Windows XP display problem

Factual Questions
1

Today, I upagraded my Windows 98se computer to Windows XP. I allowed it to adjust the display, and now, it sucks. The desktop is larger than the monitor. The Taskbar is too low, and the screen goes too far off to the right as well. Using the adjust controls on the monitor itself doesn’t work. Changing the display resolutions doesn’t work. Changing the color depth, doesn’t work. I thought that maybe upgrading the display driver might work, but apparently, even though the computer I bought was made with modern parts, my AGP video card is obsolete (Savage/IX chip ID 8C31). I downloaded, what I think should be an upgrade, but Windows won’t let me upgrade the driver (the option doesn’t show up). I tried using the driver disk that came with my computer, but Windows told me that first, it doesn’t have XP logo or signature (or whatever it’s called), so it can’t be sure that it would work right, then, when I said install anyway, it told me that the driver it’s using is newer anyway. Uuuggghhh!!!

And it’s not just the desktop, most programs I open go too far off to the right and/or to the bottom.

If anybody has any suggestions, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

2

I don’t understand how suing the monitor display control buttons on your monitor to center the picture and adjust to desired geometry wouldn’t correct this.

A few tips

1: Some video driver applets have the option to display a larger than screen size “virtual” desktop. Make sure this is defeated if enabled.

2: Make sure windows is using the correct monitor definition. I usually DL the monitor inf file from the manuf website, and force windows XP to use that definition vs the one it chooses during setup.

3: MAke sire your monitors refresh rate is set to 85hz or better.

4: If your monitor has a hardware based “reset” button that will erase all previous settings use this before resetting parameters.

3

Well, I seemed to have solved the problem. I rebooted the computer, hit F8 for the logon options, told it to boot in VGA mode, which gave me back my display driver (the one specific for the card, instead of the generic Windows XP driver). When I rebooted, my desktop was back to normal too, so with a little tweaking, I got it where I want it.

Anyway, enabling VGA mode seemed to do the trick.

4
      • Semi-late, semi-related, but anyway–one thing that can cause this in Linux is if the OS uses the wrong adaptor for the monitor type and model. When I installed Fedora on an older PC I could either adjust the manual controls to see all of the login screen, or the desktop, but not both. Eventually I found where it had identified the monitor–there’s a list under the “Monitors” setting, with a bunch of brand-names and models. The brand and model were correct but I had tried everything else, so I tried setting it to “generic monitor 800x600” (which was the monitor’s actual screen resolution)–and behold! everything “stayed” in the same place. Just a thought… try all the “generic” settings, and see if using any of them work better than the “custom” settings.
        ~