My Problem: XP keep drops back to 16 colors

Hello all, greetings !!

My XP system has a problem. It has a taste for 4-bit, or 16 color
display. No matter which setting I have determined, if I shut down the
computer, and reboot it, XP drops everything back to 16 colors.

My display card is NVIDIA GeForce MX400 based, with 256MB of RAM on it.
It isn't any fancy top-of-the-line card, but it does get the job done.
My computer is a typical Pentium 4, with 2 GB of RAM. Not fancy, but
workable.

The problem is that XP has a liking of 4-bit display.

Everytime I turn on the computer, I have to get on "Control Panel" >
"System" > "Hardware" > "Device Manager" > "Monitors", to delete the
"default monitor".

Then I have to get on the "display property" > "setting" > "advance" >
click on the "adapter" tab, and then click on the "List All Modes"
button to reset the display back to 32-bit (or 16-bit, or whatever
setting other than 4-bit, 16-color setting).

If I do not delete the "default monitor" using the "Device Manager"
method, I can't change the color quality of the display.

I have absolutely no idea why my XP machine loves the 16-bit color
display setting so much. I have a lot of friends having XP machines,
and none of their system have this type of "love affair".

My question to you is this -

Is there a permanent way to make my XP system to stick with whatever
display setting I chose for it ?

I thank you for your help.

Here is what I'd recommend. First, Uninstall all nVidia driver
packages. Download the latest Chipset driver set for your PC.
Everest Home Edition, which is a software/hardware inventory
tool can display that information for you.
Install the appropriate Chipset package. Then download and
install the latest nVidia software.
Everest Home edition here:
http://www.lavalys.com/products/down...ng=en&pageid=3
nVidia Driver Menu page:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
It might also help if you redefined the driver for you monitor
to a more exacting driver. Most monitors are defined simply
as "Plug-&-Play". Check your monitor vendor's website for
a driver.
It would probably also be a good idea to go through Device
Manager (w/ Show Hidden Devices) and examine both the
Display & Monitor categories and check for "Phantoms".

<penang@myrealbox.com> wrote in message
news:1128857955.584786.150590@g44g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> My Problem: XP keep drops back to 16 colors
>
> Hello all, greetings !!
>
> My XP system has a problem. It has a taste for 4-bit, or 16 color
> display. No matter which setting I have determined, if I shut down the
> computer, and reboot it, XP drops everything back to 16 colors.
>
> My display card is NVIDIA GeForce MX400 based, with 256MB of RAM on it.
> It isn't any fancy top-of-the-line card, but it does get the job done.
> My computer is a typical Pentium 4, with 2 GB of RAM. Not fancy, but
> workable.
>
> The problem is that XP has a liking of 4-bit display.
>
> Everytime I turn on the computer, I have to get on "Control Panel" >
> "System" > "Hardware" > "Device Manager" > "Monitors", to delete the
> "default monitor".
>
> Then I have to get on the "display property" > "setting" > "advance" >
> click on the "adapter" tab, and then click on the "List All Modes"
> button to reset the display back to 32-bit (or 16-bit, or whatever
> setting other than 4-bit, 16-color setting).
>
> If I do not delete the "default monitor" using the "Device Manager"
> method, I can't change the color quality of the display.
>
> I have absolutely no idea why my XP machine loves the 16-bit color
> display setting so much. I have a lot of friends having XP machines,
> and none of their system have this type of "love affair".
>
> My question to you is this -
>
> Is there a permanent way to make my XP system to stick with whatever
> display setting I chose for it ?
>
> I thank you for your help.
>

