video beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark

1. First off, that screenshot you took was saved in GIF. GIF is capable of
only 256 colors; you'll get "banding" regardless. It is not a true
representation of the onscreen image.

2. Like others said, make sure you are running in 32-bit color. Does the
blotchiness remain after a couple of reboots?

3. The wallpaper file is 800x600. If you stretch it to 1268x1024 (or is it
1280x1024?) on an LCD with Windows' built-in wallpaper stretch function, it
may look bad. Try resizing the BMP file to your desktop resolution with
bicubic resampling, using a proper photo-editing program like Paint Shop Pro
or Photoshop, and do not reduce the color depth.

4. What monitor are you using? Some LCDs are capable of only 6-bit color
gradient, so you end up with effectively 18-bit color.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Mark Findlay" wrote in message
...
I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP Professional
computer and the XP installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert) is now sort of
blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a problem
with displaying a XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak
the NVidia display properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in
the blue sky background. The blue sky background appears in small square
chunks. You can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be
able to assist a video beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark

Thanks to everyone for the fantastic and helpful responses!

I am running in 32bit, and have a Dell Ultrasharp 17in 1750FP monitor. I am
assuming the problem is with the image itself based on the replies to my
original post, and the fact that others with similar monitors but different
video cards have seen the same effect for that particular wallpaper. I just
wanted to make sure I had my video card set up appropriately, and think I
may, but there are other applications that I view where the splash screen
shows a grainy effect - such as when I start up Microsoft Visual Studio.NET.
It shows its splash screen with a rather 'dot'-y look to it instead of a
nice smooth look I used to get with my old 64MB card.

I have used the NVidia control panel to set all options to their very
highest, assuming that would give me the best image display. I hope that's
not a naive approach, but I figure that if the option is available I would
choose it. Hopefully I don't need to be concerned with one option canceling
out the others(?)

Thanks!
Mark

"First of One" root@localhost wrote in message
...
1. First off, that screenshot you took was saved in GIF. GIF is capable of
only 256 colors; you'll get "banding" regardless. It is not a true
representation of the onscreen image.

2. Like others said, make sure you are running in 32-bit color. Does the
blotchiness remain after a couple of reboots?

3. The wallpaper file is 800x600. If you stretch it to 1268x1024 (or is it
1280x1024?) on an LCD with Windows' built-in wallpaper stretch function,
it may look bad. Try resizing the BMP file to your desktop resolution with
bicubic resampling, using a proper photo-editing program like Paint Shop
Pro or Photoshop, and do not reduce the color depth.

4. What monitor are you using? Some LCDs are capable of only 6-bit color
gradient, so you end up with effectively 18-bit color.

--
"War is the continuation of politics by other means.
It can therefore be said that politics is war without
bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."

"Mark Findlay" wrote in message
...
I just installed an NVIDIA GeForce 6800GS 512MB AGP on my XP Professional
computer and the XP installed Wallpaper (Red moon desert) is now sort of
blotchy.

I can't imagine how an advanced card like the 6800GS could have a problem
with displaying a XP-provided wallpaper.

I am running in 1268x1024, 75Hz refresh rate, and no matter how I tweak
the NVidia display properties I can't seem the get a smooth gradient in
the blue sky background. The blue sky background appears in small square
chunks. You can see an example he
http://www.sagecomputerservices.com/...screenshot.gif

Does anyone have any experience with this type of problem they might be
able to assist a video beginner with?

Thanks!
Mark

It shows its splash screen with a rather 'dot'-y look to it instead of a
nice smooth look I used to get with my old 64MB card.

are you sure the driver is working
also posting 256 colour gif's isn't going to help much mmm (i just noticed
it's a gif and not a jpg)