Optiplex 790 USFF to 31Khz monitor

[Vamino]

I've been fighting with a PC I bought recently off here trying to get it to display on a Nanao 2930 monitor, I'm nearly at the point where I'm gonna give up. But, I'm almost there so will give it another chance before I finally give up and move onto another solution. With the PC being a USFF I can't just throw in a GPU and run Groovymame so hence using the CPU's onboard graphics.

Windows 10 = Can't get it to display once the drivers are installed.

Windows 7 = Can't get it to display once the drivers are installed.

Windows XP = I can get it to play games but it needs to manual configuration to get mame to load.

So after spending hours fighting with the PC this is how I eventually managed to get a picture on the MS2930 with Windows XP:

1/ In bios choose ata mode instead of AHCI, if AHCI is chosen then it bluescreens when installing XP.

2/ Install XP

3/ Install SP3

4/ Install netframework 4.0

5/ Install drivers, when you reboot after installing the VGA driver it's set to an incorrect resolution which doesn't display correctly. So reboot PC.

6/ When booting keep pressing F8 and a boot menu will appear in 640x480 which allows you to then choose to boot with 'enable VGA mode' option.

7/ Once loaded in VGA mode, if you then reboot the PC it reverts back to an incorrect resolution. To make 640x480 stick run a CMD prompt and type msconfig. Select boot tab and tick base settings option. This will allow the PC to boot in VGA mode, but the colour will always be set to 8-bit colour and mame won't load.

8/ Change colour to 32 bit in display properties.

9/ Mame now works but when the PC is rebooted it reverts to 8-bit colour and games wont load until you change it back to 32bit colour. I've tried using Powerstrip but it doesn't seem to stick.

Has anyone successfully got one of these PC's (or similar) to work seemlessly with a 31khz CRT monitor? I imagine something using a HD2000 onboard graphics would have similar issues to what I'm experiencing.

Cheers.

Vamino2018-08-17 23:34:45

 

[anj]

refresh rate is incorrect , i think it needs 72 khz

 

[Vamino]

I don't think it's a frame rate/refresh issue mate.

I can get the PC to display at 640x480 (31khz) at 60hz on the monitor as I've mentioned above, but I can't get the settings to stick when I reboot the PC. In non VGA mode it keeps reverting to 800x600 which the monitor can't display, in VGA mode it boots at 640x480 but reverts to 8-bit colour which stops mame from loading games.

Judging by what's on Google the default resolution for XP is 800x600.

The Intel video driver for the hd2000 seem to not want to play ball, if I could somehow modify the driver to remove all other resolutions it may work then. But hopefully someone out there has a solution.

Vamino2018-08-18 18:06:47

 

[Ropi Jo]

I've just gone through something similar. Different gpu / driver / pc combinations not booting 'some' Mame versions. Just a quick DOS box flashing onto the screen. Task Manager shows Mame is running but it's not displaying.

For example, on one PC I tried, the ATI graphics card will display mame 151 but not 200. The on-board graphics will display 200 but not 151.

I tried everything in my limited knowledge but no solution.

Ropi Jo2018-08-18 20:48:05

 

[Vamino]

I spent quite a few hours testing and tinkering before I got to the point where I could play something. The scrolling isn't 100% smooth like it is on my Groovymame PC, but it's certainly playable.

It's a shame really, as most types of Dell USFF PC's are more than capable of playing most mame games. One working HDD image with modified drivers would basically breathe new life into these old computers.

If I knew how to modify the Intel drivers or make a script to change 8-bit colour to 32 bit colour once the PC has loaded I would. I guess there's no interest for this type of thing though.

Thanks.

 

[Macro]

Have a look here, may help - stick it in a batch file that then runs mame.

 

[Vamino]

Have a look here, may help - stick it in a batch file that then runs mame.

Thanks mate, that looks promising!

I'll give it a try when I've got some free time.

Thanks again.