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General discussion

Assistance required : Graphics Card probs under XP

by denille May 27, 2005 8:55PM PDT

Hi,

Until a month or so ago, I was running a 21 inch CTX monitor under 1600 x 1200 screen resolution, GForce 64meg GFX card, Windows XP , DirectX 9, 512meg DDR, 2 x 80gig HDs.

My problems arose after the CTX monitor died, and I replaced it with a 17inch LG Monitor.

Games Ive installed or played successfully in the past no longer initialise properly or suffer major problems.

For example, a Graphics intense game like Morrowind, now runs at a very slow FPS. NeverwinterNights runs in slow motion, and some of my favourite old games like Settlers2 or Warcraft 2, wont even initialise.
I get the following message :
"16 bit MSDos Subsystem - The video device failed to initialise for fullscreen mode. Choose "close" to terminate the application"

Ive searched the internet for the correct drivers for the monitor I`m using, my Graphics card is recognised by Windows Update when new drivers are available.

I know the new monitor is pretty poor compared to the 21 inch CTX I had, but it is a new one, and although the screen resolution is now set at only 1280 x 1024, I cant understand why simply changing monitor should adversely affect a lot of the games I play?

Any advice will be much appreciated.
Thanks

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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This may help solve the puzzle
by AussiePete May 27, 2005 9:07PM PDT
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Tried them....
by denille May 27, 2005 9:53PM PDT

Thanks AussiePete,
Sadly, the link to the microsoft problem sover site didnt help. I followed the instruction sthere to edit the reg-key, and it didnt have any effect.
It did mention something about a corrupted command.com file, but offered no advice on what to do with it.
As I`m not that well versed in this stuff, I didnt go ahead and delete the command.com file, and I have no way of knowing how to replace it if it is corrupted.

The second link to a google list, took me to a few sites, but no one seemed to be having the same problem as me.

Thnaks anyways....
If I could just trace the problem back to WHAT changed when my monitor changed, then I may be able to solve it.
Apart from adding a new video driver for the new monitor, I changed absolutely nothing...and it was all working perfectly well before that point.

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Try this....It worked for me
by TONI H May 27, 2005 9:57PM PDT
http://www.visualtour.com/downloads/
07/29/2004
XP_Fix.EXE
(140 Kb)

Direct Download Here: http://www.visualtour.com/downloads/xp_fix.exe

This installaton program will reinstall the missing or corrupt Windows XP system files command.com, autoexec.nt and config.nt. The absence or corruption of one or more of these files causes a "16 Bit Subsystem" error.

We recommend that you download this file and save it to your desktop or to another location where you can find it. Double click on the file to run it once it's downloaded. If problem reoccurs in the future, simply re-run this program.

CAVEATE: When you download the file and go to install it, you will get a window that says 'you need this to install/run the Visual Tour'.......Visual Tour is another program on that site that you didn't download, so just click OK to install the fix instead. There may or may not be another program that begins to run in the background called WOWEXE.EXE or WOWEXEC.EXE and you can stop it by pressing CTRL-ALT and tap the DEL key to open the Task Manager program, then highlight WOWEXE and choose End Task. That program is part of XP and isn't a virus or spyware and once you End Task on it, it won't come back.

TONI
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If it is an LCD monitor,
by Ray Harinec May 27, 2005 10:32PM PDT

are you aware of the slow response time that they have?? Most were 25 Millisecond for years, now the lowest is 8 ms, what type did you get [response time]???

This greatly limits the refresh rate to about 60 HZ.

I'm not certain that this is the issue thought. I'm not a gamer.

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Normal CRT Monitor....
by denille May 28, 2005 9:44PM PDT

Thanks to everyone`s suggestions so far, I have followed them all faithfully and tried many more suggestions through Google.
Sadly, none of them worked...and after tinkering around with various fix programs, I now seem to have a rather annoying "Dr Watson" lockup problem using IE...lol
Oh well..its been 3 years since I last did a full format/WinXP reinstall of my HD anyways...I guess its time for the ultimate cleanup...hehehe!
Thanks again everyone Grin

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Turn "it" off.
by Cursorcowboy May 28, 2005 11:23PM PDT

1. Error Reporting which is enabled by default displays an error dialog box prompting the user to indicate whether or not they want to report the problem. When choosing to report the problem, technical information about the problem is collected and then sent to Microsoft over the Internet. If a report is rendered and if a similar problem has been reported by other people and more information is available, a link to that information will be provided the user. Turning it ON or turning it OFF is the user's call. For assistance and resolution, we would need to know WHAT cause(s) is/are reported.

a. Were there no links or anything else provided should you submit the report?

b. Please. For your benefit, always report the error information this report contains when wanting our analyses.

2. When a system error occurs, the computer displays a blue screen containing error codes and all computer operations stop. When an illegal operation or other error occurs in a program, that program stops working. System and program errors may be transmitted to Microsoft which allows them to track and address operating system, Windows component, and program errors. Error Reporting configuration is outlined in, [Q310414]:

a. Enable or disable
b. Enable for the operating system
c. Specify the program for which a report is generated
d. Remove programs from the list
e. Send an error report to Microsoft

3. Supplemental reading:

a. "Description and Availability of Internet Explorer Error Reporting Tool (Q276550)."

b. "No Date or Time Information Available When Program Stops Responding in Windows 98 or Windows Me (Q280660)."

c. "How to Disable or Redirect Internet Explorer Error Reporting (Q310116)."

d. "How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP (Q310353)."

e. "HOW TO: Configure and Use Error Reporting in Windows XP (Q310414)."

f. "Preparation Before You Contact Microsoft After Receiving a STOP Message on a Blue Screen (Q314103)."

g. "You Receive a "System Has Recovered from a Serious Error" Message After Every Restart (Q317277)."

4. Many users question what the file "Appcompat.txt" is, besides assuming that IT is the error itself, which is a file generated by the WinXP compatibilit

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