proportionally accurate display confused

Shinnen

Member
I have just installed Windows 7 Home Premium on my computer. However, I'm having trouble finding drivers for it's internal graphics card, an Intel915G/915GV/910GL. For most things I don't really care, but for photography I must have a proportionally accurate image. There are three resolutions that the native drivers provide, all of which are wide (1280x1024, 1024x768 and 800x600) on my monitor. The odd thing is that 1280x1024 gives me the proportion I want in Windows XP, on. What am I missing here?
..... john
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You have a motherboard model number or model of computer? Can link you right to the correct driver. If you look in device manager what does it list under display adapters?
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
Sorry I thought I had said that it's a Dell Dimension 3100. It's old but it works well. The device manager says "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter". I'm not sure what the motherboard is. Unless you know where to find the drivers for this beast, I wouldn't waste my time looking. I've searched the net, tried several drivers, and none work. The common wisdom seems to be that Dell did not develop Windows 7 drivers for this chip.
...... john
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah it seems it only compatible up to XP. However, Have you tried updating the driver manually and have it check windows update to see if it can find one that works? Also, you can download the XP driver and then right click on the file and click on properties, then compatibility tab and have it compatible for XP and see if it installs.
 

Shinnen

Member
OK I'll try that. Thanks.
If that doesn't work I'll probably buy a graphics card, but I'm not sure if PCI means it will take all PCI cards.
.... john
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi again,
Good suggestions, but no luck.
Yes, I see the PCIe card you're referring to.
But I have a line on a PCI card that may work. He only wants $15 for it.
It's a GeForce EVGA 8400GS. Do you think it might work??
....... john
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
Well, the board shows 2 PCI and one PCIex1 slots.
It's the "1.0x16 interface" designation in the cards description that has me spooked.
Are you saying that any PCI card should work if the board has a PCI slot?
..... john
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
It seems the 8400gs is a pci express X16 card so it will not work in your pc. You'll either need a pci or pci express X1 video card.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
Yes, I kind of came to that same conclusion. I'm not at all familiar with the (modern) PCI stuff, so it's a learning experience for me. What I don't understand is why 1280x1024 shows differently in Windows XP and Windows 7? I suppose I could resize the images I want to edit, and go from there.
........ john
 

Shinnen

Member
But there is a driver installed, the vga driver, and it says that I'm using 1280x1024. Are you saying that it doesn't work well with Windows 7?
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
It looks like the simple solution for editing is to resize to 1024x1024. That way I get the true proportions of the image. Then I can edit that.
What do you think?
......... john
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
You most likely won't get the desired effects since you don't have the proper driver installed. Try and see. Think of it like this. The standard basic driver windows uses for the video card will only give you basic use out of it. If the correct driver was actually installed, you would get all the bells and whistles from it, especially from editing things and gaming would be the other. You won't be able to game very well at all using the basic driver.
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
I resized a picture of a glass globe which is perfectly round, to 1024x1024 and it measures round on the screen; however, the editor (Photofiltre) reports something else. I think it might work in a pinch, but I'm going to find a card that will give me a proportionally accurate image without having to apply this little trick.
Thanks again for your help.
...... john
 

Shinnen

Member
Hi John,
I solved the problem, without having to buy a video card, which I was having trouble finding. It so happens that I have a monitor here which is closer to square than the one I was using. (It's less wide.) And with this monitor 1280x1024 shows proportions in complete agreement with what objects actually are.
So, thanks again for all your help.
......john
 
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