Computer screen resolution

[truenorth]

An update on this post. I scrounged around in my archive of computers and found a PCI video card (not as recent as i would have preferred)
It is an ATI RAGE 11 + 3D circa 1996. Has been installed in the Dell and has now given me the availability of adjustments to resolution parameters. Somewhat limited as this card was designed for use with Win 95/98. I can get 24 colours now (not 32) and i have the max resolution it will accept at 1028x780 or something like that. I tried to find drivers for it that would associate with win xp hoping i might get even more flexibility of choice. Went down many rabbit holes on that with no success. However  the good news is that the streaming video and dvd video on a 26" LCD HD monitor is great from the computer.Would have liked to have been able to upgrade the on board video card's drivers but that did not work out. Thanks to all that provided their guidance,truenorth

[jhonas]

Its a very small topic but its too much discussion !!

[truenorth]

jhonas, I fail to understand your contribution to this thread with your comment "Its a very small topic but its too much discussion !!" . The original issue still remains unresolved: the on=board video card has NOT been improved ( which logically if it could be improved would provide a better result than the card replacement i have done). Yes i realize that a more recent PCI card would undoubtedly give me better resolution options but so would the restoring of the on-board card if that is possible to achieve. I have done what i can so far but i was hoping that there would be assistance forthcoming to deal with the driver issue around the original video card. So if your insinuation is that it is not an issue worthy of discussion i would ask you why you think that? truenorth

[Allan]

Please don't respond to trollers. He's already been warned. Thank you.

[truenorth]

Too bad they didn't  give off an odor or something self evident that we could know they were trolls.    truenorth

[truenorth]

This shall probably be my last pronouncement on this topic. In deference to the many people that seem to be following this post some new information but 1st a little background.
This computer was acquired recently without any knowledge as to it's previous ownership or use. It had many issues. I had exhausted my own abilities to resolve what i believed to be most likely a software issue (probably drivers) with it in regards to it's "display" issue on a monitor. You are aware of my alternative of the PCI card installation and the result.
  I decided that this fix was not achieving what i felt would have been what the on-board video card would have provided. So the next thing i did in order to get a better picture of what if any remaining issues were going on with the computer.
1.I ran the "chkdisk" utility and watched the progress. Innumerable corrupt and orphan entries appeared.
2.The O/S was XP home version. I decided to install XP Pro version.
3.In the bios reassigned an optical drive to 1st position.
4.Installed XP Pro SP 2.
5. Installation was successful.
6. The computer defaulted to the on-board video card. (initially created some heart thumping as i got a black screen after windows boot screen). However for whatever reason i unplugged the VGA monitor connection from the PCI card and back into the on-board video card and eureka a display appeared.
7.Now i have complete option ability within all the parameters of the display including all resolution parameter as the on-board card was intended to supply.
8. I had also been endeavoring to upgrade the computer from SP 2 to SP 3 and it would never install (always indicated errors well into the install). Now that too has been successfully installed.
  truenorth

[patio]

Nice work there...
Good to hear it's off of life support...

[truenorth]

Thank you Patio,truenorth