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Troubleshoot Display Problems



This article shows you methods of troubleshooting Safe Mode video problems. In Safe mode, the computer does not start the video adapter driver that is used during normal operations, so you need to use Device Manager to discover, update, roll back, or uninstall the video driver instead of accessing the Display properties.
 


This article is intended to help you use the Video Display Troubleshooter that is included in Windows XP Help and Support Center. This article also provides a list of online support services that may help you solve your problem.

The Video Display Troubleshooter includes step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting the following display problems in Windows XP:
  • You receive the following error message:
    • Display problems. This program can't continue.
  • Your display flickers or is garbled.
  • You cannot install your monitor.
  • You are having a problem with the multiple-monitor feature.
  • Videos or animations do not work correctly.
  • You cannot set the video resolution above 640 X 480 with 16 colors.


This article describes the hardware requirements for multiple-display support in Windows XP.


When you try to display an 8-bit or an indexed color depth bitmap on a computer with a mirrored display, the bitmap appears with color corruption on the mirrored display. The color palette in the image is incorrectly remapped to other color palettes.


When you configure your Windows XP-based computer to use multiple displays, and one or more of the displays uses a screen resolution that is greater than 1920 x 1440, some of the three-dimensional screen savers do not appear correctly. You may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
  • In the 3D FlowerBox screen saver, the shape does not move across the whole span of the larger display.
  • In the 3D Flying Objects screen saver, nothing appears on either display.
  • In the 3D Text screen saver, nothing appears on either display.
Note: The 3D Pipes screen saver appears correctly on both displays.


When you install a new display driver that tries to map the frame buffer with the write combining attribute enabled, write combining remains disabled for the frame buffer until you restart the computer.


When you unplug your portable computer from an AC power source so your computer is only using battery power, the display may dim.


After you unplug a universal serial bus (USB) display device from a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the USB display device may remain visible in Device Manager.


You may receive an error message if you try to change the display configuration while you preview a 3D screen saver. The issue typically occurs with third-party video drivers that include a utility that permits you to change the video configuration without using the Display Properties dialog box.


When you log on to a computer that runs Windows XP, Windows XP may notify you that the computer's screen resolution and color depth are set to a very low level. If you click Click here to improve screen resolution, Windows XP neither tells you what to do next nor displays the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box, where you could change the appropriate settings. Instead, Windows XP displays the Themes tab of the Display Properties dialog box.


When you resume your Sony VAIO PCG-F520 computer from standby by using the USB IntelliMouse Optical, the display appears corrupted. To regain normal display, you have to restart the computer.


After you use Fast User Switching to switch from one user to another and then back to the original user, the original user's desktop may display programs incorrectly. Some programs may now be displayed in a window that is one quarter of the screen size. Note that game programs may be more likely to exhibit this behaviour.


This article describes the DualView feature in Microsoft Windows XP.


When you use Microsoft Windows XP on a portable computer, you may not be able to adjust the contrast or the backlight controls on your LCD display. Additionally, CreateFile() function calls to open the \\.\LCD device may return an "ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND" error message. This problem may occur when the following conditions are true, in the order that they are presented in:
  • You start your portable computer without a connected CRT monitor.
  • You connect a CRT monitor to your portable computer.
  • You switch the display from the portable computer LCD display to the CRT monitor, and then you switch it back to the LCD display.


When you first start Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 on your portable computer, the First Run Wizard prompts you to select one of the following display connection types:
  • Composite or S-Video
  • DVI or VGA
  • Component (YPbPr)
No options are listed for portable computers or for computers with built-in displays.


When you switch to an external display on your Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based portable computer, panning may occur on the external display. In this scenario, it may appear as if a section of your desktop is missing or is not visible. When you move the mouse pointer in the direction of the missing section, the whole desktop moves, or pans, to follow your mouse pointer movement.


