PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: reanne on August 05, 2003, 20:07
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Hello. Im having a problem with my the colour on my pc monitor. I dont really know how to explain it except that the colours are not as clear, and appear smudged. This has become a problem, for example, i cannot see the white text clearly, that appears over the blue background of this website. can anyone help me? ???
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Hi Reanne,welcome to Pals.
It sounds as if your screen resolution has somehow changed to a lower one than you had before.
If you right click on your desktop and select properties then go to Settings,see if you can increase the size in the box to 800 x 600 or higher and the colour to 16 or 32 bits.
that should set it back to where it was before hopefully,dont forget to click apply.
It may need to reboot to take effect.
Let me know if this corrects it or not please :doggie:
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Reanne hi and welcome :welcome:
If you go to desk top and right click in a clean part and open properties then settings what does the colour resolution say .. should look a little like the pic below.
Hookstar.
Failing that one of the real techies will be here soon
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hi. i changed it to 800 by 600. this has somehow made the things on my pc smaller, from the pictures on the desktop, to the text. however, i could not change the colour to 36, it is currently `16. the colour on my pc hasnt got any better though. :'(
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If it's not the screen resolution, Reanne, it could be simply that the plug has loosened, either in the back of the monitor, or the other end in the back of the PC tower. I had a smiliar problem myself earlier in the week, where my monitor developed a green tinge. Pushing the plug into the back of the monitor cured it immediately. Best of luck - let us know what happens. :)
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sounding stupid now, which plug is it? or should i make sure there all in correctly? :-[
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Did the PC reboot after changing the resolution Reanne?
If not that may be all that it now needs to do to change the colour settings :doggie:
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ive just reboted now sandra, and its still the same. i coudnt change the 16 to a 32, becasue 16 was the only choice.
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Some newer monitors don't actually have a plug as such - just two leadscoming out the back. One would be to the power point (that should be OK), and the other will go to the back of the PC tower. Sandra may well be correct, so try her idea first, but I just changed my colour to 16, and it didn't have the effect you were describing.
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Hi again,did you mean 16 colours or 16 bit colours Reanne?
If it only has 16 colours then we need to look a little deeper.
Which make/type of PC are you using and which operating system ?
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ok, just checked the plugs again. the plug that connects to the hardrive is a big black one. im not sure if its completely in or not. i cna see a bit of the bronze but im not sure if thats normal or not. i tried pushing it in, but it wouldnt move. it also wouldnt come away but im not sure if thats cause i dont have huge muscle power. :-\
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well if it doesn't feel loose, thenh it should be OK. have you still got the problem?
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sandra, its 16 colours. also, im on windows 2000.
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Has this only just started happening Reanne? Have you changed your graphics card or graphics card drivers recently?
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no, i havent changed them.
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the colours changed about 2 days ago
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Ok so we have a problem with the graphic card drivers I think.
Unfortunatley I have never used 2000 so the bit we need to find may be in a different place to where I say but bear with me and we will sort it somehow.
I assume there is a My Computer icon on the desktop?
If so right click it and select properties and then device manager.
The display adaptor is near the top,about 4 down on mine,is there a yellow ! or ? next to it?
Even if there isnt a yellow mark then click on the + sign and it will have the graphics card below it.
Double click on it and it should say "This device is working" .
Or it may say it isnt.
Let me know what we have got in these places so far please.
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Sorry to bombard you with questions, but can you remember what you were doing immediately prior to the colours changing, Reanne? Can you remember any event around that time which was unusual?
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okay, i went to my computer, properties. it had the following tabs- general, network, hardware, user profiles, and advanced.
in the hardware tab it had=
hardware wizard
driver signing
device manager
hardware profiles.
which one do i go on? or is it not any of these?
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simon, i do believe i was doing something just before the colours changed, but i cannot for the life of me, remember what it was.
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Device manager Reanne please.
Then follow the instructions from earlier :doggie:
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okay, below the device mamager is the yellow !, like u said. however, it says "video controller (vga compatible), there is no grpahics card near it, or on the page
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simon, its just come back to me. i was deleting a program that had been downloaded, using the add/remove program thingy.
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Ok can you double click on the bit with the yellow ! and it should take you into the proerties for the controller and tell me what it says there please?
Are you on MSN messenger by the way we could possibly sort this out easier if you are :)
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Sandra - all you have to do now is work out which chipset reanne has :o ;D
:welcome: by the way reanne. Hope you stick around for a while once Sandra's solved your problem :)
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Can you remember what the program was Reanne? It could be relevant. It may have removed something with it that it shouldn't have.
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Its possibly removed a shared or common file Reanne that has affected the videp display.
Does win 2000 have a restore function the same as ME and XP does?
If so that may be the easiest way to restore your PC to before you uninstalled that program and when you unistall it the next time dont let it remove any shared or common files :)
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Feel free to jump in Adept,you know more about 2000 than I do as I have never even used it ???
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sandra, i have msn messanger.
adept, i promise to stick around after this, though id probably be more hindrence than help.
simon, i was deleting a thing called hot girls, or lips or something. my nephew was on here when i was out, and so downloaded it. arghhh.
