pc starts up in 4 bit colour, 800 x 600 resolution??

joseph brand

Hi,

Friend having trouble with hic PC.

Just after XP professional screenon boot up, computer dies, before it reaches 'Welcome' screen. Needs to be started couple of times and then, it gives option of safe mode and last known good config. When you pick last known good config, it comes on in 4 bit colour, 800 x 600 resolution, these settings cannot be changed??

there is a red balloon with white X thru it, asks if he wants windows to automatically adjust settings, but it doesn't when prompted.

any help greatly appreciated,

kev

Ruu_Old

That says to me the CMOS battery is dieing and not able to hold the colour settings.

conzy

Try and reinstall video drivers

rsynnott

Ruu wrote:

That says to me the CMOS battery is dieing and not able to hold the colour settings.

Er, what a bizarre, other-worldly, solution.

Sleipnir

Well the "last known" good config is one where it booted up in 16-bit colour! It may not look good but it worked so it's a "good" config.

As already suggested, re-install the drivers for the video card.
Ruu, low CMOS battery power doesn't mean computers can't "hold on" to things? I mean, is there a seqence? First they can't "hold on to colours" and then they can't "hold on" to black and white?

Ruu_Old

Ah i meant colour settings and configuration, well it worked for me a few months ago *shakes fist*

mp3guy

Ruu wrote:

Ah i meant colour settings and configuration, well it worked for me a few months ago *shakes fist*

Maybe if it was a Macintosh IICI

ChityWest

If you can when your booted into last known config - try removing the vid card from device manager - on reboot it should think its a bog standard vga one and may re-detect/re-install the drivers.

If that doesnt work and if possible I would put the video card in a different slot - or if say its a pci-e one and youve only got one slot maybe even just remove it and re-seat it back into its oriignal.

Also disconnect anything added to it - ie cd-rom drive, and usb stuff that didnt come in the original config (if it was store bought). Basically just have the mobo - hdd - video - cpu etc - the minimum things you need to boot the system.

trojaneater1

conzymaher wrote:

Try and reinstall video drivers

Got it in one conze.
Is your friends card a GEFORCE 6600 by any chance?
Load new drivers from nvidias site.............

rsynnott

Low CMOS battery will cause BIOS to lose settings. Colour depths and such are not stored in the BIOS.

Ruu_Old

rsynnott wrote:

Low CMOS battery will cause BIOS to lose settings. Colour depths and such are not stored in the BIOS.

Aye but 4 separate computers came to me with the colour depth not what it should be, just at 640x480 @16 colours (tried reinstalling drivers, reseating the video card, etc and nothing) but I replaced the CMOS battery and the colours were back to normal, no lies.
I guess that was just my experience with it and not useful to the OP,sorry!

gamer

try control panel add hardware, graphics adaptor, SVGA driver,scroll past ati ,nvidia 9800 etc to generic svga driver.

joseph brand

Pretty sure his card is a Geforce 4 Ti.

Will try these options out later.

Is it a good idea to have spare CMOS battery???


Thanks very much for replies.

Kev

zilog_jones

It has *nothing* to do with the CMOS battery - for starters the graphics card has its own BIOS, and Windows settings are all stored on the hard disk - the CMOS/motherboard BIOS has absolutely no control over Windows settings like this! The CMOS battery generally will last about 8-10 years anyway - I'm quite certain a PC with said graphics card won't be that old!

I'd go for reinstalling graphics drivers. Also, try the Omega Drivers too - you may have better luck with them. I know the Nvidia ones haven't been updated in a while but they perform better than the latest official ones with my GF4 Ti.