You are using a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 and that is using an Intel dual-core processor. When you rotate the display from Normal mode or from Laptop mode to Tablet mode, you may experience the following symptoms:
  • You may be unable to write by using the Input Panel. The Input Panel does not respond to input.
  • The Input Panel may not display the correct pointer for the Tablet PC input stylus. The pointer may appear as a mouse icon instead of as the ink "dot."
This problem only occurs if the computer is running in Dual Core mode. To determine whether the computer is running in Dual Core mode, examine the system BIOS.


When you are using the slider on the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box to change the screen resolution, the slider will only go as low as 800 X 600. Also, the Color quality setting will not go lower than 16-bit.


When you change the screen resolution on the Settings tab of the Display Properties dialog box, and then you restore Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to full-screen mode to continue watching live TV, you may receive the following error message:

Video Error: Files needed to display video are not installed or not working
correctly. Please restart Media Center and or restart the computer.



After you use either the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard or the User State Migration tool to migrate user settings to your Windows XP-based computer, the display resolution is not migrated.


You cannot switch to an external display device from a notebook computer that has an external display device connected. Specifically, when you run Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 in full-screen mode, and if you press a Fn+<Function Key> keyboard shortcut on your laptop computer, the display does not switch to the external display device.


When you log on as a user and set a screen resolution, and then log off from and then back on to the computer as another user by either using Fast User Switching (FUS) or by logging off, the screen resolution remains the same for each user.


You change the screen orientation by rotating the screen by 90 degrees or by 270 degrees when you play video on a wide screen display. The video may not play correctly depending on the location of the video program preview window. You may see only a black screen. This behavior may occur even though the video progress indicator on the video program preview window advances.


If you are using Fast User Switching to switch between two different users on a portable computer, the Fn+function key combination to toggle the display mode may not work for the second user, or may work only once. The Fn+function key combination that you use varies depending on the manufacturer of the portable computer.

You may experience similar symptoms in the following scenario:
  • You start a portable computer without a CRT monitor attached. In the properties of the Power Options tool in Control Panel, the When I close the lid of my portable computer setting is set to Do nothing.
  • You close the lid of the portable computer.
  • From another computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2), a Remote Desktop connection to the portable computer is started. The Remote Desktop connection is established, and then logged off.
  • You open the lid of the portable computer. The LCD screen on the portable computer remains blank.
  • You connect a CRT monitor to the portable computer, while the portable computer is running. The Windows XP desktop displays on the CRT monitor.
    6. You press the Fn+function key combination to change the display device to the LCD screen.
Nothing happens. The Windows XP desktop still displays on the CRT monitor.


After you upgrade from Microsoft Windows 98 to Windows XP, the extra options and tabs in Display Properties and OpenGL may be missing. In Windows 98 these were present if you used the manufacturer's drivers.


When you wake the computer from hibernation or from standby, the display may not turn on.


Consider the following scenario. You attach more than one monitor to a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003. You set a desktop background for a mirrored display. When you view the Settings tab in the Display Properties dialog box, you expect an icon to represent each active and inactive monitor in the Drag the monitor icons to match the physical arrangement of your monitors section. However, some inactive monitors are not represented by an icon.


When you use Windows Media Player to view an Audio-Video Interleaved file (.avi) that uses the Indeo3 codec, the video may become inverted if you turn on the extended desktop and if the video has been moved back and forth between the primary and secondary displays.

This problem has been seen only with media that is encoded with the Indeo3 codec.

NOTE: this behaviour is not specific to Windows Media Player (other players have also exhibited this behaviour).


On a Windows XP-based computer that has an installed ASUS V-7700 video adapter, the driver information for the adapter may not appear in the Display adapters list on the Settings tab under Display in Control Panel.


A Windows XP computer with an ATI Rage 3 Mobility video chip set may be missing the ATI tab in the Advanced Settings of the Display Properties dialog box.

Without this tab, you cannot switch between LCD, CRT, and TV.


