Unable to adjust screen resolution. Very weird problem.

[Death Metal Moe]

This is a brand new one to me, and I like to think I've seen a bunch of this shit having built my own systems and fixing friends, family and co-worker's comps for years now.

The problem is this: The screen resolution won't set any higher than 800x600 even when you select it, you approve it and it says it changed it.

A guy I worked with asked me to come and check why he couldn't get his computer to keep it's screen resolution setting after installing a new Nvidia GeForce 9400 GT video card by PNY. To be honest I didn't think much of the request. I figured I'd update the driver, disable the onboard video or update some small monitor setting or driver and be out of there in an hour. Well I was quite wrong.

Downloaded the latest driver straight from Nvidia, no dice. Updated some small driver for the Viewsonic monitor, no dice again. Check the BIOS, it was set to override the onboard video if a card was in the PCIe slot.

He had his large monitor and a smaller Acer monitor, it did it for both monitors so it wasn't just the monitor.

That was another problem. When I plugged in the extra monitor, it totally fucked up at 1st. It showed nothing for the other monitor, and it fucked up for the original monitor after that. I had to physically take out the PCIe video card and reinstall it to get it working again. After that, both screens worked but neither would change the resolution.

Last test was this: He had an older comp I had helped him upgrade so we took the older ATI card out of it to see if it did the same trick with a different card. It was just a PCI card to I had to disable the onboard video. This time it actually went to 1024x768 but that was it. That was the NEW setting it wouldn't come off of.

So I just decided to take everything out of it, and re-write windows. That's happening now, at home. I'm gonna try to install the video card on a fresh install of windows.

Has ANYONE dealt with a problem like this before? I am in new territory here.

[Death Metal Moe]

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make sure I listed as much as I can remember doing to it in order for the tech heads to narrow shit down.

[boosterp]

Sounds as if you eliminated the first two I would of suggested which is the main cause of problems like this; driver upgrade or corrupted and checking the BIOS.

Are you using DVI cables versus the 15 pin sub-D?

9400GT should have enough oomph to crank out some high resolutions, so this puzzles me. I wonder if it is actually the BIOS on the vid card causing the problem. Are you changing the resolution through Nvidia's control panel?

Try their email support and forums to see if anyone else knows about this. Let me know what happens, this piques my curiosity.

[Death Metal Moe]

Sounds as if you eliminated the first two I would of suggested which is the main cause of problems like this; driver upgrade or corrupted and checking the BIOS.

Are you using DVI cables versus the 15 pin sub-D?

9400GT should have enough oomph to crank out some high resolutions, so this puzzles me. I wonder if it is actually the BIOS on the vid card causing the problem. Are you changing the resolution through Nvidia's control panel?

Try their email support and forums to see if anyone else knows about this. Let me know what happens, this piques my curiosity.

I was using they guy's VGA cable with an adapter up to the DVI plug on the card.

And I was unable to change the resolution through Nvidia's controls or the standard window's display settings.

It's installing SP3 right now, should only have a few more updates before I can try to reinstall the card. Crossing my fingers that the last guy just did something wrong to it.

It was almost as if some other program had ultimate control over his display settings. Some program I wasn't aware of or didn't know I had to go through to adjust the settings. That's kinda why I just said "Fresh Install." That and he JUST got this back from his father-in-law, so he hadn't put any of this programs or files back on it so it's a perfect time to reinstall Windows.

Next step, if this doesn't work, is for him to take the card back down to Microcenter In P-Town, exchange it with a lovely in store rep there and try again.

[biggestmexi]

when i started having problems with my vc similiar and i had to get a special removal tool for all the ATI's stuff. then re install everything. Also had a problem hooking up another moneter that screwed it up. It defualted itself to the other screen. But 800x600 is a odd size to get stuck at.

i bet everything is HUGE!

Driven heaven is a good place to check,

[Death Metal Moe]

Well I just put his computer away.

Everything works now.

New install of XP, brought it up to SP3, full updates, all the .net framework shit too. I always do that, just habit.

