Screen Resolution Stuck @ 640x480, Can't find drivers  

Hello! I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 on my old Dell Dimension 2400, hoping to breathe some new life into the thing. Everything went smoothly except the screen resolution is stuck at 640x480.

The monitor, a Dell E172FPt, was running on Generic PnP drivers, so I attempted to update them. FIrst automatically, which concluded that the generic drivers were fine, then I searched the internet and found no drivers for my model of monitor on the Dell website at all. The only drivers matching my model were on download.com, for windows XP. Desperately, I installed them, and they installed fine, but it made no difference whatsoever. The resolution dropdown is still greyed out.

What do I do now?

Please tell me I'm not going to be stuck with a 640x480 resolution on this computer!

-Akeru

Akeru said:

Hello! I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 on my old Dell Dimension 2400, hoping to breathe some new life into the thing. Everything went smoothly except the screen resolution is stuck at 640x480.

The monitor, a Dell E172FPt, was running on Generic PnP drivers, so I attempted to update them. FIrst automatically, which concluded that the generic drivers were fine, then I searched the internet and found no drivers for my model of monitor on the Dell website at all. The only drivers matching my model were on download.com, for windows XP. Desperately, I installed them, and they installed fine, but it made no difference whatsoever. The resolution dropdown is still greyed out.

What do I do now? Please tell me I'm not going to be stuck with a 640x480 resolution on this computer!

-Akeru

Hello Akeru, and welcome to Windows Seven Forums!

The Dell web site says the 2400 uses the Intel 845 chipset. There is just no support for video that old. Your best option would be to purchase an inexpensive video card and disable the onboard video.

There is another possibility, I was not able to confirm, some integrated Dell video allow the Bios setting to be changed from 1MB to 4 or 8MB of shared video memory. To see, reboot your computer, and tap the F2 key when the Dell logo appears. You will get a bios menu like this:



Look under "Intregrated Devices" to see if there is the opportunity to increase the video memory.

Also, I must agree with Minotar that another 512MB of memory is really needed just to meet minimum requirments.

Cheers!
Robert

Just as a little help. Here are some really cheap graphics cards starting at $15. Maybe there is one that fits your mobo. Deals2buy: Graphic Cards deals