display adaptor problem with Deskpro EN - advise?

Hello, hope someone here can help, though I've put the post elsewhere
too. I wanted a computer separate from my Vista laptop for specific
tasks and have bought a refurbished Compaq Deskpro En, 886 mhz, 320 mb
RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

For a lot of simple tasks it looks fine, like this page, for example,
but photos can look dotty, worse with Firefox (current version) than
Internet Explorer (may be the standard W2k version, only had the
machine a few hours). I'm using it with a mysteriously unbranded TFT
monitor, 15 " that I bought from a friend. Been unable to check for
drivers for that, not knowing the brand - neither does the friend. I
know it works fine, and after swapping the CD Rom drive for a DVD Rom
drive I had salvaged I've even seen it display DVDs pretty well with a
freeware media player - no dotty appearance.

The pc supposedly has NVidia Riva TNT2 display hardware, but when I
used the NVidia site to try and update drivers I was told that no
compatible hardware could be found. I've tried uninstalling both the
display adaptor and the monitor and rebooting, only to get the same
readings appear again on reboot. I've tried different mode settings
for teh NVidia, and changed other settings, to no progressive avail -
other settings are too big or too small.

I have done all the updates for W2k, and it had the SP4 already
present.

I remember having older kit, running Win95 that temporarily had this
trouble but was solved, but I am stumped for the time being. Is this
permanent? Not a massive hardship, as my laptop's for the swish
stuff, but I'd like to get this going as well as it can. Is the
graphics card's limitations? Would replacing it - supposing I can
recognise it inside there - get round this (though I didn't have to do
that with the Win95 machine, which if I remember right was also a
Compaq Deskpro).

All advice much appreciated.

Thanks.

Lee

wrote:
> Hello, hope someone here can help, though I've put the post elsewhere
> too. I wanted a computer separate from my Vista laptop for specific
> tasks and have bought a refurbished Compaq Deskpro En, 886 mhz, 320 mb
> RAM, 20 gig hard drive.
>
> For a lot of simple tasks it looks fine, like this page, for example,
> but photos can look dotty, worse with Firefox (current version) than
> Internet Explorer (may be the standard W2k version, only had the
> machine a few hours). I'm using it with a mysteriously unbranded TFT
> monitor, 15 " that I bought from a friend. Been unable to check for
> drivers for that, not knowing the brand - neither does the friend. I
> know it works fine, and after swapping the CD Rom drive for a DVD Rom
> drive I had salvaged I've even seen it display DVDs pretty well with a
> freeware media player - no dotty appearance.
>
> The pc supposedly has NVidia Riva TNT2 display hardware, but when I
> used the NVidia site to try and update drivers I was told that no
> compatible hardware could be found. I've tried uninstalling both the
> display adaptor and the monitor and rebooting, only to get the same
> readings appear again on reboot. I've tried different mode settings
> for teh NVidia, and changed other settings, to no progressive avail -
> other settings are too big or too small.
>
> I have done all the updates for W2k, and it had the SP4 already
> present.
>
> I remember having older kit, running Win95 that temporarily had this
> trouble but was solved, but I am stumped for the time being. Is this
> permanent? Not a massive hardship, as my laptop's for the swish
> stuff, but I'd like to get this going as well as it can. Is the
> graphics card's limitations? Would replacing it - supposing I can
> recognise it inside there - get round this (though I didn't have to do
> that with the Win95 machine, which if I remember right was also a
> Compaq Deskpro).
>
> All advice much appreciated.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Lee
Lee,

Your best bet is to try the HP/Compaq web site for Windows 2000 drivers.
I am certain that they exist. Download the motherboard chipset
drivers (wheich may or may not already be installed) and the drivers for
the nVidia card. You don't need drivers for a monitor that complies
with the VESA industry standard, and all modern monitors do... Ben Myers

Hi!

> Hello, hope someone here can help, though I've put the post elsewhere
> too. I wanted a computer separate from my Vista laptop for specific
> tasks and have bought a refurbished Compaq Deskpro En, 886 mhz, 320 mb
> RAM, 20 gig hard drive.

Nice systems. But you've got know what you have. There are three major
configurations:

1. Desktop case. This has two drive bays side-by-side with the floppy drive
opening underneath the rightmost one with the machine facing you.

2. Convertible desktop/tower case. Drive bays are all vertically aligned,
one on top of the other.

3. SFF -- looks like a "shrunken" desktop model. One 5.25" drive bay, one
floppy bay. Internally, the hard drive sits to the left of the CD-ROM.

If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here?

Of all three, it is *only* the SFF models that have nVidia video. All others
use Intel 815 video and have an AGP slot where a video card or AIMM (video
RAM) will be.

And you're quite right, the latest nVidia 71.89 drivers won't install, with
the installer complaining that you don't have any compatible hardware in
your system. This is untrue, and the drivers will work. After setup fails,
it leaves behind a folder full of drivers. Go to the Device Manager, find
the display adapter and upgrade the drivers using the facilities provided
there. Pick a GeForce MX100/200, and ignore the warning about compatible
hardware. The nVidia drivers *are* smart enoug h to really know what you
have, and will identify it correctly in the nVidia control panel.

Of course, if you're using Windows 2000 or XP, both have a suitable nVidia
driver built in. (Again, if that's really the video system you have!) Check
your resolution and color depth settings--they need to match what the LCD
panel is capable of or things will look bad, possibly in the way you
describe.

The graphics hardware in these machines is pretty good. Even the Intel 815
has dedicated video memory, something you don't see done very often. The
nVidia chipset has at least 16MB video memory available to it, and can drive
a 1280x1024 panel at 32-bit color perfectly.

William

Hold that thought...

> Nice systems. But you've got know what you have.
> If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here?

Desktop: http://greyghost.mooo.com/deskpro-en/DSC04143.JPG (640x480, 143KB)

Tower (one machine in from the rightmost computer in the picture):
http://greyghost.mooo.com/temp-blog-imgs/bench1.jpg (640x480, 54KB)

And I thought I had a picture of the SFF...as many of them as there are
crawling around here...you'd think I would...oh, well, I'll just borrow this
one from an eBay seller. Seems fair enough since I bought that very machine:

http://www.liquis.com/ebaypics/20080...-0042099-a.JPG (720x540, 35KB)

William

Yes, it's an SFF, and it's all sorted now - thanks very much all!
Except, I now have a problem with the floppy drive. See new post.

Lee


On Nov 8, 1:16*am, "William R. Walsh"
<newsgrou...@idontwantjunqueemail.walshcomptech.co m> wrote:
> Hold that thought...
>
> > Nice systems. But you've got know what you have.
> > If you're not sure, can you get a picture and post a *link* to it here?
>
> Desktop:http://greyghost.mooo.com/deskpro-en...43.JPG(640x480, 143KB)
>
> Tower (one machine in from the rightmost computer in the picture):http://greyghost.mooo.com/temp-blog-...h1.jpg(640x480, 54KB)
>
> And I thought I had a picture of the SFF...as many of them as there are
> crawling around here...you'd think I would...oh, well, I'll just borrow this
> one from an eBay seller. Seems fair enough since I bought that very machine:
>
> http://www.liquis.com/ebaypics/20080...-a.JPG(720x540, 35KB)
>
> William