Unable to change display settings

[ozrica]

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

[Mayet]

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

[Zerotech]

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.

[ozrica]

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

[ozrica]

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

[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.

[Daemon]

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

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

[jaxite]

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.

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