R. McCarty wrote:

> Here is what I'd recommend. First, Uninstall all nVidia driver
> packages. Download the latest Chipset driver set for your PC.
> Everest Home Edition, which is a software/hardware inventory
> tool can display that information for you.
> Install the appropriate Chipset package. Then download and
> install the latest nVidia software.
> Everest Home edition here:
> http://www.lavalys.com/products/down...ng=en&pageid=3
> nVidia Driver Menu page:
> http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
> It might also help if you redefined the driver for you monitor
> to a more exacting driver. Most monitors are defined simply
> as "Plug-&-Play". Check your monitor vendor's website for
> a driver.
> It would probably also be a good idea to go through Device
> Manager (w/ Show Hidden Devices) and examine both the
> Display & Monitor categories and check for "Phantoms".
>
> <penang@myrealbox.com> wrote in message
> news:1128857955.584786.150590@g44g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>> My Problem: XP keep drops back to 16 colors
>>
>> Hello all, greetings !!
>>
>> My XP system has a problem. It has a taste for 4-bit, or 16 color
>> display. No matter which setting I have determined, if I shut down
>> the computer, and reboot it, XP drops everything back to 16 colors.
>>
>> My display card is NVIDIA GeForce MX400 based, with 256MB of RAM on
>> it. It isn't any fancy top-of-the-line card, but it does get the job
>> done. My computer is a typical Pentium 4, with 2 GB of RAM. Not
>> fancy, but workable.
(snip)

If Mr. McCarty's good advice about the drivers doesn't help, then the
video card is failing and needs to be replaced.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

I thank you for your reply, and I apologize for the one thing that I
forgot to mention:

My machine is a dual-boot system, WinXP and Win98SE.

The problem that I described on a previous message only happened to
XP,
and it doesn't happen at all to the Win98SE.

But I will do what you said, and see if the problem goes away.

Thanks !!


R. McCarty wrote:
> Here is what I'd recommend. First, Uninstall all nVidia driver
> packages. Download the latest Chipset driver set for your PC.
> Everest Home Edition, which is a software/hardware inventory
> tool can display that information for you.
> Install the appropriate Chipset package. Then download and
> install the latest nVidia software.
> Everest Home edition here:
> http://www.lavalys.com/products/down...ng=en&pageid=3
> nVidia Driver Menu page:
> http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
> It might also help if you redefined the driver for you monitor
> to a more exacting driver. Most monitors are defined simply
> as "Plug-&-Play". Check your monitor vendor's website for
> a driver.
> It would probably also be a good idea to go through Device
> Manager (w/ Show Hidden Devices) and examine both the
> Display & Monitor categories and check for "Phantoms".
>
> <penang@myrealbox.com> wrote in message
> news:1128857955.584786.150590@g44g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> > My Problem: XP keep drops back to 16 colors
> >
> > Hello all, greetings !!
> >
> > My XP system has a problem. It has a taste for 4-bit, or 16 color
> > display. No matter which setting I have determined, if I shut down the
> > computer, and reboot it, XP drops everything back to 16 colors.
> >
> > My display card is NVIDIA GeForce MX400 based, with 256MB of RAM on it.
> > It isn't any fancy top-of-the-line card, but it does get the job done.
> > My computer is a typical Pentium 4, with 2 GB of RAM. Not fancy, but
> > workable.
> >
> > The problem is that XP has a liking of 4-bit display.
> >
> > Everytime I turn on the computer, I have to get on "Control Panel" >
> > "System" > "Hardware" > "Device Manager" > "Monitors", to delete the
> > "default monitor".
> >
> > Then I have to get on the "display property" > "setting" > "advance" >
> > click on the "adapter" tab, and then click on the "List All Modes"
> > button to reset the display back to 32-bit (or 16-bit, or whatever
> > setting other than 4-bit, 16-color setting).
> >
> > If I do not delete the "default monitor" using the "Device Manager"
> > method, I can't change the color quality of the display.
> >
> > I have absolutely no idea why my XP machine loves the 16-bit color
> > display setting so much. I have a lot of friends having XP machines,
> > and none of their system have this type of "love affair".
> >
> > My question to you is this -
> >
> > Is there a permanent way to make my XP system to stick with whatever
> > display setting I chose for it ?
> >
> > I thank you for your help.
> >