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Display/Screen Cards Problems

Introduction - Things you need to know (go straight to problems list)

On standard or custom PCs, these are usually:

ISA cards - 486 PCs - fit into a black slot

PCI cards - Early pentiums - fit into a white slot

AGP cards - Later Socket7, 370 or Pentium 11/111 boards - fit into a brown slot

 

Tip: If the PC sounds a series (usually 3) of long beeps when powering up, it is likely that the screen card as come slightly out of it's slot (usually at one side). Note this can happen on some AT boards when the screen data cable (3 rows of pins) has detached from the VGA card.

Tip: If the PC powers up to a black or green screen, the card is almost out at both ends.

 On factory built/Store sold PCs, these are usually not cards but the relevent VGA chips welded to the motherboard - unfortunately if this is the case, to upgrade the VGA you must replace the whole motherboard.

 

 

 

Common Video Card Problems:

 Lines on screen, distortion of icons/text

 

 The screen colours have gone to 16 colours from a higher setting (e.g: 16 bit high colour) and can't be put back

 

 

Common Display Problems:

Left click on icon won't run program

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There could be several reasons for this:
    1. The card is not seated properly in it's slot. With the PC turned off, remove and reinstall the card into it's slot, restart the PC. Note on PCI cards, if you place the card back into a different white PCI slot, then the PC may well need to re-detect the card and install the driver again.
    2. It is possible that other devices with problems can indirectly effect the video card. This is possible when you consider that a video card is a multimedia device and to Windows, a modern fax/modem is a also multimedia device (it has MMX technology, sound output..etc) - and obviously a sound card is also a multimedia device.

      3. An incompatible sound card or a motherboard vxd driver system, could for instance confuse Windows enough to cause the system to mis-detect the video card e.g:

      An Intel i740 AGP card could be detected as a Chips Technology video card, which after being detected would probably work - but could result in speckling or breaking up of text

      If the problem persists, the key then is to look further afield than the video card.

      Use Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager, Screen Adapter, Properties general tab.

      If there is a conflict it may be an IO address:

      Eg: A device using the same input/output address(es) as the video card will cause interference.

      If no conflicts are present then:

      Try to remove the video driver and uninstall any Motherboard CD/diskette based utilities(provided with motherboard manual & disk), then re-install the video card driver.

      If you still have interference then the video card may be faulty (see 3. Below)

       

    3. The video RAM on the chip may be faulty and the card will need replacing by your supplier. If the card is no longer under guarantee, then buy an new video card. Prices have dropped recently so you may get a better card and upgrade your system at the same time.

 

 

 

 

Normally you can reset a higher colour settings by right clicking the a blank area of the desktop, the use Properties, Settings tab, Colours. However if all att empts to do this fail, then this may be due to software corruption:
    1. Use Start, Settings, Control Panel, System Device Manager, Display adapter. If no yellow conflict mark is present then the device is working correctly (See 2. below for further action).

      2. If you are showing more than one device both with conflict marks then remove the adapter (select the device and click the Remove button) which is not correctly named as your adapter, or if the 2 adapters are both named as the correct adapter, then remove the first.

      If there is only one device with a conflict mark, use the Properties button, Resources tab to set the device back to automatic settings or to a different basic configuration which shows no conflicts with other devices.

    2. If there are no conflicts marks and the device shows as working correctly when the Properties button is clicked, then it is likely that the virtual driver or the routine which handles that driver is corrupted.
    3. You can check this out by using a right-click on a blank area of the Desktop, then left click Properties, then Settings (or Start, Control Panel, Display, Settings).

Try changing the colours up to the original high setting. Most cards today will allow the change without re-starting (this is the Advanced button, General section). If the PC will not allow ' no re-start and/or the colours remain as 16 colours after re-start, then it is likely that the software is corrupted.

In this case, remove the device (In Control Panel, System Device Manager: select the adapter name and click the Remove button), then restart the PC. Windows98 will re-locate and install the original driver (have the card setup disk/CD just in case the corruption is too great), and the colours should increase back to 256 colours. Reset the colour settings back up to high colour and re-start - the problem should now be fixed and the screen display back to normal.

 

 

 

 

A. Incorrect use of the right mouse button can cause this. What is happening is that the left mouse button has switched functions to perform like the right mouse button.

To rectify:

At the desktop: Press the Esc key on the keyboard and hold it down, now right-click a blank area of the Desktop. The next time you left click an icon/shortcut, the program will start normally.