When you run either the 3D Text or the 3D Flying Objects screen saver on Windows XP, you may receive a blank black screen instead of the screen saver that you selected. Additionally, when you run the 3D Flying Objects screen saver and you choose the Windows flag, the flag may not show the words "Windows XP," and it will lose its 3D texture. However, you can return to the desktop.


When you try to use programs (such as DVD players or games) that require support for the OpenGL standard for three-dimensional graphics display on your Windows XP-based computer, you may experience some or all of the following symptoms:
  • The software or game does not run.
  • The display appears jagged.
  • Pure color is missing.
  • Different shades of color are not displayed to give the three-dimensional look.
  • Some or all colors are displayed incorrectly.


When you open the Display Properties dialog box and then click the Settings tab in Microsoft Windows XP, you may receive the following error message:

The currently selected graphics display driver cannot be used. It was written for a previous version of Windows, and is no longer compatible with this version of windows. The system has been started using the default VGA driver. Please contact your hardware manufacturer to get an updated driver, or select one of the Microsoft provided drivers.


When you take your Tablet PC out of the docking station, and then put it back in again, the display properties may change unexpectedly. For example, while an external monitor is connected to the docking station, and you are using Clone mode so that both the external monitor and the Tablet PC LCD display the same picture, you take the Tablet PC out of the docking station and put it back in. Although the display was configured to use Clone mode before you undocked the Tablet PC, the desktop display is now stretched over both screens. Therefore, you are using DualView mode and can move items between the Tablet PC LCD screen and the external monitor.


If you change the language that is used in menus and dialogs on a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer that has the Multilingual User Interface Pack (MUI) installed, when you next log on to the computer, some display properties are reset to their defaults. For example, the desktop background color and the fonts are reset to their default settings.


When you extend the desktop to a secondary monitor in Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition 2004, you may experience any one of the following behaviours:
  • If the Media Center window is open while you turn on multiple monitor support, the Media Center window may become completely black.
  • When the Media Center window is maximized, you may not be able to move your pointer to the secondary display.
  • When you try to run the Media Center window on the secondary monitor, performance may be poor when you watch Live TV or DVDs.
  • When you maximizing the Media Center window, Media Center automatically appears on the primary display even if Media Center was initially on the secondary display.


On a portable computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP, you may be unable to switch between displays. For example, assume that the computer uses the Fn+F8 keyboard shortcut to switch between the computer's built-in display and an external monitor. When you press Fn+F8, the operation to switch between displays may not occur as expected.

Note Fn is the Function key, and it typically appears near the CTRL key on a portable-computer keyboard.

This problem may occur only occasionally. This problem is timing-specific, and it occurs only when you try to switch displays very soon after you connect an external display. For example, if you connect an external display, and then you wait for a full minute before you try to switch displays, this problem does not occur.


When you install Windows XP on a portable computer that uses the Trident video chipset, some images on the screen may be distorted during the installation.


When you make certain changes to the desktop, the screen may temporarily fade as if the computer is shutting down.


In Microsoft Windows XP, when you drag a group of icons over the task pane of a Windows Explorer window, the display is corrupted.


When you try to play video from a DVD, you may receive the following error message:

Playback failed due to a problem in the video subsystem.


When you try to install or use Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP, you may receive either of the following error messages:

This feature cannot be installed because your computer does not contain a video card with at least 16 megabytes of memory. Verify that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP.

Some of the features in Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP require a video adapter with at least 16 megabytes of video memory. The video adapter for your computer's primary monitor does not have enough video memory to run these features.


This issue occurs even though your computer does contain a video adapter with at least 16 megabytes of memory.


During live TV playback in Microsoft Windows XP Media Edition, the video picture appears to jump. This means that video frames are being dropped. You are most likely to notice dropped video frames if you do not view the video in Full-Screen mode.


Additionally, there may be an exclamation point next to the Margi_Systems DVD_Decoder under Other Devices in Device Manager.


On a computer that is equipped with an Intel i810 video adapter, Device Manager may list video adapters that are not physically installed on the computer. The "phantom" video adapters in Device Manager are the Flat Panel Display Driver and the TV Encoder.