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Feel free to jump in Adept,you know more about 2000 than I do as I have never even used it ???
Think of XP without the frills Sandra ;D
I think the best course of action now is to try and find out which graphics chipset reanne has in her PC. Then all we have to do is download the correct driver.
Just a thought: Reanne, do you have a "driver" disk that came with your PC? It may have the graphics driver on it ...
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by the way, i only upgraded from 98 to 2000 about a month ago.
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If you're sorting this out with Sandra on MSN, please post the result, Reanne, for the benefit of everyone else on the forum. :)
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Its definately a driver issue Simon,we are just trying to find them at the moment :-*
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Have you tried http://www.driverguide.com with 'drivers' and 'all' as log in details. :-\
DJ1UK
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Good idea, but the problem is in identifying the graphics card in the first place :(
Working on it ...
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:doh: Good Luck ;)
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We've got Sandra and Simon on the case - who needs luck? :slug:
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:lol: :funny:
Let us know how you get on - could be helpful for the future.
DJ
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:pmsl: Sean.... :funny:
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Eventually after a little luck and lots of reboots,Reannes PC found new hardware and after serching for the drivers on the PC istself it decided it had a Rage 128 Pro card fitted and we installed the drivers for it and it is now back to normal :)
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Just like to say, thanks to all of you who helped me, sandra, simon, sean, david, and probably more, but its 1.34 am and the brains not working (not that it ever is... but still), Y'all have been great to this Welsh girl. ;D
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Thats why the forum is here Reanne ;)
I am just sorry it took so long to sort it out :doggie:
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Sorry I'm late to the party, but in these instances of peeps not knowing what components they have got on their PC. Would it not be a good idea to have a link to Belarc Advisor on the site [or have we already got one ;D] Anyway the person with the prob can run it, and in less than five seconds they have all the gen on their PC to hand.
This is what Belarc Advisor found graphics wise on my PC
Matrox G400/G450 DualHead [Display adapter]
Matrox G400/G450 DualHead [Display adapter]
Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead - English [Display adapter]
Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead PCI - English [Display adapter]
COMPAQ MV720 [Monitor] (16.3"vis, s/n 003CE48ANXNX, January 2000)
DELL D1025HE [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n 66052H8C5MC8, December 1998)
DELL D1025HE [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n 66052991ZH88, August 1998)
easy pezzie ;)
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She had Belarc installed Tony.
Unfortunately it wasnt detecting the card as the drivers werent installed.
Whether it was there on each reboot or not we are not sure but Reanne noticed that it had detected new hardware on the last reboot and we then told it to search for the drivers and it recognised it as the Rage 128 Pro and installed the drivers from win 2000 itself we presume as it didnt ask for the cd.
I can only assume that when she uninstalled a program a couple of days previously that it removed the graphics card drivers at the same time.
As far as I know utilities like System Information,Belarc and Si Soft Sandra can only give the required information if the bits and pieces are installed with their correct drivers and are then detectable by the utility program :doggie:
Edited to add:
I think that it is probably a good idea before formatting a drive prior to upgrading or installing a new OS to run a program such as Belarc or Sandra and take screenshots,(save them to a floppy),or print off the relevant information as a precaution in case of difficulties getting the correct drivers for the sytem :-*
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Silly me, your dead right Sandra, no drivers installed no info :-[
I've had a right three days, my broker ceased trading Monday, hunting around for another. The phones all went dead this morning, relay tripped at the exchange. New washer arrive this morning, jammed on hot feed, flooded garage when disconnecting knacker washer.
And the shower head fell on me twice this morning, frightened me to death it did, when every one of a thousand bottles of youth alixia the wife smoothers herself with, hit the floor or the bottom of the bath. ;D
And I'm all hot and bothered now, ah I remember a customer of mine from way back, used to say. When the weathers hot and sticky , thats the time for dunkin Dickie. She was a grand lass, I had a lot of time for her :-X
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If the drivers have been installed they are retained in the the system files, if a card (video/sound) is not detected then remove all the card drivers in safe mode (F8) and reboot, the cards should then be detected and windows will install the drivers from the system files.
Windows sometimes looses the association between hardware and their drivers
If the cards are PCI or ISA the moving the card into another slot will help because windows see's the card as a new installation
Brian:niceday:
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Unfortunately Brian not everyone is au fait poking around in PCs especially if theyre quite new to them and unfortunately these are the people who most commonly have this kind of problem :(
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Sandra, when i asked for it to search for a suitable driver, i already had one of the disks in it from one of our earlier tries or trying to see the menus. It was the disk called the 'start up drivers'- computer video and sound product'. (i only just noticed the computer video and sound product part. Sorry, that probably would have saved us so much time if i had knew and told you that. :-[
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@reanne
We all do it reanne, booted with a W2k CD in last year pressed the wrong button and it formated the drive for me
Brian :-X
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It was the disk called the 'start up drivers'
That makes more sense then Reanne ;)
I thought we were lucky that it found them from 2K itself when it found the new hardware again :-*