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Any computer experts out there? Need some help.

Fulton

Fulton

Monkey
Nov 9, 2001
825
0
My 17" LCD non-widescreen monitor died yesterday. Just bought a new 19" widescreen to replace it. Everything is stretched. The manual says I can use a 1440 x 900 screen resolution, problem is the widest one my computer has available is 1280 x 960/1024. Apparently I can download updates for my video card which will give me more resolution options....I don't even know what kind of video card I have, where I would go to get updates, or if this would even solve the problem. I'm running XP Pro.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
cannondalejunky

cannondalejunky

ease dropper
Jun 19, 2005
2,924
2
Arkansas
start>control pannel, open system, click the hardware tab, click device manager, click the plus sign next to display adapters

theres your video card
go google type in the name of your card and the company's site will have all the updates you'll need
 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,162
1,261
NC
cannondalejunky said:
start>control pannel, open system, click the hardware tab, click device manager, click the plus sign next to display adapters

theres your video card
go google type in the name of your card and the company's site will have all the updates you'll need
Click to expand...
You can also find this out by right clicking on your desktop, hit properties, click the Settings tab and it'll say something like "SomeBrand Monitor on SomeKind of Video Card" (e.g. Samsung ABC123 LCD on NVIDIA GeForce 8600").

I wouldn't google the card name, there's no telling what sites/drivers you'll get. Go directly to whatever the manufacturer's website is - probably either NVIDIA, ATI or Intel. Find the appropriate drivers on that website.
 
$tinkle

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
binary visions said:
You can also find this out by right clicking on your desktop, hit properties, click the Settings tab and it'll say something like "SomeBrand Monitor on SomeKind of Video Card" (e.g. Samsung ABC123 LCD on NVIDIA GeForce 8600").

I wouldn't google the card name, there's no telling what sites/drivers you'll get. Go directly to whatever the manufacturer's website is - probably either NVIDIA, ATI or Intel. Find the appropriate drivers on that website.
Click to expand...
couldn't the same piece of mind be found with just these 3 easy-peasy steps?





 
binary visions

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,162
1,261
NC
Only if you happen to have a device whose updated drivers are in Windows Update, which doesn't happen a whole lot.
 
$tinkle

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
syadasti said:
Often those drivers from WU are crap too - don't use WU - go the equipment OEM...
Click to expand...
i guess i've been a little too trusting all this time & thought that all driver info was proprietary, and as such must be provided directly from the manufacturer (w/ M$/WU as a pass through). so why exactly wouldn't MS get their drivers from the manufacturers?
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
$tinkle said:
i guess i've been a little too trusting all this time & thought that all driver info was proprietary, and as such must be provided directly from the manufacturer (w/ M$/WU as a pass through). so why exactly wouldn't MS get their drivers from the manufacturers?
Click to expand...
They are out of date drivers - it takes MS a long time to get the drivers in their database if they have them at all and I've heard of some products having issues updating from WU.
 
$tinkle

$tinkle

Expert on blowing
Feb 12, 2003
14,591
6
i guess that makes sense. especially given that they're probably too busy putting together a semi-monthly critical update to their entire OS.
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
$tinkle said:
i guess that makes sense. especially given that they're probably too busy putting together a semi-monthly critical update to their entire OS.
Click to expand...
And some devices have a non-standard driver update procedures so you could be fubar from WU
 
valve bouncer

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
I have a semi-related question. I get some sport streamed (paid stream) from Australia and as the picture is quite good quality I like to connect the laptop up to the TV. It's pretty easy to do, just get a S-Video cable and audio cables, plug in, press Fn-F4 and I'm ready to go, works a treat.

The problem occurs when the game is over and I unplug the laptop and I find that the screen resolution has gone from 1024x768 to 800x600. So no problems just right click properties, click settings and you can move the little slider across and away you go. Except the slider won't move, the only way to get it back to 1024x768 is to re-boot and then the slider will move. However if I wait too long after re-booting it won't slide. Very strange and a little annoying.