You may experience severe video performance degradation after you perform a video mode change when compatible bitmaps are involved.


When you start your Microsoft Windows XP-based computer after you install an ATI RADEON 64 MB DDR video adapter, the computer may continually shut down and then restart.

The computer stops responding at the Logon screen. After a short time, you may receive the following error message:

Windows has recovered from a serious error BCCode: 100000EA BCP1:81356020 BCP2:8145FB30 BCP3:814D7378 BCP4:00000001 OSVer: 5_1_2600 SP:0_0 Product: 256_1

You may receive an error report referencing the following files:

C:\Windows\minidump\mini~0... .dmp" ...=unknown #'s

C:\documents~1\defaut\locals~1\temp\wer3d.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml



On a computer that has an ATI Rage Pro accelerated graphics port (AGP) 2X video adapter installed, when you attempt to put the computer into Standby mode, you may receive the following error message:

The device driver for the "ATI Technologies, Inc. 3D RAGE PRO AGP 2X" device is preventing the machine from entering standby. Please close all applications and try again. If the problem persists, you may need to update this driver.


You are watching video in widescreen format in Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Widescreen format has a 16:9 ratio. After you use the Media Center Zoom feature, you may experience one of the following symptoms:
  • The third mode of zoom may not appear as expected. Instead, the vertical dimension of the third mode appears to be the same as the vertical dimension of the default mode, the first mode of zoom.
  • Widescreen video content may be displayed with excessive scaling artefacts. Additionally, green bars may appear around the video.
  • When you resize the Media Center window, the video output may unexpectedly switch between the third mode of zoom and the first mode. When this behaviour occurs, the window size becomes smaller than the video.


Fast User Switching is not enabled if the available RAM is less than 120 megabytes (MB).


When you try to activate Windows XP after you install it on a Dell Inspiron 8100 computer, your computer may stop responding (hang) while the Activate Windows program runs.


With some Dell models, when a laptop resumes from standby (S3 sleep state) after a warm undock, the video display is corrupt for a brief period of time (approximately 5 to 10 seconds). The video display returns to a normal state after the computer completes the undocking process.


After you install Microsoft Windows XP on a computer that uses a Diamond Multimedia Stealth II G460 video adapter, the computer does not enter System Standby mode. If you try to use System Standby mode on a computer that uses this video adapter, you receive the following error message:

The device driver for the Stealth II G460 device is preventing the machine from entering standby. Please close all applications and try again. If the problem persists you need to update the driver.


After you unlock a Windows XP-based computer that is running a video capture program and that has an ATI Technologies ALL IN WONDER video adapter installed, you may no longer hear the sound that was playing before you unlocked the computer.

This issue can also occur with other ATI video adapters that have a video capture feature.


When an OEM performs a factory installation of an OEM version of Microsoft Windows XP, or when you use a Sysprep image to install Windows XP, the Setup program may stop responding during the video driver installation process.


When you start your computer, you may see a blank screen with a white dot in the upper-left corner of the screen.


After you upgrade to Windows XP on a computer that has an ATI Graphics RAGE FURY MAXX video adapter, your computer may stop responding, and you may receive the following error message:

STOP: 0x000000c2 A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

BAD_POOL_CALLER



On a Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based computer, you open a Command Prompt window and then press ALT+ENTER to switch the window to full-screen mode. When you use the remote to start Media Center, you may receive the following error message:

Your video card or drivers are not compatible with Media Center.

Note: MS-DOS-based programs use the ALT+ENTER keyboard shortcut to switch between full-screen mode and windowed mode.


After you install Windows XP on a computer that has an ATI RAGE 3 Mobility video adapter, Device Manager lists an "Unknown device" under "Other devices." A yellow circle with a black exclamation point on it appears next to this "Unknown device."


After you perform a fast user switching operation to switch to another user's account, and then switch back to the original user's account, you may experience severe degradation in video performance.


