My Screen Stuck At 4 Bit And 640 X 480 Pixels!! Help Please

[Silver_Dragon]

Hi, this morning i installed a windows update and than it prompted me to restart. After my computer came back on the screen was stuck at 4 bit colour and 640 x 480 pixels. I've tried to change it back in the display properties but it won't. I've also tried to follow the windows help advice by checking/updating drivers etc. but still no joy. Please help me, it feels like i'm back in the 90's :eek:

[caperjack]

Hi ,a little more info on you computer stats will help like what OS, make ,model and stuff .also right click on mycomputer /properties /device manager ,any yellow ! marks around display adapter.

[billythehamster]

Sounds like the windows has updated a driver and hence screwed your machine. Here is a link on Microsoft to do a system restore to the last know good state:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306084/

I would personally back everything up before following this.

[jbennet]

Windows

[jbennet]

Windows Geforce 2 Nvidia Driver Does That To Me Windows Update Installed It Even Tho I Have Nvidias Newest One Already And It Buggered My Pc Up

[Silver_Dragon]

Hi, thanks for the replies and sorry i havent responded in a while. I tried restoring my pc, but it wouldn't let me restore it to before the incident so im at a loss now. My OS is Windows XP, Home Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 2. Thanks

[Silver_Dragon]

hi, if there is anyone out there i'd really appreciate it as i haven't been able to restore my system back to when it was ok.

[caperjack]

hi, if there is anyone out there i'd really appreciate it as i haven't been able to restore my system back to when it was ok.

Hi did you, or have you been able to reinstall your video display drivers

[Silver_Dragon]

i've tried updating them but it said i have the latest one. could you tell me hoe to go about reinstalling them please. thanks

[caperjack]

i've tried updating them but it said i have the latest one. could you tell me hoe to go about reinstalling them please. thanks

well if it says you have the latests one then it should be working ,when you right click on the desktop and go to properties /settings can you change it to 16 or 32 bit ,
When you right click mycomputer go to properties /device manager , click the + next to display adapter ,what do you see ,are there any yellow or red !!! around anywhere .
some time when we download driver on the net thery are zipped files ,they will need to be unzipped before you can install them ,sometime there is exe file within the folder we need to execute it to install dirvers ,some time we go through display adapers in device manager to install the drivers if there is no executiable .

[Silver_Dragon]

it doesn't allow me to change to any higher bit. and i looked for yellow marks but there are none. and i havent downloaded an drivers off the net

[Silver_Dragon]

if i uninstall the display driver, whaat will happen?? will i be able to use the computer or will the display not work. thanks

[caperjack]

if i uninstall the display driver, whaat will happen?? will i be able to use the computer or will the display not work. thanks

if you uninstall it in the device manager or through add and remove program, when you reboot computer , windows will load default drivers ,that you can't change the settings on but computer will work ,then you can find or reinstall the correct drivers if you have them

[Silver_Dragon]

i just uninstalled the driver and my computers gone back to normal! should i download the driver off nvidia's website or let windows find it?? thanks

[Silver_Dragon]

i just uninstalled the driver and my computers gone back to normal! should i download the driver off nvidia's website or let windows find it?? thanks

thnaks for your help, i just updated the driver and it all seems fine:) :) :)

[caperjack]

your welcome ,hope it stays that way !

[jetsfan799]

OMG!!! i had the same exact problem ,my computer was stuck at 640X480 with only 4 bit color nad i couldnt change it. but then i uninstalled the driver in the device manager and windows told me i had to reboot, i rebooted at it worked!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[caperjack]

OMG!!! i had the same exact problem ,my computer was stuck at 640X480 with only 4 bit color nad i couldnt change it. but then i uninstalled the driver in the device manager and windows told me i had to reboot, i rebooted at it worked!!!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your welcome!!

[Thambu]

Hi, this morning i installed a windows update and than it prompted me to restart. After my computer came back on the screen was stuck at 4 bit colour and 640 x 480 pixels. I've tried to change it back in the display properties but it won't. I've also tried to follow the windows help advice by checking/updating drivers etc. but still no joy. Please help me, it feels like i'm back in the 90's :eek:

Thambu

Resolving the Problem
The Graphics Controller driver may be corrupt. This is the most likely cause of the problem. Reinstall the driver or Update the driver.
To reinstall the driver(EX. Intel® Extreme Graphics controller)
1. Open the control panel
2. Remove Intel® Extreme Graphics controller.
3. Delete the Intel folder in C:\Program Files, if it exists.
4. Remove the registry entry of INTEL using Registry Editor. Click Start > Run. In the open box type regedit. Click OK. Double click on the HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE branch. Double click on the Software branch. Select INTEL and delete.
5. Insert the motherboard installer CD or select latest Intel® Graphic Controller software downloaded and install the graphic controller.
6. Reboot the computer.
7. Done.

