Nvidia Quadro 3700M Mystery

A mostly successful MXM upgrade has a lingering issue. The Nvidia 8800M GTS on an HP HDX 9300 was replaced with an Nvidia Quadro 3700M and runs normally with one remaining problem. The display (a 20 WUXGA inch 8-bit panel) has a somewhat dull, washed out appearance instead of its usual vibrant look. The theory we're working on is that the Quadro is outputting to 6-bit rather than 8-bit. Working on this theory, I've been trying to find out how to modify the Quadro's output.

However, we may be missing something, and the problem may be deriving from something else. If anybody has any good input, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

MobileArtist

 

As it is odd not to get a single response, am I posting this question in the wrong place, ?

 

@triturbo is familiar with old machines like these

 

How did you come up with this theory? It sounds more like some color profile issue.

 

The technician who did all the heavy lifting in making this upgrade work tried adjusting everything using Nvidia tools. I will ask him if he considered color profiles.

The reason he came up with that theory, based on making what I believe were all the possible adjustments, is that a log of the GPU's behavior shows on the basis of numbers of colors displayed, that it is outputting to 6-bit, whereas the WUXGA screen is 8-bit.

The other interesting thing, which may argue against it being a color profile issue, is that the display is dim even in the bios set up screen.

I do appreciate your cogitation about this, and welcome all suggestions.

Thanks!

 

ijozic:

Would the wrong color profile affect the screen appearance even in the BIOS screen? (pre-desktop)

 

Of course not. But, since this is HP, IIRC, they used to read the vBIOS from within the system BIOS, not from the card itself. So, since this seems to be an unsupported card for this laptop, perhaps the system BIOS defaults to some weaker setting (e.g. 6-bit) then?