New-ish i5 MB, Up to W10 64 bit free, BUT, bl . . . blinking awful graphics.

[Loose rivets]

Really fed up about this. Totally no use as is.

I was so please to 'win' the Foxconn MB on e-thingy. Even more pleased when finally, the Authentication for the new 64bit install via an ISO accepted a key*

As soon as I fired it up I was perplexed by the lacklustre screen. :ugh: The board is so much quicker than my dual core AMD, and would have been a cheap upgrade if it were not for the crap picture. It's even selectable to 72Hz refresh which I require.

My home screen backdrop has a wheelbarrow, the edge of which is at 45 degrees, and I can see several colours on that line. Like an old TV's poor convergency. There's a bit of a white mist over the entire picture.

The graphics are Intel, and the HD driver is loaded. 1440 res on my lovely old LG W1952, which with 72Hz shows a very relaxing photo-like picture - or it did.

Have I missed something @#$%@ obvious? Clutching at straws here, but even if I had to shell out for an N-Vid card, it wouldn't be too bad - if that was the answer.

I've got no HDMI, but is there a chance going to the DVI plugs would help? No lead handy, and in the past I've not seen much difference from VGA.

Is there any reason to fear adding a video card to a board with a crap picture might not work? i.e., the card has to get information from somewhere, could that be already of poor quality?


*The Key was the very first supplied with the OEM W7. Thank heavens I'd kept the case label. The other night, it would NOT take the key for the W10 32bit upgrade of that copy I'd been using for months. Info on that was obtained by Belarc. (we've discussed that, and it leaves question marks about the algorithms used to obtain the Key.) But all four W10 upgrades I've done show a new number and key. The number (serial?) loses the OEM tag in the string.

[andytug]

Couple of thoughts - is there a later driver available for the on board graphics? Also, is it possibly set to 16bit colour instead of 32? (No idea where you'd find that on W10, it's usually in screen/graphics properties though).
A separate graphics card is an obvious solution /upgrade especially if gaming or playing HD video, tomshardware.com has ratings based on price etc, worth a read. Onboard graphics are usually basic compared to proper cards (although a modern one should cope with HD playback ok).

[terrain safe]

According to my guru (22-year-old son) Vga will do up to 1600 x 900 without any problem. Above that the bit rate suffers so there will be fewer colours available. Get a DVI cable it should be better.

[Loose rivets]

Asked a pal to search round for a DVI cable in the AM. Drivers? I'm wondering if it was better with Windows basic which switched to Hi Def until the Intel driver appeared. I don't think it was. As mentioned it was poor from the get-go.

Something in BIOS about Intel and drv which I tried on, but no difference. Of course, I'm wondering if the vendor sold it because it was #$@%# or if he had a better graphics card.

There's a strange similarity between the look of this and the old interlaced picture. Horizontal lines seem to have a secondary haze under them and vertical lines have a one-pixel haze to the left.

I'll go back to Saab's links about drivers on Foxconn and have another hunt in there. The Foxconn DVD won't run on W10 - says it fails to erase? the temp file. If I knew what it was aiming at I'd zap it myself. Whatever, the list of drivers to load is empty.

I suppose my main problem is the age of the board. My fault. Time slips by so quickly now and i5 seemed so modern. Still, it's given me a lust for more power, but the thought of begging MS to allow another major change is not too pleasing.

[Loose rivets]

Instant improvement by altering the Phase control on the LG 1952. To me, this means the adjustment is just covering up the card's poor quality, or that it is in some way 'out of phase' when compared to the old MB - graphics chip.

The adjustment is well off-centre, so I tend towards the latter.

Right now, it's usable, but no joy to use.

[FlightDetent]

Your description suggest a HW issue. It's unclear, to me, what you are actually using. Hard to help like this. But try a different D-SUB cable if you have one around.

[Loose rivets]

Borrowed a DVI cable and the first thing is that it's not much better. The other thing - Phasing does not work for Digital settings of course.

Letters, viewed at X 4, have coloured pixels mixed with the black.

The white areas of the entire screen have a kind of wavering patchiness. More visible out of the corner of my eye than direct, but very real.

I guess I have to face it. Trying to save money is going to cost me.

[le Pingouin]

Can you advise the model number of the motherboard?

[Loose rivets]

Yes, it's a Foxcomm H55MXV. I think Noah had it in the arc.


However, I called one of our local Mr Fixit chaps and he happened to have an Asus GForce 210 surplus to requirements new in the box.

I now have to learn how to turn of the on-board graphics as there seems to be nothing in the BIOS. I have the handbook, and there are jumpers in abundance. Quite takes me back to the old days.

I'd read that PCI Express 2 cards can go into older slots, so here's hoping.

The thing is, a lot of folk would never know there was anything wrong with this picture, but it would be quite wrong to sell it as it is. A bit lime my BMW actually.

Reading the Foxconn book it just says put the card in. Nothing about changing anything to do with the MB


.

[le Pingouin]

The Foxconn site indicates it has a PCIe2.0 slot. I think it will automatically detect the PCIe card and use it.