There may be display problems when you use the 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. 3Dfx Voodoo series of video cards.


If you install Windows XP by using a Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) network adapter or by using a remote boot floppy from a Remote Installation Services (RIS) server, the installation process may stop responding (hang) at the "Setup is Starting Windows" screen. A few seconds after this message appears, the screen may suddenly go black. You may also receive the following Stop error message on a blue screen:

STOP: 0x4000008a (0x822bcda8, 0x823978b0, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)
A kernel thread terminated to protect your system mutax.


NOTE: The four parameters that are inside the parentheses can vary according to the computer's configuration.


On a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the Compaq / S3 video utility that allows the user to switch from LCD to CRT and select the refresh rate does not function as expected.


When you try to select the highest possible refresh rates or resolutions that are supported by your monitor and video adapter, you may be unable to do so.


When you try to change your Matrox G400 Dual head video adapter to DualHead mode (Clone or Multi-display), you may receive the following error message:

Rundll32.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.


When you use a computer that contains an Asus video adapter, the computer may stop responding (hang) and display the following error message:

ASUSASV1.DLL+0x1725


When you start your computer, you may receive one or more of the following error messages:
RUNDLL32.EXE - Entry Point Not Found: The procedure entry point ThunkConnect32 could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll

RUNDLL - Error in NvQTwk Missing entry:NvCplDaemon


While you are using an ATI Rage video adapter with Windows XP, you may receive the following error message:

Atiptaxx.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.


When you use the 3D Flying Object screensaver with the Windows logo on a computer that is equipped with an S3 Graphics Savage4 video adapter, the Windows logo may not be displayed correctly.


When you install Windows XP on a computer that has a video adapter that uses the Asiliant 65555 chipset, Windows XP may identify the video adapter as an "Unknown device."


When you switch between an LCD screen and an external monitor while you are playing an OpenGL-based game in full-screen mode, the video may become distorted. Note that this symptom only occurs if the Windows desktop resolution is different from the game's resolution, and this symptom does not occur with games that are using Microsoft DirectX.


When you try to upgrade from Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition to Microsoft Windows XP Professional, you may receive the following error message:

The file igfxext.exe on Intel Extreme Graphics Windows 2000/XP Installation Disk is needed.


After you install Microsoft Windows XP, you may notice that your Diamond Viper V330 video adapter is detected as an Nvidia Riva 128.


When you try to use MGI SoftDVD Max program to play a DVD, you may receive the following error message:

Video rendering failure. Please check the file readme.txt for instructions.


Consider the following scenario. You use a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer that has multiple monitors. The primary monitor has 32-bit color depth. The secondary monitor has 8-bit color depth. In this scenario, artefacts appear on the secondary monitor screen.

Note: This issue occurs when you use a video card that has built-in memory. This issue also occurs when you use a video card that does not have alpha-blending capabilities.
 

Your Windows XP-based computer may quit unexpectedly or stop responding, and then you receive an error message similar to the following:

The DisplayDriverName display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality. The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to report this failure to Microsoft.

NOTE: DisplayDriverName is the name of the driver that may have caused the failure.


This article explains how to identify the type of graphics card you have installed by using Windows debug commands.

There are occasions where Windows cannot correctly identify your graphics card and your installation will complete with a default VGA adapter offering fewer colours and a lower resolution than the card can support due to the correct driver not being loaded. It is not always possible to identify the make of a graphics card by physical inspection, particularly when using laptop computers, and this makes it difficult to determine the correct driver to use.


When you click Start, and then click Eject PC to eject your computer from a docking station, you may receive the following error message:

You cannot eject your computer because one of the devices in the docking station, Display adapter, cannot be stopped right now. Try closing all applications and ejecting the computer again later.


If you use the /3GB switch in the Boot.ini file to support a program that can use more than 2 GB of virtual address space, a driver may not be loaded when Windows starts. This is more likely to occur with video adapter drivers. This is also likely to occur if the hardware device contains a lot of onboard random access memory (RAM) that is used as a buffer.