After reading this thread, I went to the video card manufacturers site and d/loaded the update for my card but it caused a few problems (laptop wouldn't go into standby mode) so I did the system restore thing so I'm back to square one. Any ideas blokes? I'm not really too worried if I can't fix it but if there's something basic I should try I'll give it a go. Cheers
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
What kind of GPU (video card chipset) do you have? There are often many versions of drivers so you might just have to seek out the right one. Also you must uninstall the old driver (nvidia and ati have listings in add/remove programs) before you can install another. Installing over the top of the existing driver can cause problems.

When you switch from the TV + laptop to laptop along make sure the correctly display is chosen under display properties, settings, display and disable the TV display if its enabled (might have to go into the advanced panel to get the displays options).
 
valve bouncer

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
It's an SiS M760 and I definitely downloaded the right one but the uninstall thing is interesting, I'll go and check the SiS site again, it's a bit light on help, Chinese I think.

I'll check on the TV display settings too. My main problem with all this is that I'm running Japanese XP and my computer is made by Sotec which is a Japanese maker but as far as I know unavailable outside Japan so English help is in short supply. Fortunately English and Japanese XP is virtually the same so I can follow the advice given here especially if there is a pictorial guide like el-Stink provided.
 
valve bouncer

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
syadasti said:
Is this the one you used?

http://www.sis.com/download/agreement.php?id=155942&url=download_step1.php?id=155942
Click to expand...
Yeah, I went from there. It then auto detects your chip-set and gives you a list of downloads.
http://www.sis.com/ocis/index1.php?os=nt&name=760&rev=A3&SBName=963/963L&AGP=SiS VGA&IntegratedDev=SiS IDESiS ModemSiS AudioSiS USB 2.0SiS Lan SiS USB 1.1 x 2&ocis_driveralert_fileid=undefined&ocis_driveralert_categoryid=undefined&ocis_driveralert_subcategoryid=undefined
I'm guessing the above link might not work for you but I get something like this
Results:

North Bridge Chipset: 760
South Bridge Chipset: 963/963L
Graphics Processing Unit: SiS Mirage2 Graphics
Related drivers:


Categories DensityDevice Available for Download

Graphics SiS Mirage2 Graphics
AGP SiS Acceleration Graphic Port
IDE SiS IDE Controller
USB USB 1.1 / USB 2.0 N/A. Provided by OS.
Audio SiS 7012 Audio Controller
LAN SiS 900 Fast Ethernet Controller
Click to expand...
It has some d/load links. I d/loaded this one "Graphics SiS Mirage2 Graphics ".
I'm lost.
 
valve bouncer

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
I d/loaded the graphics driver.
Alright, so I assume I uninstall the current driver using the display properties->settings etc that el-Stinko showed above?
As I can't read the Japanese well enough it's like being in a completely dark room that you know very well. If you're careful you can navigate without running into the sofa.
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
I'm not familiar with the SiS but most graphic drivers come with an add/remove entry in control panel add/remove programs or on the start program under programs. Do not just remove the driver manually as that can be involved and you might not find all places to remove drivers/files/registry entries which can cause problems on future installs.
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
I downloaded the driver, its best to RTFM...

It sounds like SiS graphic drivers have uninstallation options somewhere like I suggested:

SiS VGA software package consists of VGA drivers, utilities and Installation/Uninstallation programs for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
The installation/uninstallation programs are capable of installing/uninstalling VGA drivers and utilities respectively.
ur utilities consist of utility manager, driver mode setting utility, gamma correction utility, video setting utility,
TV output setting utility, center screen for TV, product and file information utility, utility tray, and hotkey define utility.
Click to expand...
If you can figure it out on Japanese XP - uninstall the current graphics driver, reboot, and install the latest driver.
 
syadasti

syadasti

i heart mac
Apr 15, 2002
12,690
290
VT
No problem. That driver from SiS is the latest version - latest isn't necessarily the best but the easiest to download from SiS. I think when searched for UniVGA3 I saw that certified MS version (WHQL) was 3.80 - uvga3_380.zip

Good luck
 
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