It would be interesting to try a "live" Linux CD/USB to see if it gives the same blurry image to help check if it's hardware or driver.

Looking at a low res pic of the MB I thought those wire coils were DIP switches! Now that would be from the ark :}

[Loose rivets]

Mmm . . . said in a thoughtful way. I've loaded the graphics card and at first it doesn't look much different. :eek:

One of the symptoms is this shifting area of mysterious - nothing. Not kidding. I've seen (groan, or not seen) it before. It's like a ghost in the room - you see it to one side, but when you look it's not there. If I hadn't been aware of it before, I'd think I was imagining it.


The familiar Nvid menu however does allow more adjustment of the picture. Gamma has got rid of the white haze at last.

After that, and another session with eyeglass and the phase control on the monitor, I've got it to what might, with a bit of imagination, look fair. At best.

Now, with data going through a low-end, but respected graphics card, it can only be the signal from the MB causing the commonality. To me, it goes against the grain to not turn off the other system's output electronics. It many have done so, but I'm not sure how to find out. There's certainly not anything coming out of the old VGA plug.

I have a feeling an Asus MB is about to appear on my doorstep.

[Guest 112233]

Hello Rivits

(The Red 3TB HDD is working fine - Good luck with the Black coded HD by the way.)

Have you a Linux Distribution CD or USB hanging around - Just try booting from it and see how the results look.

I take it that the motherboard/PC combination is old , have a look in the bios settings and see if the combination of On-board Graphics or using an Graphics Card works best. On looking at the internet, some older Foxconn boards were prone to a single point of failure with a single capacitor affecting video output from the mother board. It is one fitted over the bisected circle on the M/B.

The Kit I'm using is 8 Years old now (with a GT 610 Fanless card in the PCI 2.0 Slot) and an ancient Intel DG 451D Motherboard. DVi cable used.

With the Original Bios.

The Linus distro will follow the bios settings: Just try in demo mode ! - You should get decent results by default ??

For the best results Ubuntu 14.04 requires the use of additional drivers with the correct bios settings. It depends on the version of Linux of course.

But worth a try.


CAT III

[Loose rivets]

Darn! Just used my ISO of Ubuntu for something else. Neat idea, I'll have to create another one.

I think I'll hang the original motherboard into an old case, perhaps tomorrow. I just want to convince myself it's as good as it was..

If I sit and stare at this screen now, the effect is of patches varying in brightness; a wave passing over a fixed window. It's so slight one has to be neurotic to be concerned about it, but . . . :p

I'm wondering if the power supplies reaching that part of the board are stable. Oh for the kit I left behind in Texas.





Puzzle moved to its own post.
.

[FlightDetent]

Same problem with DVI and D-SUB: so it's not the cable or the digital-analog converter for the D-SUB port or in the monitor.

I cannot see how wrong drivers could do this, the GPU is part of the processor so the chip is most likely allright.

1a) check the monitor itself with from a completely different image source
1b) using stand-alone GPU (don't buy any!!!) could yield more info too
2) somebody suggested PSU as a possible source of your woes, have they not? (http://www.pprune.org/computer-internet-issues-troubleshooting/577355-my-new-ish-ssd-failing-w10-again.html#post9341772)

I learned the hard / exhausting way in January and February, that for 100 quid one can have a brand new machine faster than the old one, a very reliable and quiet one too. Much wiser choice than patching up old components.

take care, FD.

[Loose rivets]

Yep, must run this monitor off the old board to be quite sure. I'd hate to think my impulsive purchase was the cause of damage to what I considered to be monitor perfection. My ASUS 21" in Texas was very good, but nothing has ever had the 'calm' stillness of pictures on this little W1952 at 75 refresh.

Still not doing any work. Back later.

[Loose rivets]

Dual screen. Could this be it?!?!

The DVI cable had taken away the need for phasing in the monitor settings and it wasn't too bad.

Anyway, I lost my cursor, and found it in a void to the right - a couple of swipes to get it back. I realised that while I was testing with my laptop, I'd gone to dual screens and left it like that. I switched back to single screen and there was more than a little difference in the quality. So, Nvidia card. DVI cable and one darn screen, and it's quite liveable with.

Still a bad mistake to get the old board as I now find i5 can be dual core, and yes that's what mine is. But given the price of a new i5 quad, 65 quid for MB, chip fan and memory is no big deal.

The question is: is it better to not have any graphics processing on the main CPU and use a good card, or is the closeness of the GPU a major factor in speeding things up? Also, I'm not totally clear if the final signal comes out of the CPU, or if it still has to go to a Video chip.

That was a statement, but please can it be considered a question. :p

[MG23]

The question is: is it better to not have any graphics processing on the main CPU and use a good card, or is the closeness of the GPU a major factor in speeding things up? Also, I'm not totally clear if the final signal comes out of the CPU, or if it still has to go to a Video chip.