When you upgrade your computer to Microsoft Windows XP, the Start menu and the Windows taskbar may be missing. Also, when you press CTRL+ESC, the Start menu does not appear. However, if you start Windows XP in Safe mode, the Start menu appears correctly.

This problem may occur if you have a built-in video adapter on your computer's motherboard, and then you install second video adapter on your computer.


When you install Windows XP, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:
  • When you restart your computer, you may be prompted to use the Last Known Good configuration. When you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang) during the restart, and each time you restart thereafter.
  • You may be prompted to run ScanDisk. When you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang). If you do not run ScanDisk, your computer may start correctly. However you are prompted to run ScanDisk every time you start your computer, and if you do so, your computer may stop responding (hang).
  • When you restart your computer, your computer may stop responding (hang).
  • If you try to restart your computer in Safe mode, your computer may stop responding (hang) when Windows XP tries to load the Agp440.sys service.


This step-by-step article describes how to configure and use multiple monitors in Windows XP.

Windows XP makes it possible for you to increase your productivity by using multiple monitors to expand the size of your desktop. With the use of up to ten individual monitors connected to a single computer, you can create a desktop that is large enough to hold numerous programs or windows. You can easily work on more than one task at a time by moving items from one monitor to another or by stretching them across numerous monitors. You can edit images or text on one monitor while you view Web activity on another monitor. Or you could open multiple pages of a single, long document, and then drag them across several monitors to easily view the layout of text and graphics. You could also stretch a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet across two monitors so you can view numerous columns without scrolling.


After you upgrade your Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition-based computer to Microsoft Windows XP Professional, you may experience one or more of the following behaviours: When you start the computer, the display turns black with a large white pointer; You cannot increase the screen resolution to higher than 640 × 480 pixels; You receive the following error message when Windows starts:

\\.\DRI_KBFiltr The System cannot find the file specified.


If you use the /3GB switch in the Boot.ini file on a Microsoft Windows XP Professional-based workstation, and the workstation is configured with certain graphics adapters, Windows may exhaust the memory that is available for kernel services. Therefore, Windows disk services may fail with unrecoverable file system corruption, and you may receive "Delayed Write Disk" error messages that are similar to the following:

Delayed Write Failed
Unable to write file file name


The problem may occur shortly after Windows is started.


After you restart a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, the desktop is displayed upside down.


After you configure the energy-saving settings for an LCD monitor, the monitor on your Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based portable computer may not turn on again after you reopen the lid. For example, this problem may occur after you configure energy-saving settings by following these steps:
  • The SBP-2 device stops responding (hangs) or does not work.
  • Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
  • In the Pick a Category window, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
  • In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Power Schemes tab, and then click After 1 min in the Turn off monitor list.
  • Click the Advanced tab, and then in the When I close the lid of my portable computer list, click Do nothing.
  • Click Apply, and then click OK.
  • Wait for one minute for the monitor to turn off. Close the lid of the portable computer, disconnect the computer from the power source, and then reopen the lid. The monitor may not automatically turn on as expected.
Note: These steps apply when you have Control Panel set to Category View.

This problem is not resolved even after you press a key on the keyboard. In this scenario, you must restart your computer to regain use of the monitor.


If you purchase and install third-party graphics adaptors, and if you use the installation program that is provided by the manufacturer, you may experience the following symptoms:
  • The installation completes successfully, but you cannot later install any additional hardware device drivers or other drivers.
  • Your computer may exhibit unexpected behaviour.
Following are examples of the type of error message that you might receive that indicate this problem:

Access is denied.
The data is invalid.


Note: This issue is known to occur with the product Leadtek WinFast Titanium 200.


On the Appearance tab in the Display Properties dialog box, only Classic Windows is listed in the Windows and Buttons drop-down list; Windows XP Style is missing from the list.


On a portable computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, an external monitor does not work when you connect it to a DVI port on a docking station.