Compaq Armada 7800 notebook

[Sylva]

Hello all:

On this notebook I am getting a much reduced screen on the middle. It's Win98. I had this trouble a few years back, but forgot what remedy I used. I think it's drivers, so I used the upgrade from Compaq, but it did not work. I suspect something was done to this computer, re, MoBo change, etc., otherwise I see no reason why Compaq's dedicated drivers to this machine would not work. While I am going to use Aida to find this one out, maybe some of you have suggestions, which will be much appreciated.

Thanks, john.

 

[ski]

Does the laptop have external screen adjustments?

Is the correct resolution selected in Display Properties/Settings, and the correct refresh rate selected in Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter?

Did you try connecting the laptop to an external monitor?
If the monitor has the same problem, then there may be a problem with the laptop's video adapter.
If the monitor works ok, then there may be a problem with the laptop's screen or its internal connecting cable.

 

[Sylva]

Well, I tried first what you're suggesting, that is, the advanced tab, but when clicked on it the whole image disappeared and had to reboot. This went on a coupla times, then rebooted into Safe mode to be able to get to the advanced config tab. There, of course, you cannot modify monitor scanning frequency, neither can you adjust resolution. By the way, resolution with the small image in the middle is highest. In Safe mode is back to its default, 640/480 with the image spread over the whole display. Here I installed the upgrade offered by Compaq. It didn't work when I booted back into normal mode.

During the past few weeks I've dealt with Sonys, Ibms and two Compaq laptops. The first did not want to change from low to high resolution no matter what I did. Finally, I put on it Aida and it turned out that the video chips were not the original set, but made by an offshoot of IBM's. So the MoBo has been supplanted with a generic, compatible, one. Knowing that it was easy to find the right drivers (because they existed ) and everything fell into place.

I did not do this on the Armada, but I will shortly. Re-installing Win98 won't do the trick because it does not have the right drivers. It goes up to S3 86c325, but Armada needs a different one from this series, which Win98 does not have.

The main issue here is that the Armada 7800 as well as the
Presario 1260 series, at least in part were designed with Win95 in mind when Win98 was not yet in its final stage of development. This is why there are so many problems. For example, although Win2000 works well on the Presario, it won't recognize the MoBo Modem because Compaq did not update the BIOS, etc., etc.

Thanks for the input, John.

 

[ski]

You are welcome.

It appears that you're on the right track.
Your situation is akin to installing spark plugs in a Ford that has a Chevy engine.
Nice detective work.

 

[Sylva]

Thanks for the accolade. This is exactly what happened: driver problems. I downloaded them once again. They install into Windows/System32/Disk1 and Disk2. Disk1 has a Setup program which, when double clicked, installs the right drivers by detecting the video chipset. It turns out that the corruption of the drivers was caused by corrupted executable application files.

Rebooted, and the image returned to normal. Normal is not the real word here. The Armada 7800 has one of the best 14" displays I've ever seen. I think it's due to the very high density of the TFT. Graphics are extremely crisp and the screen is very evenly lit. I'd install Win2000 but I am afraid that the same will happen as with the Presario by not recognizing the MoBo modem because Compaq has the bad habit of not updating the BIOS of their laptops.

Cheers, John.