What are you using it for? The integrated graphics is fine for desktop use or basic gaming, but you'll need a dedicated GPU for serious gaming. Integrated graphics doesn't really put extra load on the CPU, as it's a separate part of the chip that's probably just turned off if you install a dedicated GPU. But it does put extra load on the RAM, since that's shared between the two, whereas a dedicated GPU has RAM on the card.

[FlightDetent]

The on-board graphic processors are thing of the past. Since about 6 years the GPU cores are in the CPUs and the MBs do not do that. Or a dedicated card like you said.

[Loose rivets]

Right, I'll probably go for a quad i5 because of price. Gigabyte or Asus seems to be rather popular, though Foxconn I was told on this forum years ago, produce kit for a lot of other names.

Any strong consensus?

[FlightDetent]

What's the budget? Have you decided to replace the PSU too?

[FlightDetent]

Here are several proven components that complement one another nicely.
Be Quiet! Pure Power 350W (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Quiet-350W-Power-Supply/dp/B00DBIC5LA) MSI B150M Mortar (https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-B150%C2%A0M-Mortar-Socket-LGA1151%C2%A0Max/dp/B015FAEW9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464686559&sr=1-1&keywords=b150m+mortar) i5-6500 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Skylake-Processor-i5-6500-Turbo/dp/B010T6CWI2/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=AFXON1SGSPLH4) Actic Freezer 7 Pro rev. 2 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B002G392ZI/ref=sr_1_1_olp?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464687175&sr=1-1&keywords=arctic+freezer+7+pro+rev+2&condition=new) Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB Kit (8GBx2) DDR4 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-Ballistix-PC4-19200-288-Pin-BLS2C8G4D240FSC/dp/B0157ABYXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464687330&sr=1-1&keywords=ballistix+sport+lt)
= 356 GBP altogether. One pound-a-day deal :)

The machine will be very quiet, lean, and for home use actually somewhat too fast. Skylake makes it re-sellable 5 years down the road and also you want that for the integrated graphics improved over Haswell (refresh) architecture.

Storage and case not included, as you will be using the ones you already have I suppose. For a new built these would do really well:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Technology-Solid-State-Drive/dp/B00A1ZTZNM/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464688011&sr=1-1&keywords=v300+240gb
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Spinpoint-9-5mm-Drive-Apple/dp/B005H3XWGY/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464688033&sr=1-1&keywords=spinpoint+M8+1tb
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-SIL-352M-KKN1-Silencio-USB3-0/dp/B00ECJH2GK/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1464688226&sr=1-1&keywords=silencio+352

[Loose rivets]

Great links! Thanks. That Kingston 240 is even cheaper than ebuyer - by more than six quid. I got as far as putting some kit a their basket, and then zapping it. Glad I did.

The case looks rather snazzy, though the cost of a better PSU is surprisingly high.

I'm keen to get everything going on two more machines in time for the W10 freebie. Especially since the 64bit upgrade seems to work. I have to milk every penny out of these deals these days but the cost in time has become bizarre.

In the meantime I'm wasting more time on my wife's HP. Back to that thread as this AM more bewilderment sent down the wires from MS.

[FlightDetent]

Since about 7 years, something very ugly happened on the PSU market. Base units available for 15-25 quid have become downsized, leaned way too much or just designed to cheat. I suppose this is deliberate, in order to extort premium cash for an average, proper unit.

The components I suggested are actually picked very carefully in another forum I go to, there is reason or more likely three, for every penny spent. The general consensus is 1) function, 2) price 3) design - the case, for what it's worth, is a prime example of a good deal. That includes relatively sturdy materials and good build quality. For sure its nothing like Zalman. It's soundproofed and that has pros and cons too plus some suprising effects e.g. impact on HDD choice; some people like the integrated card reader, some find two front USB 3.0 ports essential (of course you need a board to support both of them). Be careful if the door swivel is ok, there's no choice of left/right.

I agree 100% with the WIN-10 conversion plan and did the same in the extended family. Based on my limited experience of about 6 machines, and especially time-to-result (!!): if CCleaner had been run on a machine that started playing up later, I would only touch it with a reinstall W10 ISO.

FYI I still have a hunch that you'd do really well with i3 (2+2 cores) machine. The whole setup would look significantly different then, approximately 270 quid. Yet, apart from answering the question from the previous page, to put forward a smart combination one piece of information is missing: how's your hearing?

[Loose rivets]

Hee hee, that's a sore point right now. The Rivetess talks so softly that I can barely hear her, but when she's in Texas we talk for hours while she's using a boom mic that's very toppy. Perfect then. Oh, and if I do wear them, she'll find some excuse to bellow at me and it feels like skewers being thrust into my brain. :eek:

This old age thing is crap. So, not good's the answer. ;)

Doors on computers. Mmm . . . I've torn them off in the past as being too tedious for words.

Ccleaner. When a Vice President of MS said Don't. As in don't install Ccleaner, the pundits seemed unanimous in their protests. Most had used it for years. I can not imagine not using it. But back to that other thread in a moment and go over this thread again tomorrow when I've recovered from a hard day.