Vista Squad

I have a problem with Windows Vista where if I let the display turn off after a certain amount of time, it fades out to black with the mouse showing. I discovered that if I installed my XP Graphic Drivers the monitor fully turns off. Any ideas? Thanks.

System Specs

 Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate

Graphics: ATI Radeon XPress 200M

Processor: AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+

RAM: 1024MB (1GB)
 

Hi Michael

First of welcome to Vista Squad

Just a few questions re your system,

Was this a fresh install of Vista or an Upgrade from XP? If an upgrade from XP, make sure you remove all the old graphic driver files.

Is this 32bit or 64Bbit?

I have checked with ATI and your onboard graphics are supported in both versions. First of have you downloaded and tried the very latest driver’s version 7.12 from the ATI website.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista32/integrated-vista32  - for 32bit

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=vista64/integrated-vista64  - for 64bit

I have heard of a similar problem before and found that the latest drivers installed ok, but it was best to re install the ATI Catalyst Control centre separately again.

Hi Scottbeltron

Fresh install of Vista Ultimate

32-bit

 And no. :) I will try tonight.
 

Hi Scottbeltron,

 Installed that and went through the wizard. Left for a moment, hoping the screen to black out... but it never.
 

Hi,

I bought a new laptop no more thatn four days ago, it's an NEC Versa L220 with windows vista 32 bit. i have installed a couple of games on there like aoe2 and starcraft, and 9 times out of ten when i open these the colours are all inverted and funky? the dsktop looks fine its just seems to be the games and sometimes media player visualisations are a bit wobbly.

I'm trying to get a friend to download the newest driver for me as i don;t have the net, but was wondering if you have heard of this before? is it a hardware issue or a software issue?

Its still under a return policy but they have so far not being very helpful, there technician didn't seem to know jack, and i ended upn helping him... if you reckon its a hardware problem then i can take it back.

cheers for any help.

First off welcome to Vista Squad,

 I think you may already be on the right track as it does sound like a driver issue and would be well worth installing the latest version. It may also pay you to get you new laptop connected to the net and update the Windows install and insure you get Service Pack 1.

You may also need to download the latest patches for both these games as they are quite old , also you may need to look at running these by using the compatability mode for Windows XP with a resolution of 800x600. If you need info on how to use compatability mode let me know.

Starcraft latest patch is 1.15.2 http://us.blizzard.com/support

aoe2 latest patch 2.0a www.fileshack.com

Can you just confirm the full spec of the laptop, CPU, ram graphics etc. Version of Vista?

As for your conversation with their technicians I tend to find that if the problem is not standard and they can’t read the answer off a pre-prepared script then you’re out of luck, but don’t forget you are fully within your rights to get help or refunds if you are really unhappy with it.

Regards

Scott