Makvision, Windows 7, and Intel HD Graphics 3000

[rcub3]

Hello friends,

I haven't posted in a bazillion years because I had been happy with my Arcade cab all this time.  I started to have issues with the motherboard battery, so I decided to replace, reset the CMOS settings, and why not upgrade from XP to Windows 7 while I'm at it? I made no changes to the hardware otherwise.....

Well, of course it messed everything up.  I was able to fix everything (tinkering is my favorite part of this hobby!), BUT:

1.  I'm having the INFAMOUS Over Specification issue with the monitor.  I have tried adjusting the resolution and refresh settings on an LCD screen first, then switching the cable over to the Makvision and nothing.   Over Specification. The only thing I found that worked was  uninstalling the Intel HD Graphics drivers, and using Standard VGA drivers. 
 
2.  The Standard VGA driver will let me see windows on the monitor, running resolutions of 800x600 32bit 60Hz just fine.  But then I'm running into problems with MAME (176) saying that "Proposed video mode not supported on device. \.\display1", and some other issue with Direct3D.  With the Standard video drivers, it looks like there is NO directx stuff running (per dxdiag.exe) so it makes sense.   

I'm using the video in H61MCG motherboard, not a separate video card.  But note!  It was what I had been using for the past 5 years just fine!

tl;dr :  After 5 years of NO ISSUES, upgrading to Win7 from XP, did something to my video settings (Intel HD Graphics drivers) and now I can't see anything on my Makvision monitor.   

[rcub3]

Aaaaaand I finally figured it out. 

It was simply a case of the obvious:  Windows was indeed picking a different resolution and Hz when I switched from LCD to the Makvision.  Thanks to the X Arcade's troubleshooting tips, I was able to confirm using Team Viewer that for some reason when I made the switch, the settings would jump to 1024x600 and 85Hz!  Of course the Makvision would cry under those settings.  So with the magic of remote desktopping, I set those back to 800x600, 32bit, 60Hz, and voilá.

 

To be fair, what REALLY threw me off was pure bad luck.  At one point I tried using Multires on the arcade pc, setting it to run on Startup with 800x600,32bit and 60Hz settings.  I was still getting OVERSPECIFICATION.  When I made the switch back to the LCD screen, the screen was BLUE for some reason..... I paid that no attention because the LCD monitor I was using was a very OLD Dell monitor that already had a bit of flikering.  After tinkering some more with drivers and such, I noticed the VGA cable had 2 prongs that were BENT.  Of course that would mess up the MultiRes experiment.  But i didn't retry that.  By this point I had grabbed a new VGA cable, and had moved on to other crazy ideas (was it the phase of the moon?  Global warming?  El Niño?). 

Now back to finish setting up everything else.... LEDBlinky, track ball, etc.  I love this hobby.