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Screen resolution stuck at 640 by 480 1

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cokobdder

Technical User
Aug 4, 2009
24
US
okay so my computer was recently messed up so i had my dad reinstall windows and everything on my computer. but now it seems to be stuck at 640 byc480 resolution.... when i start my computer a popup comes up on the taskbar saying "screen resolution is really low. click this balloon to fix." but that never does anything... and i tried display settings. that didnt work either, when i go to look at my monitor and chip and stuff nothing is filled out, its just all blank. and when i click drivrs it says VGA something... please help.
 
You have to download and install the correct video driver. Windows didn't have a driver for your video card included, so you have to provide it.

The best bet is going to your PC manufacturer's site and getting the driver by searching by model. If you can't find it, we can find it with some more steps.
 
Looks like the reinstall did not install the video drivers.

Without knowing more about your machine the only thing to suggest is either use the CD that came with it to look for and install the video drivers, or go the manufacturers website, and download and install the appropriate drivers.


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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
Beat you to it Vacunita - you must type faster!! Good suggestion: if you can find a CD with drivers on it that may have come with your PC.

Most people aren't that organized to still have the CD and know where it is, but some are.
 
Yeah, Dell will have it for sure. There may be more than 1 driver listed for video though, so it could be hit and miss.
 
Most dell machines have the capability of displaying a service tag to get you to the right spot.

When booting up, while the memory is being tested, press the [F2] key. that kicks you into CMOS setup and your service tag is at lower right.

Visit the dell site, and it will allow you to input the service tag and take you directly to a download area for everything you probably need.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
 
Yup, you beat me by a minute goomba probably less. [thumbsup2] If only I hadn't stopped typing to take a sip from my coffee... [morning]



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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
Okay, so I went to Dell and downloaded the video driver download, and a few extras just to be safe... Now what do I do with them?
 
Install it. It should be an executable. Just run it and it should take care of the rest.
You may need to restart the PC at some point during installation, to complete it.


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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
Generally they are zipped files and extract the install executable files to a \dell directory with a note to you what executable file they have extracted. Then you run the executable. An extra step over what Phil mentioned, from memory which may be fallible.

I normally change from the default location \dell to \dell\video or whatever so things don't get confused. Dell puts all the intermediate files in the one directory by default.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
 
Okay so its not a RAR file or anything like that... It's a application file but I dont seem to have the right program to use it. any ideas?
 
Hi,
What is the file extension?

[profile]

To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."
 
It's a application file but I dont seem to have the right program to use it

Huh? If its an application file then it doesn't need anything else. What does it say when you double click it?

Does it issue an error or something?

Perhaps posting a link to the Dell page (in other words the page for the make and model of your PC) where you downloaded it may help us figure out what you got.

Additionally if you go into Explorer -> Tools - Folder Options -> View and then uncheck the Hide Extensions for Known file types Box. you can tell us what extension the file has. Like .exe , .msi , .zip etc..




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Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
 
All the Dell downloadables should be .EXE so only double clicking on it should get some action - like unzipping the files to a folder of your choice (usually Dell or Dell\Drivers).

Please give us the PCI Vendor ID information by doing the following:

Control Panel System Hardware Device Manager
Right click one of the unknown devices that should be named "VGA controller" and then click on the DETAILS tab.

Get the number that shows up there and looks something like this:
PCI\VEN_113F&DEV_888C&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_04\4&24B 99E98&0&38F0

Let us know what that is and we can tell you exactly which download on the Dell site is for you.
 
cokobdder,

First thought: Try downloading the file again. If it's a white icon or one that means it has nothing associated with it, it's possible that there was an error in the download process. Sometimes when this occurs, the file name and extension will be correct, but it'll be missing some bits of data somewhere, and give you the white icon.

Then...

If it's an executable file, then double-clicking on it (from Dell) usually does this:
1. Runs its own mini unzip/decompression tool to extract the setup file(s) to a folder on your system.
2. Automatically opens the extracted setup.exe file or similar.
3. When installation is finished, you often have to reboot, though sometimes you don't have to.

There are some occasions when it doesn't automatically open the installation file. Just in case, this is your situation, you can run the downloaded file, and then copy the destination shown in the window where you choose where to extract the files to. Then open Windows Explorer, and paste that location into the address bar (if you dont' see the address bar, make sure it's enabled under View->Toolbars->Address Bar). Or you can paste the same link into Internet Explorer, and it'll open Windows Explorer to the correct file location for you.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me
 
Okay, this is the dell page that I went to to download the updates and stuff..
I went to the device manager and the number is: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2572&SUBSYS_01D51028&REV_02\3&172E68DD&0&10

when i try opening the downloaded file it says
Windows cannot open this file:
File: DellDriverDownloadManager.application

To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it. BLAH BLAH BLAH....
 
I think I see what happened... Seems Dell now gives you two choices when you click the download button. The first (Download via Dell Driver Download Manager) is new... and this is probably what you selected. DellDriverDownloadManager.application is the addin that needs to be installed in IE or Firefox, not downloaded to your hard drive. Try doing it again, and following instructions to install the download manager.

The second option is "download now", which is the old-fashioned "save"... but if you select the FIRST option, and dont notice the checkbox that says "Remember my selection", you don't get offered the second option anymore!!! All this to install a program so you can download a program! Ugh. Good luck!
 
guitarzan... that is exactly what I did xD I'll try to see what I can do with the download manager now...

Ben, which one was I supposed to download? there were 22 results.
 
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