Sreen resolution (tape backup)

The problem started when I installed then uninstalled a video capture
device and related software [VIDEOh! by Adaptec]. Now my video display
cannot be changed from 16 bit color and 640 by 480 pixels. Thanks for
this group; misery loves company.

Windows 98SE. I apparently have a chip set, not card. Not Intel. AMD
or ASUS, maybe. I determined I had an adapter from NVIDIA.

I tried many cures. My best hope was that by restoring the entire C:\
drive including the registry from a recent backup tape I could overwrite
all bad entries and put everything back the way it was. No joy. Any
hope left on this path?

Next I went to NVIDIA and downloaded their latest (3/11/05!!!)adapter
for Windows 98SE: GeForce2 Integrated GPU. I installed it. On
rebooting, booting stops with a green screen full of vertical lines and
horizontal dots. Control-alt-del throws me into safe mode because
Windows did not completely load on the previous attempt. I don't know
what to do in safe mode, so I reboot from the start button. That reboot
works normally. But when I try to change the resolution (control panel,
display, settings), upon reboot windows again will not completely load
and the cycle starts over where I wind up in safe mode.

I'm out of ideas, and the wife is --- well, let's just say no joy.
Suggestions please?

Paul in San Francisco

You need to identify the correct video adapter drivers for your machine. Do
you have the CD that was originally supplied? That is your best source for
the correct drivers (although you may need to update them when you get
things working). If your machine is a brand name, check the model number
with the supplier for the complete hardware details. The best drivers are
those from the machine supplier, not the chipset manufacturer, as there are
sometime subtle differences in the way that the chipset has been implemented
for a particular motherboard.

Check whether the video adapter driver software has special installation
instructions. In some cases you have to uninstall the existing drivers
completely (reverting to a generic VGA driver) then restart before
installing the correct drivers.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Paul M" wrote in message
...
The problem started when I installed then uninstalled a video capture
device and related software [VIDEOh! by Adaptec]. Now my video display
cannot be changed from 16 bit color and 640 by 480 pixels. Thanks for
this group; misery loves company.

Windows 98SE. I apparently have a chip set, not card. Not Intel. AMD or
ASUS, maybe. I determined I had an adapter from NVIDIA.

I tried many cures. My best hope was that by restoring the entire C:\
drive including the registry from a recent backup tape I could overwrite
all bad entries and put everything back the way it was. No joy. Any hope
left on this path?

Next I went to NVIDIA and downloaded their latest (3/11/05!!!)adapter for
Windows 98SE: GeForce2 Integrated GPU. I installed it. On rebooting,
booting stops with a green screen full of vertical lines and horizontal
dots. Control-alt-del throws me into safe mode because Windows did not
completely load on the previous attempt. I don't know what to do in safe
mode, so I reboot from the start button. That reboot works normally. But
when I try to change the resolution (control panel, display, settings),
upon reboot windows again will not completely load and the cycle starts
over where I wind up in safe mode.

I'm out of ideas, and the wife is --- well, let's just say no joy.
Suggestions please?

Paul in San Francisco

Jeff Richards wrote:
You need to identify the correct video adapter drivers for your machine. Do
you have the CD that was originally supplied? That is your best source for
the correct drivers (although you may need to update them when you get
things working).

The only CD that came with the machine is the Windows 98 disk; could the
drivers be there? (I also got diskettes for the modem, sound card and
printer, but nothing for video)

If your machine is a brand name, check the model number
with the supplier for the complete hardware details. The best drivers are
those from the machine supplier, not the chipset manufacturer, as there are
sometime subtle differences in the way that the chipset has been implemented
for a particular motherboard.

Not a brand name, but fortunately sold with a lifetime warranty on labor.

Check whether the video adapter driver software has special installation
instructions. In some cases you have to uninstall the existing drivers
completely (reverting to a generic VGA driver) then restart before
installing the correct drivers.

I did do the uninstall, default driver, new install process. No joy.

Buried in NVIDIA's 93 pages of release notes is the following paragraph.
Could this be a possible solution to the problem, or am I clutching at
straws?

“On Athion motherboards with the VIA KX133 or 694X chip set, such
[as] the ASUS K7V motherboard, NVIDIA drivers default to AGP 2X mode to
work around insufficient drive strength on one of the signals.

“On Windows 9x systems, the registry key

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NVIDIA
Corporation\Global\System\EnableVia4X”

can be created to force NVIDIA drivers to use AGP 4X transfers.

“These registry keys should only be used if there is reason to
believe that the motherboard has the appropriate drive strength.”

I understand that their suggestion means using regedit, which I haven't
done in years and would hate to attempt if this is not likely to lead to
a cure. How do I find out whether my motherboard has “the appropriate
drive strength”?

Thanks for your interest and reply,
Paul in San Francisco

From the description of the 2x/4x issue it sounds like that is a change you
can make to improve performance, not a change that is required to allow it
to work.

The Windows installation CD will default to the closest match, which is
probably generic VGA for that card.

