Only 256 colors? Please help!

[Sunscat]

My buddy got a V3 2k for christmas and asked me to install it for him on his HP computer. I step up to the plate and realize what a monster this computer is. On board video without Bios disable... it was not going to be easy. I thought i could get by it by just removing the on board video drivers and then installing the voodoo3. But after every restart it'd try and install the onboard video drivers again. I had to find the jumpers on the motherboard but what little of it i could see, i could not find said jumpers.

I scoured the hp website for jumper settings on the mainboard and after what seemed like hours of fruitless searching i happen to chance upon a page that had them. Gleefully i printed it out to see where the jumpers are. To my luck, they are stuck in the top left of the Mobo, way behind the power supply and if i were to change them, i'd pretty much have to dissasemble the entire computer. Now, I am by no means a novice when it comes to computers, but by that same token i am far from an expert too. But i managed to dissasemble it, switch the jumpers and reassemble it. I was proud that i accomplished this daunting task without a hitch.

I turn the computer on, hoping to find a problem free pc but alas, the gods have it in for me. Windows is only giving me the option for 16 or 256 colors. To top it off, im only limited to 640x480 resolution. I tried reinstalling the card, installing different drivers to no avail. Im thinking there could be another set of jumpers that i have to switch for it to work properly but i have seen nothing on HP's website or community forums indicating so. So my question to you guys is, what the hell is going on? And how can i fix it? Thanks.

 

[Killbat]

You could either have an oddball monitor driver loaded, or Windows is not using the Voodoo3 driver, or you're in safe mode. You need to get off the default VGA driver.

 

[Vinny N]

Is the device manager showing the Voodoo3 as a display adaptor without any exclamation mark or question mark on the little icon? If it is, I would try switching to 256 color mode first, and then see if it allows you to switch to 16 bit or higher from there.

Also, did the disabling of the video go really smooth? I mean, does the device completely disappear from the device manager or does it sit with an exclamation mark or red x and just says it's disabled?

You should also check for any leftover video specific apps that can be uninstalled through add/remove programs in the control panel. It might be preventing the Voodoo3 drivers from going in cleanly and working.

 

[alocurto]

HP's are great machines for you web surfer, low use user. When you try to upgrade these machines you will probably get a littl sh*t, especially when something is onboard. I would just call HP and tell them what you want to do. I don't know if they would help you with that but it is worth a shot, they should be able to tell u how to disable onboard video at least.

-alocurto