monitor puke time

August 21, 2006 5:03 PM

MOnitor device driver not showing up in winxp

bleh, ok my computer died last week and I had to scrap the winxp pro installed on it and start anew. So trying to install a monitor driver I downloaded, I run devmgmt.msc at the Run line and there is no obvious Monitor device listed to allow for an update, checking the display properties advanced setting just tells me I'm using the default monitor but won't allow changes.
(no, the driver won't load automatically)

The current way the monitor is acting makes me almost motion sick when I scroll down.

helpfull suggestions how to get the driver installed?

posted by edgeways to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Are you sure you don't need a video card driver?
posted by odinsdream at 5:11 PM on August 21, 2006

no video card installed, I had to slap a new MoBo in, and haven't progressed to the point of a video card yet
posted by edgeways at 5:14 PM on August 21, 2006

Ditto odinsdream. In my 10+ years of experience with computers, I can count the number of times I've needed a monitor driver on one finger. (It was when widescreen monitors were a brand new idea.)

I'm pretty confident you need a video card driver, not a monitor driver.
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:16 PM on August 21, 2006

Missed this on preview...if there is a picture on your screen, then you have a video card. Without a video card, you would see nothing. In fact, the computer would likely refuse to boot.

It may be (and probably is) built into your motherboard, but you have one, and it needs drivers. If it's a brand new motherboard, then it came with the relevant drivers on a CD.
posted by CrayDrygu at 5:18 PM on August 21, 2006

You're plugging your monitor into some video adapter. If you haven't put in a separate video card yet, it is integrated into the motherboard. Look up the required video adapter drivers for your model of motherboard.

The monitor will probably appear as a device once the video adapter driver is installed. Monitors don't really have drivers at least at the level that you need to install, they just take standard video signals.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 5:19 PM on August 21, 2006

k, I'll investigate around that direction, thanks
posted by edgeways at 5:48 PM on August 21, 2006

When logged in as administrator, right-click "My Computer" and select Properties.

Click the "Hardware" tab.

Click the "Device Manager" button.

In the resulting window, under the "View" menu make sure that "Devices by Type" is selected.

There should be a "monitor" entry. (On my laptop there are three choices under it: "Default", "Generic Television", and "Plug and Play monitor".) Double-clicking any item under the "monitor" entry should bring up a popup, and the middle tab of that popup is labelled "driver".
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:23 PM on August 21, 2006

My apologies; that appears to be the program you're already running. But you're using a strange way to get to it, and I'm not sure that the result would be the same, especially if you're invoking it as a non-administrator.

Another approach that may help: choose "view devices by connection". Then hunt around in the tree until you find your display device. The monitor(s) should be connected to that.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:17 PM on August 21, 2006