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Problems With My Display & Drivers


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#1
sere83

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Hi there,

I recently was given an old 2.53Ghz Pentium 4 Packard Bell desktop to fix up. So I re-installed Windows XP without a hitch. However both before and after the install the computer displays a message on first startup saying 'video mode not supported'. It did not appear to be causing problems until I installed the graphics card driver, I think the card was an nvidia gforce 400 64mb.

Anyway after I installed the driver the monitor kept intermittently blacking out every 10 seconds or so then coming back (the monitor always remained on though as the light never went off), some of the graphics were displaying wrong too and looked messed up. I know it is the correct driver as it is from the packard bell website. Anyway I uninstalled it and and with the generic drivers everything seems to work fine, however I obviously get the new hardware wizard on start up. Any one how I can fix this?

Also just a note the monitor cable is weird it has both a standard vga connector and a usb port too..

Any help much appreciated

Sere83
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#2
phillipcorcoran

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"Video mode not supported" is referring to your monitor's display capabilities. When you install the driver for the graphics adapter it's probably defaulting to a refresh-rate which that particular monitor cannot cope with.

You need to set a lower refresh-rate in Windows Display Properties.

Re-install the driver. Start Windows in 'Safe Mode' to change the refresh-rate. Re-start.

Edited by phillipcorcoran, 09 April 2010 - 03:35 AM.

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#3
sere83

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Thanks for your help. I tried as you suggested but unfortunately it has not worked. When I restart in safe mode, there is no option to even change the refresh rate, the only option in display properties available is 'use hardware default settings'.

The Nvidia tool that is part of the driver package lets you change the refresh rate inside xp though, I tried them all (75,72,70 and 60 hertz) and changing them, makes no difference, I still get intermittent black outs and the 'video mode not supported' message on start up. Is there anything else I can do?
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#4
phillpower2

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Hi there, couple of suggestions: have you updated the monitor drivers/have you let the hardware wizard detect the latest drivers for your gfx card online? windows doesn`t always play ball if you update drivers it doesn`t recognise.
Good luck & let us know how things work out
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#5
sere83

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I actually went to the packard bell website and entered the computers serial number in the support bit so I know the drivers are the right ones. Unfortunately the computers not online so I cannot try the update. I'm really puzzled though, don't know what to do!
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#6
phillpower2

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In your next post you need to list as much information as you know about the computer, monitor & gfx card this should include make & model numbers, this will enable others to help you better.

I actually went to the packard bell website and entered the computers serial number in the support bit so I know the drivers are the right ones. The right drivers for the computer or add on card?
These drivers may not support/be the same as for your gfx card so the motherboards generic drivers could be conflicting with the card or indeed as posted by phillipcorcoran the monitor & card.
BTW its a pity you can`t go online with the problem computer as I recall there were similar issues to yours that were resolved by xp`s automatic updates, just a thought but is there anyway you can ask a freind if you can hook the computer up to their internet connection to access the xp updates? A word of warning though it does take a while to download them all & there is a lot of restarts involved, hope this helps & let us know how its going.

Edited by phillpower2, 12 April 2010 - 03:20 AM.

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#7
sere83

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Right...So I have done all sorts of tests and come up with some info...

Packard Bell I MEDIA 5094
Pentium 4 2.53Ghz

Graphics (from Packard bell website)

Leadtek NV17 GeForce 4 MX
Name: GeForce4 MX (NV17)
Type: 2D/3D accelerator card
Manufacturer: Leadtek
16-09-2002

I believe the card to be a nVidia Geforce4 MX440

80gb Seagate HDD

My serial is 024518920645

If you go to the site you can type it in and see even more detailed spec.


So I got onto the internet and tried to run windows update.....no joy, found nothing. The "Video mode not supported" thing shows only for about 2 seconds and a message that the monitor is not connected also shows, so I think both these messages only appear because the computer takes a few moments to register the monitor. I tried the computer with another display and neither of these messages display.

So then...I tried nvidia Geforce4 Mx440 drivers from both the nVidia website and the ones from the packard bell website that it said was for my my model. They were pretty much identical. For a while I had thought I had fixed the problem after adjusting some refresh rates and auto syncing the display, however black out's were still occurring about every 10 minutes. Then when I switched displays the old problems with graphics displaying wrong and frequent blackouts were back with a vengeance. So I changed back to the original monitor and things were even worse, the computer was actually rebooting itself too and was practically unusable with messed up graphics and blackout every 3/4 seconds.

Then I uninstalled the nvidia drivers and now on both displays everything runs perfectly, except obviously I get a the normal message on start up saying 'new vga controller hardware found'

I would also like to point out when the Nvidia drivers are installed, in hardware device profiles it says everything is working as it should be.

Is there anything else I can do? I really have no clue what to do at this point...
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#8
sere83

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anyone out there?
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#9
phillpower2

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Sorry about the delay getting back, work & sleep get in the way sometimes!
Ok monitor not connected or no signal to monitor messages are not unusual
when booting up but video mode not supported obviously is.
Have you updated the monitor drivers & when you had the computer connected
to the internet did you install all available updates for xp right up to sp 3?
Like I said there are a lot of updates available for xp & it takes a long time
to download & install them, ie its not a 5 minute job but its worth doing as
there is a lot of fixes amongst them.
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#10
sere83

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No worries....

Neither the 'video mode not supported' or 'No input' message come up when the computer is connected to another normal CRT monitor. I did install a load of XP updates when I connected to the internet, it is also running a clean SP3 install.

I don't really mind about the monitor thing cos I can just use the CRT. The main issue is the fact that as soon as I install the graphics drivers for my card the display completely messes up and starts blacking out no matter what monitor I use. However without them installed everything works perfect.

Can i just use the generic graphics drivers? Otherwise do I have any other options? It seems that the computer just does not like the graphics drivers provided for the card by Nvidia.

Edited by sere83, 18 April 2010 - 10:03 AM.

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#11
phillpower2

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As long as your happy & your system is stable I would recommend sticking with the generic drivers.
I recently had a problem with Realtek AC 97 driver updates, when I tried installing them direct from
Realteks website the computer would crash & reboot, maybe its because the drivers are simply out of
date & conflict with anything more up to date.
Good luck & lets hope you don`t have any more problems.
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#12
sere83

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Ok thanks, yeah i think there must be some conflict, i thought it may be because the computer is old and by the looks of things nvidia have basically made a driver/tool that supports a whole load of legacy/out of production cards and maybe with my config it has caused problems. Just one question last though, how do i stop the computer trying to install drivers for the card on boot up?
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#13
phillpower2

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Couple of methods here but please be careful & double check anything you intend to uninstall.
http://www.techtalkz...er-loading.html
or this which I find a bit easier,
http://bloggerdigest...windows-xp.html

Edited by phillpower2, 19 April 2010 - 12:17 PM.

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