[caperjack]

Thambu

Resolving the Problem
The Graphics Controller driver may be corrupt. This is the most likely cause of the problem. Reinstall the driver or Update the driver.
To reinstall the driver(EX. Intel® Extreme Graphics controller)
1. Open the control panel
2. Remove Intel® Extreme Graphics controller.
3. Delete the Intel folder in C:\Program Files, if it exists.
4. Remove the registry entry of INTEL using Registry Editor. Click Start > Run. In the open box type regedit. Click OK. Double click on the HKEY_LOCAL-MACHINE branch. Double click on the Software branch. Select INTEL and delete.
5. Insert the motherboard installer CD or select latest Intel® Graphic Controller software downloaded and install the graphic controller.
6. Reboot the computer.
7. Done.

the post you are responding too is almost 1 year old!! and dead

[90awdturbo]

Have you tried reinstalling the INF files along with your Video Driver?

[caperjack]

Have you tried reinstalling the INF files along with your Video Driver?

like i said to the poster who posted in 2007 ,this thread is old and if you read it .solved already

[hotmatrixx]

Yea I had the same issue a while back when i ran drivergenius on a pc. it did the same thing to me. I just went into device manager (as above, found the display adapter and uninstalled everything except the vga controller. it was fine after that. then go and get a slightly older driver (probably more stable) and use that instaed. it isn't going to hurt your machine any.

[jbennet]

Drivergenuis is a bit crap
I prefer just going to the manufacturers website

If one must use a driver downloader, DriverMax is best imho

[hotmatrixx]

i found that out, And the Best part is trying to get my refund out of them. VERY difficult to do. It failed me 5 times in a row out of 5 PC's. everest seems pretty good only tried ot once though.. it recognises chipsets of hardware and download to proprietry drivers for them.

now I use www.driverguide.com They have a lot of nag screens and such but it is a lot faster than trying to go thru the manufacturer, esp on older model stuff. I digress...

[McHotpants]

Hey, I recently came across a similar issue on my Evga Nvidia 6200 AGP which gave me, Code 12, 640x480 4 bit color, conflicting with VGASave and all that other BS. I placed in a call into Nvidia and after an hour or so they tell me to RMA It. I knew this wasn't going to be an option since I didn't want to wait.

So I start playing with bios settings. Everyone is saying its the onboard video, My bios doesn't allow me to disable it. Which is due to the fact it's supposed to auto disable in a VGA device is detected. Well anyways, straight to my SOLUTION, I had my AGP aperture size set to 256, and I was thinking this is a 512 card, but it won't let me raise it up to 512... WTF... So I then come across this page stating...

"AGP Aperture memory will not be used until your video card's on-board memory is running low. That means it will usually not impact your gaming performance because developers are trying hard to not exceed the on-board memory limits.
The bigger your video memory, the smaller your Aperture Size could be. However with later games requiring more and more texture memory a good number seems to be 128MB Aperture Size for all cards with 64 MB to 256 MB Video RAM.
Setting the Aperture Size to HUGE values will not increase performance because this merely sets the maximum amount of physical memory that can be used. It only makes the GART Table bigger because every 4K page has its own entry, no matter if allocated or not.
Setting the Aperture Size to too small values could result in running out of available texture memory especially on a low-mem video card. It is also possible that developers make use of the GART's features by creating textures as 'non-local'.

If you experience in-game stuttering try playing with the size of your Aperture."

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/43

So I lower my AGP aperture size (in your Bios which is usually accessed by pressing the F2 or Delete button at your Motherboards info screen at the very start of the boot sequence.) to 128 and viola! So if you have this issue try lowering your aperture size and see if that helps. Not sure if it will be your solution, but I haven't seen anyone past this from all the threads I went through. A pain in the butt, but better than an RMA. I also called up Nvidia and told them they should consider adding that to their trouble shooting documents they read from since most of them just read and don't know what they are talking about. Anyways, hopefully this will help someone. Even if it's just 1 person, I know I would have liked to of seen all the solutions available.