Video settings problem - W2K & Radeon 7000

[John Smith]

I was helping a buddy install a new shareware application (based on MS
Access) and the forms displayed on-screen were fix-sized for a different
resolution. I suggested to him that he adjust resolution to 1280x1024 to see
if he could see the forms in their entirety. He changed the resolution and
the short video test of the new mode came on-screen. It didn't look good so
rather than just waiting the 15 seconds for the resolution to revert to
previous settings, he cancelled out.

From that point onwards, the video became unusable. The desktop only
displayed what I thought was the upper-right portion of the desktop, ie.
couldn't see or scroll to the Start button, couldn't see My Computer, Waste
Basket, or other common icons which normally appear on the left side of the
desktop. It was as though the machine thought there were 2 monitors
connected and the primary display wasn't visible.

I tried every key combination I could think of the see if we could somehow
'scroll/pan' the video window over to where we could see the Start button
but we couldn't do it.

So we tried booting into Safe mode and into VGA-only mode to see if we could
somehow 'reset' the video mode for a normal boot. But nothing seemed to
work - in fact when we rebooted into 'normal user' mode, the machine would
display the usual Win2K splash screen but never make it as far as the login
screen - it would hang.

I suspect that the ATI driver got corrupt somehow. Does this seem right?

It's a Dell GX50 with W2K sp4 and ATI Radeon 7000 & Intel video and was
running 1024 x 768 initially. Machine has a single monitor connected.

Any thoughts on a better diagnosis and steps to take to correct the problem?

Thanks.

 

[johns]

The ATI cd is a boot disk. Look there .. maybe reinstall
the drivers from it. I've never tried it, but I have had
the thing boot for me by forgetting it was in the drive.
Something else I've learned the hard way. I have a
very big hard drive .. 160gig .. split 80:80. , and I
use DriveImage2002 to "image" the c-drive. That
has saved me many many times when I'm playing
around and screw up. Simply boot floppy .. and restore
the image. 20 minutes later, I'm back up running good
as new.

johns

 

[John Smith]

The ATI cd is a boot disk. Look there .. maybe reinstall
the drivers from it. I've never tried it, but I have had
the thing boot for me by forgetting it was in the drive.
Something else I've learned the hard way. I have a
very big hard drive .. 160gig .. split 80:80. , and I
use DriveImage2002 to "image" the c-drive. That
has saved me many many times when I'm playing
around and screw up. Simply boot floppy .. and restore
the image. 20 minutes later, I'm back up running good
as new.

Thanks for the thought, but this is a Dell, Dude. I'm not sure that anything
is as easy as you suggest with a Dell.

I'm not certain that driver corruption is the real problem though it seems
that way to me give that the basic VGA modes seem to be ok in Safe and VGA
modes.

 

[johns]

Thanks for the thought, but this is a Dell, Dude. I'm not sure that anything
is as easy as you suggest with a Dell.

They're OK. I work on them all the time. Lot of
stuff in a DELL is kind of "dell-specific" though, so
I know what you mean. I've seen video cards that
simply would not run with their manufacturers drivers
in a DELL. Call Dell tech support and ask for the
web site to dl the stand alone driver for the 7000.
If that doesn't fix it, I really recommend shitcanning
the Dell-W2k and starting from scratch and going
with the OEM drivers for your hardware .. and the
motherbd. That is the first thing I do when somebody
brings me a DELL. I erase every bit of their cripple-
ware and go OEM. Makes the Dells run much better
too. If you can afford it, switch to WinXP .. non-Dell.
You will feel like you have a new computer.

johns