Video adaptor driver

[Paradoxdb3]

Just the other day, I got a "new" computer from work. It's a Compaq Deskpro
EN. The case is of the small type...I believe it's called small form factor?
Anyway, I took the HDD and CD burner out of my old IBM PL300 and installed
them in the newer computer case. It took a while to get the Compaq to load
from the new hard drive. I didn't want to fdisk the HDD because I have so
much stuff on there I cannot lose! So, I used Compaq's disk "test" function
and that seemed to help.

Anyhow, as could e expected I need to find drivers for the new graphics
adaptor in the Compaq. It took me a while, because I didn't know what
adaptor was in the machine (I didn't really know where to look). Finally, I
found one that seems to work. I can change color depth up to True Color (24
bit). I guess that's all the graphics card can handle? (The one in the
older IBM could go up to 32 bit.) Also, when changing screen resolutions,
the screen takes on different shapes. 800x600 screen resolution is fine.
Fits the screen. But a screen resolution of 1024x768 causes the display to
shrink and not fit the screen. Plus it's not a square display...it has bowed
sides. I didn't have this display issue with the old computer. I'm
wondering if I have the wrong driver istalled.

Is it possible that the video adaptor can handle 32 bit display, but an
incorrect driver only allows 24 bit? Or am I out to lunch on this theory?

The driver I'm using works fine otherwise. I can fix the higer resolution
display problem by using the monitor's settings, but I don't think I should
have to.

Would I benefit from getting a separate graphics card, like one that
supports 32 bit or higher (then I KNOW the driver I install with be the right
one) or would that just bottleneck the video? And if I don't have the proper
driver installed, would the display even work at all outside of standard VGA?
Thanks for any help!

 

[Ingeborg]

=?Utf-8?B?UGFyYWRveGRiMw==?= wrote:

> Just the other day, I got a "new" computer from work. It's a Compaq
> Deskpro EN. The case is of the small type...I believe it's called
> small form factor?
> Anyway, I took the HDD and CD burner out of my old IBM PL300 and
> installed
> them in the newer computer case. It took a while to get the Compaq to
> load from the new hard drive. I didn't want to fdisk the HDD because
> I have so much stuff on there I cannot lose! So, I used Compaq's disk
> "test" function and that seemed to help.
>
> Anyhow, as could e expected I need to find drivers for the new
> graphics adaptor in the Compaq. It took me a while, because I didn't
> know what adaptor was in the machine (I didn't really know where to
> look). Finally, I found one that seems to work. I can change color
> depth up to True Color (24 bit). I guess that's all the graphics card
> can handle? (The one in the older IBM could go up to 32 bit.) Also,
> when changing screen resolutions, the screen takes on different
> shapes. 800x600 screen resolution is fine. Fits the screen. But a
> screen resolution of 1024x768 causes the display to shrink and not fit
> the screen. Plus it's not a square display...it has bowed sides. I
> didn't have this display issue with the old computer. I'm wondering
> if I have the wrong driver istalled.
>
> Is it possible that the video adaptor can handle 32 bit display, but
> an incorrect driver only allows 24 bit? Or am I out to lunch on this
> theory?

It is possible. But why bother? In both cases (24 and 32 bit) only 24
bits are used for defining the colors. (8 bits for each color red, green
and blue). In the 32 bit case 8 bits padding are added to make the memory
addressing easier.


> The driver I'm using works fine otherwise. I can fix the higer
> resolution display problem by using the monitor's settings, but I
> don't think I should have to.

This videocard seems to use another frequency for the video signal than
your old one did. In that case it's normal that you have to tune the
monitor to give a good shape.

 

[Paradoxdb3]

Thanks for the reply. As it turns out, it seems I had the wrong driver. It
seemed to work, but when I connected to the internet, any flash movies,
refreshing of the page, ect...cause the screen to flicker horribly! It seems
the driver software was not jiving with the refresh rate of the hardware.
When I did find the right driver (took FOREVER...stupid Compaq Deskpro EN!
Why can't they have a specific model number???) the problem was fixed! No
more flickering, and the screen size was perfect in every resolution. Thanks
again!

"Ingeborg" wrote:

> =?Utf-8?B?UGFyYWRveGRiMw==?= wrote:
>
> > Just the other day, I got a "new" computer from work. It's a Compaq
> > Deskpro EN. The case is of the small type...I believe it's called
> > small form factor?
> > Anyway, I took the HDD and CD burner out of my old IBM PL300 and
> > installed
> > them in the newer computer case. It took a while to get the Compaq to
> > load from the new hard drive. I didn't want to fdisk the HDD because
> > I have so much stuff on there I cannot lose! So, I used Compaq's disk
> > "test" function and that seemed to help.
> >
> > Anyhow, as could e expected I need to find drivers for the new
> > graphics adaptor in the Compaq. It took me a while, because I didn't
> > know what adaptor was in the machine (I didn't really know where to
> > look). Finally, I found one that seems to work. I can change color
> > depth up to True Color (24 bit). I guess that's all the graphics card
> > can handle? (The one in the older IBM could go up to 32 bit.) Also,
> > when changing screen resolutions, the screen takes on different
> > shapes. 800x600 screen resolution is fine. Fits the screen. But a
> > screen resolution of 1024x768 causes the display to shrink and not fit
> > the screen. Plus it's not a square display...it has bowed sides. I
> > didn't have this display issue with the old computer. I'm wondering
> > if I have the wrong driver istalled.
> >
> > Is it possible that the video adaptor can handle 32 bit display, but
> > an incorrect driver only allows 24 bit? Or am I out to lunch on this
> > theory?
>
> It is possible. But why bother? In both cases (24 and 32 bit) only 24
> bits are used for defining the colors. (8 bits for each color red, green
> and blue). In the 32 bit case 8 bits padding are added to make the memory
> addressing easier.
>
>
> > The driver I'm using works fine otherwise. I can fix the higer
> > resolution display problem by using the monitor's settings, but I
> > don't think I should have to.
>
> This videocard seems to use another frequency for the video signal than
> your old one did. In that case it's normal that you have to tune the
> monitor to give a good shape.
>
>