Have you checked the motherboard manufacturer's www site for that model?
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"Paul M" wrote in message
...
Jeff Richards wrote:
You need to identify the correct video adapter drivers for your machine.
Do you have the CD that was originally supplied? That is your best
source for the correct drivers (although you may need to update them
when you get things working).

The only CD that came with the machine is the Windows 98 disk; could the
drivers be there? (I also got diskettes for the modem, sound card and
printer, but nothing for video)

If your machine is a brand name, check the model number
with the supplier for the complete hardware details. The best drivers
are those from the machine supplier, not the chipset manufacturer, as
there are sometime subtle differences in the way that the chipset has
been implemented for a particular motherboard.

Not a brand name, but fortunately sold with a lifetime warranty on labor.

Check whether the video adapter driver software has special installation
instructions. In some cases you have to uninstall the existing drivers
completely (reverting to a generic VGA driver) then restart before
installing the correct drivers.

I did do the uninstall, default driver, new install process. No joy.

Buried in NVIDIA's 93 pages of release notes is the following paragraph.
Could this be a possible solution to the problem, or am I clutching at
straws?

“On Athion motherboards with the VIA KX133 or 694X chip set, such
[as] the ASUS K7V motherboard, NVIDIA drivers default to AGP 2X mode to
work around insufficient drive strength on one of the signals.

“On Windows 9x systems, the registry key

“HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\NVIDIA
Corporation\Global\System\EnableVia4X”

can be created to force NVIDIA drivers to use AGP 4X transfers.

“These registry keys should only be used if there is reason to
believe that the motherboard has the appropriate drive strength.”

I understand that their suggestion means using regedit, which I haven't
done in years and would hate to attempt if this is not likely to lead to a
cure. How do I find out whether my motherboard has “the appropriate drive
strength”?

Thanks for your interest and reply,
Paul in San Francisco

To better identify components download/install/run Everest free Home
Edition:
http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en



Download the appropriate drivers from the manufacturer and place them in a
folder on your desktop.



Boot to Safe Mode and change your Display (video) adapter/chip to Standard
VGA.

In Add/Remove Programs uninstall any software related to your video
adapter/chip.

In Device Manager remove any/all listed devices for the video adapter/chip
except the Standard VGA. Safe Mode will show duplicates that may cause
problems whereas Normal mode will not.

Reboot.



When Windows redetects the hardware do not let it install the drivers,
instead choose "Select a location" and use browse to point to the folder on
your desktop. If the files were in a compressed (zip) form, be sure they are
extracted to the folder first.




--

Brian A.


Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm




"Paul M" wrote in message
...
The problem started when I installed then uninstalled a video capture
device and related software [VIDEOh! by Adaptec]. Now my video display
cannot be changed from 16 bit color and 640 by 480 pixels. Thanks for
this group; misery loves company.

Windows 98SE. I apparently have a chip set, not card. Not Intel. AMD or
ASUS, maybe. I determined I had an adapter from NVIDIA.

I tried many cures. My best hope was that by restoring the entire C:\
drive including the registry from a recent backup tape I could overwrite
all bad entries and put everything back the way it was. No joy. Any hope
left on this path?

Next I went to NVIDIA and downloaded their latest (3/11/05!!!)adapter for
Windows 98SE: GeForce2 Integrated GPU. I installed it. On rebooting,
booting stops with a green screen full of vertical lines and horizontal
dots. Control-alt-del throws me into safe mode because Windows did not
completely load on the previous attempt. I don't know what to do in safe
mode, so I reboot from the start button. That reboot works normally. But
when I try to change the resolution (control panel, display, settings),
upon reboot windows again will not completely load and the cycle starts
over where I wind up in safe mode.

I'm out of ideas, and the wife is --- well, let's just say no joy.
Suggestions please?

Paul in San Francisco

Paul M wrote:
The problem started when I installed then uninstalled a video capture
device and related software [VIDEOh! by Adaptec]. Now my video display
cannot be changed from 16 bit color and 640 by 480 pixels. Thanks for
this group; misery loves company.

Windows 98SE. I apparently have a chip set, not card. Not Intel. AMD
or ASUS, maybe. I determined I had an adapter from NVIDIA.

I tried many cures. My best hope was that by restoring the entire C:\
drive including the registry from a recent backup tape I could overwrite
all bad entries and put everything back the way it was. No joy. Any
hope left on this path?

Next I went to NVIDIA and downloaded their latest (3/11/05!!!)adapter
for Windows 98SE: GeForce2 Integrated GPU. I installed it. On
rebooting, booting stops with a green screen full of vertical lines and
horizontal dots. Control-alt-del throws me into safe mode because
Windows did not completely load on the previous attempt. I don't know
what to do in safe mode, so I reboot from the start button. That reboot
works normally. But when I try to change the resolution (control panel,
display, settings), upon reboot windows again will not completely load
and the cycle starts over where I wind up in safe mode.

I'm out of ideas, and the wife is --- well, let's just say no joy.
Suggestions please?

Paul in San Francisco

I think I was wrong to focus on the new video capture device (which I
had already uninstalled without success). The display problem went away
after I uninstalled the "critical update" KB891711 and rebooted. Not a
coincidence, I think.
Paul in San Francisco