O/T Bloody Computers

[spence]

Do what i do, give it a good hard punch and chuck it at the wall.

It might not work again but you'll get plenty of satisfaction and be safe in the knowledge that you tried your best.  

Could always ask santa for a new one while your at it.

[Stuart]

Now got the CDRW drive going again, but still no idea how to get 256 colours back and the screen is not right - sort of undulates across from light to bold, IYSWIM.  Still think I got graphics probs and don't think it's the driver, so guess it may be time to invest in a new graphics card.  Recommendations?

Edited to say that I suppose striations is the word.

[pistonbroke]

Check in Control panel - display - settings

re set colour to whatever you want in there .  

Also

have a look at the device manager  ....

click -  start , control panel,   system ,   hardware  

device manager

you can check and update  the drivers and stuff  

good luck

[Stuart]

Thanks Bernie.  Done all that but still can't get 256 colours.  It's not bad now but it still definitely ain't right.  I have downloaded drivers again, got rid of striations (don't really know how) but brightness and contrast are not what they used to be.

Anyone any clue as to how I can restore 256 colours?

Cheers,

Stuart

[Boomy]

You need to get back to 16 million odd colours.

Normaly if windows gets stuck and won't let you change resolutions etc it's a driver issue or graphics card related at least.

Have you removed the old drivers using add/remove or if not that would be worth a go.

Even better would be to grab an Nvidia driver removal tool.

Run that, follow on screen instructions, reboot, install your new up to date driver and see what happens then.

Your screen probably looks poor at the moment because it is running on the very basic non native res settings and is no doubt shimmering like a b***h due to not being set at a decent refresh rate etc.

[John Loudon - Sponsorship Liaison]

Try adjusting the refresh rate Hz in the video card settings

[Stuart]

Guys, thank goodness I seem to have sorted it.  Not really sure quite how, but fingers crossed.  Thanks muchly for all your coments and goodnight.

Stuart

[pistonbroke]

Hey !

well done !

lucky or what ?

All that from  a team of morons who really know sweet FA about sodding compewteres      

You lucky sod  

[Stuart]

I agree mate.  Still can't get back to 256 colours though.

[Boomy]

When you say you can't get back to 256 colours, what is it currently running at, any idea?

Do you just mean you can't alter the desktop to 16 or 32 bit in this window?

[Stuart]

No I got that screen, but I am sure it used to say 16bit, 32bit and 256 colors?  Monitor image still looks a bit weird - test is thin and not well defined.  I've b*******ed about with contrast and brightness etc. but can't get it to look right.  Pleased I have a screen at all but p******** off that I can't sort this.

[Boomy]

If you are running XP, windows by default should display higher than that without any driver in i think.

If it were me, i would remove the current driver and add a new one in.If you are not sure how to do that etc just post here.

[Stuart]

Have uninstalled driver and downloaded latest (2/11/06) from Nvidia website.  But it's still crap.

Edited to say yes I am on XP

[Boomy]

If you go into the advanced tab on that pic i showed, can you change anything under the monitor and adapter tabs?

That is assuming you see them, i haven't use Nvidia for ages sadly so wouldn't know what the screens look like for them.

[Stuart]

Yep can change things, but none of the settings is giving me a good image.