Unable to change display settings

I have a 4MB AGP graphics card made by S3.

When I try to change the colour from 256 to 16bit I get a message that says:

The display control panel is unable to change the display settings. Please check your display hardware in device manager.

This also happens when I change the screen area.

I have the latest display driver installed. The latest VIA drivers installed and DirectX V7.

I changed the card for an 8MB SIS based card and installed the driver that came with it but I get the same message.

About 5 minutes after the PC has booted I get a second message that says Error: Invalid Display Format.

I have checked in Safe Mode and removed all references to Display Adaptors and Monitors but this still has no effect.

Anybody got any ideas.

Thanks in advance.

Stuart

Have you checked your bios settings
Have you set it to boot up AGP
check through the bios and make sure all settings are correctly configured for a agp card install.
I am presuming you have made sure that you have the exact correct s3 driver installed

Check the monitor tab in advanced display properties, it should be super vga 1024x768.
If it's set to default monitor, that's what is limiting you.

Thanks for your quick replies.

The monitor is set for 800X600 (not default).

I have gone through the BIOS and everything is fine. I have even set BIOS defaults to no avail.

I have the correct driver file for the S3 and the supplied driver for the 8MB SIS.

I just tried an ATI Raedon and that did the same so it must be something within the files on the PC!

I would prefer not to format the hard disk so does anyone have any other ideas.

Thanks

Stuart

Typical Microsoft.

I thought, what the hell. Re-install Windows and hope for the best.

After the install had finished it was all OK.

Thanks for your help.

Stuart

Ozrica,

Just in case you find yourself having this problem again, here was my solution to the exact same problem. I had an irq conflict between my grphx card and my usb controller. I have a net camera plugged into the usb port. This conflict only became a problem when I set netmeeting to autorun in the background when windows starts. This caused my display settings to give me the same error you mentioned when I tried to change the res or colors. Turning off the autorun feature for netmeeting immediately resolved the problem. I didn't even have to restart. If anyone else is having this problem then I hope this helps. Just remember, the key is the irq conflict not necessarily the devices I mentioned.

you may want to change the refresh rate to 75 or 65.

Could be a refresh rate problem. Had this on my moms comp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jstein

Ozrica,

Just in case you find yourself having this problem again, here was my solution to the exact same problem. I had an irq conflict between my grphx card and my usb controller. I have a net camera plugged into the usb port. This conflict only became a problem when I set netmeeting to autorun in the background when windows starts. This caused my display settings to give me the same error you mentioned when I tried to change the res or colors. Turning off the autorun feature for netmeeting immediately resolved the problem. I didn't even have to restart. If anyone else is having this problem then I hope this helps. Just remember, the key is the irq conflict not necessarily the devices I mentioned.

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Dude, that was perfect. My problem exactly. Thanks a million, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure this one.:thumbs2: