Vostro 1700 with Geforce 8400m GS Windows 7 Only 16 bit color

Hello,

I'm baffled, for some reason I can only get 16 bit color on my Vostro 1700 Windows 7 64Bit Ultimate. Runs in 1920 x 1200 resolution no problem but only 16 bit color which of course is no good at all. (yes i realize dell doesn't officially support windows 7 on this computer but everything else works fine)

Everything looks happy in Device Mangler. Installed the latest Nvidia drivers today November 8th 2010 (260.99).

Anyone else have this issue or have a suggestion?

thank you

 

Have you tried the Dell Vista drivers? If this happened after you installed Windows 7, then it's driver-related.

 

That could be normal as the 8400m GS may not be able to handle that resolution along with 32 bit color quality. I have a Vostro 1700 with the 8600 GT but it has the 1400x900 resolution running in 32 bit.

You have tried the obvious (drivers) now see if you can change the refresh rate. Then try to up the color range to 32 bit.

 

The 8400m GS can handle 1920x1200@32 that's for sure. I've had a few laptops pass along my hands at work with 17"@1920x1200 with the 8400m GS GPU. Actually just about any dedicated GPU can.

The issue is likely drivers. Go to Nvidia Control panel and see if you can switch it there, it too happend with a couple of Nvidia cards I used to have. If not good luck hunting . Try looking for laptops with the 8200-8400m series with Windows 7 and get drivers from those manufacturers.