The resolution adjustment works through the regular windows interface and through the Nvidia interface. I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the fuck even happened, seriously. I mean his monitor takes drivers, but only because he bought one with an iPod port, speaker controls and card reader on the base. It should still act like a standard plug and play monitor without those drivers, you just can't use the extra shit until you install them.

I don't know. I'm busy for the next few days but I'm gonna run back down to his house with it probably Monday and plug it in. I'll be able to tell you if it worked then. I just have no idea what was happening this afternoon when I messed with it for like 4 hours, trying EVREYTHING I knew to isolate the problem and try to fix it.

I guess it might have just been a small hiccup? I don't know, but I still feel like there was SOMETHING taking control of the display settings and I couldn't find it. The guy who set up the computer for my friend put a few programs on there I'd never seen, they didn't seem to have display adjustments in them, but I'm still very suspicious of them.

But fuck it, it works, I restarted it MANY MANY times. Got all his Device Manager big yellow question marks to go away with the proper Dell downloads, put my regular shit in there I update every comp with, it's ready to go. I'll call him when I'm free, update him and see how many, if any of my programs I have here he wants me to install for him.

Great part is, I'm working for sushi. He's been telling me about this amazing place he and his wife hit all the time, I can't wait to sit down to a few really well made rolls and what not.

[Death Metal Moe]

i bet everything is HUGE!


What guy doesn't love to hear that?

[Death Metal Moe]

when i started having problems with my vc similiar and i had to get a special removal tool for all the ATI's stuff. then re install everything. Also had a problem hooking up another moneter that screwed it up. It defualted itself to the other screen. But 800x600 is a odd size to get stuck at.

i bet everything is HUGE!

Driven heaven is a good place to check,

Heh, but seriously. When I installed the ATI stuff for him as an experiment to try to track down his problem, it was a FUCKING NIGHTMARE to remove the stuff. It took like 5 minutes to install, after I HAD to update his .net framework shit, but it took over 20 minutes to uninstall. ATI sucks.

Then when I had it all uninstalled, it was giving me 8 bit color. I had to go download the intergrated graphics driver again. It FUCKED up the system.

ATI blows. Just another reason I stick with Nvidia.

[boosterp]

Wow, really odd problem. Guess Windows had some weird hiccup and vomited some .dll involving the graphics card drivers.

[KnoxHarrington]

Wow, really odd problem. Guess Windows had some weird hiccup and vomited some .dll involving the graphics card drivers.

Yeah, that's my read here: the video driver was nominally there, but missing critical files. That's a bitch to fix.

[Death Metal Moe]

This is almost as weird as the problem me and my friend were having with 2 different model Asus motherboards. They wouldn't load Vista even though they advertised "Vista Ready" on the box it came in.

Turns out both had the same Northbridge chip which a phone rep admitted to being the problem. Just gotta steer clear of it I guess.

[PapaBear]

Before he resolved the problem, I was going to suggest maybe the vga/dvi adapter was bad. I've never seen one go bad, but it was a shot in the dark.

[Death Metal Moe]

Before he resolved the problem, I was going to suggest maybe the vga/dvi adapter was bad. I've never seen one go bad, but it was a shot in the dark.

I was starting to think "Hardware Problem" at his house after 4 hours of NOTHING. I fucking HATE when I dig into a computer problem and come up with nada, so frustrating.

[Death Metal Moe]

Just a last update.

Took the comp down to the guy's house, hooked it up, everything worked great. Got a little experience setting up 2 monitors too since he wanted to set up the 2 he had there to try it out.

We installed his Flight Simulator X program, everything looks amazing and worked smoothly. His joystick installed no problem. Pretty much THE END with this story. New Windows install solved whatever happened.

The sushi place we went to for lunch was amazing. Some place called Aki in Bloomfield, NJ. Here's a LINK to their site. (http://www.akisushius.com/)

I'm not sure exactly what I ate because I just told my friend to order stuff he liked and I'd keep up. Everything was amazing. One was a roll with seaweed outside and spicy tuna with some veggies inside with rice. One roll had lobster and asparagus with rice wrapped in seaweed and had a sweet brown sauce on it. The most impressive looking roll was one with 3 different color caviars on top o the rice and veggies inside. It was green, bright red and black. Every roll was great.

Very weird computer problem, delicious ending.