Upside Down Display

[Rosemary P fridella]

While attempting to use the accessibility wizard to
increase the size of text and objects in the video
display, my picture was turned upside down. How do I fix
this? What possible reason could there be for an upside
down display?

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Open Control Panel, open Display, go to the settings tab, click Advanced, go
through the tabs looking for an invert display option. NOTE: This is not an
XP option, it is added by the drivers of graphics cards that support this
feature. It appears that the drivers seem to change some setting in
Accessibility as we've had a rash of these incidents lately, most notably
with nVidia graphics cards. Drivers are supplied by the hardware
manufacturer.

 

[Michael Salem]

Open Control Panel, open Display, go to the settings tab, click Advanced, go
through the tabs looking for an invert display option. NOTE: This is not an
XP option, it is added by the drivers of graphics cards that support this
feature. It appears that the drivers seem to change some setting in
Accessibility as we've had a rash of these incidents lately, most notably
with nVidia graphics cards. Drivers are supplied by the hardware
manufacturer.

But this isn't the only cause; XP can do this. It has happened a few
times in my experience to users who presumably accidentally press
certain key combinations, usually from Microsoft Word (maybe becausee
these users mainly use Word?). I can't find my notes at the moment, but
the cure was a combination of keystrokes including an arrow key;
possibly Ctrl-Alt-up arrow.

Best wishes,

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

If you check the graphics card, you might find that it is indeed an nVidia
card. Nonetheless, the card has to support this function or it can't happen
regardless of key combination. Other cards do support this but for the most
part we've seen it, and only recently, with nVidia cards; possibly some
recent change in their drivers.

 

[Michael Salem]

I wrote about an upside-down display:

Michael Solomon responded:

If you check the graphics card, you might find that it is indeed an nVidia
card. Nonetheless, the card has to support this function or it can't happen
regardless of key combination. Other cards do support this but for the most
part we've seen it, and only recently, with nVidia cards; possibly some
recent change in their drivers.

I have come across this twice; it happened to two different people, both
using Siemens Scenic computers. These machines have been made for quite
a while, but always use Intel chipsets and on-board VGA. I assumed the
keystrokes to rectify the problem were a function of the operating
system rather than the video system, but won't swear to it. I am 100%
certain that Nvidia cards were not involved.

The purpose of my posting was to offer an additional approach which is
known to work in some cases, at least. MS is always right!

Best wishes,

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Michael:

I don't know if the keystroke always works as I haven't seen all instances
and I meant no offense in my response. I certainly haven't seen every
instance of this happening so I thank you for your input and example.

I can only say, we've seen quite a rash of these lately and they seemed tied
to an nVidia card and/or update.

That said, while a keystroke combination might rectify an issue, it doesn't
necessarily mean the issue is Windows or in this case specifically XP. The
keystroke may simply take advantage of how the graphics card hooks into the
system. As a specific function, as far as I know, there is nothing in XP to
invert a display. There certainly is no specific function at system level
other than those supported or otherwise implemented by the graphics card or
its drivers.

 

[Michael Salem]

I won't quote preceding messages; the problem and both suggested
solutions have been fully covered in previous messages; this just ties
up loose ends.

I don't know if the keystroke always works as I haven't seen all instances
and I meant no offense in my response. I certainly haven't seen every
instance of this happening so I thank you for your input and example.

I shouldn't expect the keystroke to be the solution always; I do know
that when I first came across the problem I found lots of suggestions
that the problem is due to Nvidia drivers (which it probably is in most
cases, but not mine), and only after much delving found the magic
keystrokes. I'm not the tiniest bit offended, and hope I didn't give
that impression. The "MS is always right" was due to my rather childish
amusement at the 3-way ambiguity (with Micro Soft).

....

That said, while a keystroke combination might rectify an issue, it doesn't
necessarily mean the issue is Windows

No. I had assumed it was, probably as a result of something I found on
the Web or Usenet, but it's certainly not a proven fact. As it happens
the machine I'm typing this on has an Nvidia card, and doesn't respond
to the Ctrl-Alt-arrow keystrokes. Maybe it's an Intel video chipset
thing? Maybe someone with such a chipset could check __ I can't at the
moment.

Best wishes,

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

I too was chuckling over the irony that the three of us, you, me and the
"M'soft," all had the same initials.

I can say categorically, that I had 'em no only long before there was a
Microsoft but even before, though not by much, there was a Bill Gates.