Video Card going bad?

Jonbo298 · 01-26-2003, 04:29 PM

My mom has gotten this computer from her sister-in-law and it is stuck on 16 colors and 640x480 resolution. (

) I tried to change it, but when it restarted, it was still stuck on the most crappiest setting ever. We had to take it to DiT (Comp. Store) to have something else looked at and they said the card is capable to do 16 bit. Also, sometimes the monitor will get a green "shade" over it. its basically like someone takes a flashlight, puts a piece of green plastic over it and shines it at the screen. It does this once in awhile. So the question is, is the Video Card going shot? Or is Windows 98 just being a royal asshole?

*Edit* Oh yeah, the video card is AOpen PG128 Plus

Null · 01-26-2003, 07:26 PM

very well could be the Graphics card.

altho i think the green shade thing is actually the monitor. old monitors go funny after a while and can turn a green tent. Then you smack the thing and it'll flick back to normal colors.... Normal life span of a monitor is about 5 years. (on average. some much longer. some shorter. )

Also i could be the monitor itself limiting your colors and resolution.

if you goto properties on the desktop. settings. advance. umm. is there a monitor setting somewhere around there where you select what type of monitor you have? (im guessing. theres an option somewhere i dont remember exactly where it is)

i do not think its Windows tho. theres no reason for a windows to do that unless its got the wrong setup.

Blade Runner · 01-26-2003, 09:51 PM

Yeh, I think it could be the monitor, at least the green part. If you got more than one hook the pc up to it and see if theres a diff...

Jonbo298 · 01-27-2003, 09:14 AM

Well, I have another comp in this house, its older and alot crappier, but the monitor is kind of newer. I think I will test it later today after school to see what happens. In the display properties, it has the correct monitor displayed. It doesnt just say Default Monitor, it has the monitor name and whatnot.

Cyrax9 · 02-03-2003, 11:30 PM

Try "reseating' The graphics card, inothwer words, take it out, and putit back in, oh and MAKE SURE THE PC IS OFF!!!

Second if that doesn't work, Degauss the Monitor, you should ahve that option, after that fails, try the othe Monitor on your Cmp with the AOPen Graphics card and if all else fails, it's time to start looking at Radion 9700s and Nvidia GeForce 4's.

Jonbo298 · 02-04-2003, 10:47 AM

I tried the other monitor and it was still stuck in 16 Colors and 640X480. I think I remember taking out the video card and looking at it. But I will take it out and put it back in in case I forgot to try that. But if all else fails, my mom will have to get a cheap video card that does 16 bit. She doesn't want anything flashy. She just wants to be able to view images as they are supposed to be looked at. She doesnt care too much about games. Except for her little son, but they are just little kid games.

Mushlafa · 02-04-2003, 04:08 PM

My moniters color also gets funny shades over it if i set it to a Hz that it cant handle... Like.. in the properties... theres a checkmark that sais only show Hz that the moniter can handle and the only one mine can handle is 60.. so if i uncheck it and put it to say..... 120.... my moniters colours and sizes will mess up..

Null · 02-04-2003, 04:56 PM

you did install all the most updated drivers for your gfx card havnt you?

Jonbo298 · 02-04-2003, 07:01 PM

I was trying to do what you said Null after I tried Cyrax's "resetting" idea (which btw, didn't work) and it couldn't find the pages. I tried all the FTP links and none worked. So maybe the site is experiencing some troubles. But if I ever get the most updated ones and that doesnt solve the problem, My mom is just gonna get a cheap card whenever she feels like it. The monitor isn't as new as some of you think. It still as the little knobs on the underneath to resize the screen/move the screen and other things. So there isn't a way to degauss it. But a cheap $30 card will do for my mom.

Jonbo298 · 02-05-2003, 05:16 PM

Whooooppeeeeee!!! I emailed the company about the link problem and they fixed it, so after school, I downloaded the driver file and it installed it. Funny thing is, is that its now an S3 Inc. Trio3D/2X. Weird that it changed names. But at least it can do 16 bit now. Along with higher resolutions

But now the only friggin problem is that the contrast/brightness is a little too dark. I turned the little knob things underneath the monitor as far to the left as possible and some things are a little too dark. ie: My sig. picture is a little darker then what it should be. But my mom doesn't care too much about the contrast/brightness being a little darker. Just as long as she is able to view pictures like they should be, she's happy. Thanks for all the advice! It always seems to be the most obvious solution that you never think about trying first. (Even though you should, heh.) Oh yeah, the green tint thing is the monitor. I swapped monitors yesterday and the green thing never happened. But eh, its not too bothering until it gets a darker shade, then its annoying.