Microsoft KB Archive/124267

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Display Adapter Information and Useful Switches

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Q124267

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Windows 95

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SUMMARY
This article describes switches that correct some display problems that can occur in Microsoft Windows 95.

MORE INFORMATION
The [boot] section of the SYSTEM.INI file should contain the following line for any Windows 95 version of a display driver:

  DISPLAY.DRV=PNPDRVR.DRV The actual video driver (such as VGA.DRV or S3.DRV) is loaded from the registry. This allows support for dockable personal computers that have different adapters for the laptop versus the docking station.

Setting the monitor type in the display properties does not affect the refresh rate output by your display adapter. To change this, you must run a utility supplied by your display adapter manufacturer or computer manufacturer. Some display utilities must be run in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file; however, on other computers, display type is set in BIOS configuration programs.

Examples of display utilities from adapter manufacturers include the following:

  ATI                      INSTALL.EXE Cirrus Logic            MONTYPE.EXE, CLMODE.EXE Diamond Stealth         STLMODE.EXE Tseng Labs              VMODE.EXE Western Digital         VGAMODE.EXE The sections below describe different video cards and the requirements for these drivers to work correctly in Windows 95.

ATI Mach 8/32/64
This adapter must be configured correctly using the ATI INSTALL.EXE program for Windows 95 to use high-resolution modes properly. Correct setting of your monitor type is especially important. This is because the high- resolution modes may not be available for selection, or the computer may fail when attempting to switch to that mode.

Compaq QVision 2000
These adapters use the Matrox MGA controller.

Matrox MGA
These adapters are supported with Windows 95 drivers. The VGA driver is installed by Setup.

Diamond Stealth 64
For True Color support (16.7 million colors) add TrueColor=24 in the [DISPLAY] section of the SYSTEM.INI

Diamond Viper
Setup preserves Microsoft Windows 3.1 drivers for this adapter when Setup is run from within Windows 3.1. Setting up Windows 95 from MS-DOS causes the Windows 95 VGA driver to be installed. If this occurs, the Diamond Viper setup program should be used to install the Windows 3.1 drivers into Windows 95. Copy the latest Viper files from the Drivers directory on the Windows 95 CD.

IBM ThinkPad
This laptop uses Western Digital controllers. Older versions of these laptops require the IBM VESA driver file to be loaded in Autoexec.bat (Ibmvesa.com) or in Config.sys (Vesa.exe) for 256-color and high-resolution modes to be supported by the Windows 95 Western Digital display driver. Newer versions of these laptops do not require the use of the IBM VESA driver.

S3-Based Video Adapters
Windows 95 provides a hardware acceleration slider that can be used to correct graphics problems:

 If you have problems with your mouse pointer, disable the hardware cursor by setting the slider to the Most setting. If you experience miscellaneous hangs with your S3 adapter, disable memory-mapped I/O by setting the slider to the Basic setting.  If you have problems with a modem on COM 4, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: "Q127138 S3 Video Driver Conflicts with COM4"

If you continue to have problems, try the None setting.

For more information on how to use the slider to change the way Windows 95 uses the video card, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

"Q127139 Troubleshooting Video Problems in Windows 95" Manually adding "HighColor=15" (no quotes) to the [Windows] section of the WIN.INI file corrects incorrect color at 16 bits per pixel using a 555 format.

The products included here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Additional query words: 3rdparty w95hwfaq

Keywords : win95

Issue type :

Technology : kbWin95search kbWin95