Vista - Vista 32-bit problems with resolution and hardware acceleration

I just installed Windows vista 32-bit and it won't let me adjust the resolution and some programs are not working when I go into programs with graphics it says "Game is running in software rendering mode: Hardware Acceleration is either disabled or not supported by your video card driver, which could slow game performance. Make sure you have the latest video card driver installed and that the hardware acceleration is turned on." As far as I can tell it is turned on. I updated my generic PnP montior and my SGA video drivers. I don't know what else to do. Anyone have any ideas.

angelfish382007 welcome to the forums.

What is the make and model of your computer (or specs of the various components if it is a custom/home built)? Also did you update those drivers through Windows Update or from the computer manufacturer?

Also did you update/install the apropriate chipset/motherboard drivers from the manufacturer, instead of the basic ones that Vista installs?

The computer is not home built and and I updated the drivers in window update and it said they were current.

The information about my computer is as follows:

The VGA is Brookdale-G Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA Bios 8-bit
The monitor is a Color 17" Product#eview 1713 Model# 786N
The computer is a Dell Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.40 GHz, 2.39 GHz Ram 510mb and 32-bit operating system.

I hope this is helpful. I am not sure what all that means. But any help you might give is appreciated.

Thanks,

Angela

Not a whole lot. Be better with the model number of the computer than the specs. One thing it does tell though is that it is an older computer, and there is a very good possibility that there won't be any Vista drivers for it other than Vista's native drivers.

You can try here,

http://support.dell.com/support/down...=us&l=en&s=gen

use either the model number, or the service tag number and see what Dell has to offer. failing that the exact model number of your computer (Dimension 4100, for example) will give us a much better idea of what you have and where to point you for Vista drivers if there are any available.

The model is Dell Optiplex GX260. I went to the link you suggested and entered in the model # but it asks for the operating system and it doesn't list Windows Vista. Is there not any vista drivers for my model of computer?

Not from Dell, and not from Intel either. Your computer has the Intel 845G chipset on it and Intel has ceased all support (declared EOL) for it in regards to Vista (reason why there are no drivers for it from Dell as well). Here is the OS selection page for the 845 series of chipset,

Download Software, Drivers and Utilities Filters

with the last chipset update dated almost 3 years ago (with a couple of updates almost 6 years old). Basically comes down to, you want to run Vista properly (and even less chance if you want to run Windows 7 on it) you're going to need to get a computer that is much newer than what you have.

Okay so if I can't get another computer right now can I go back to Windows XP Pro? I assume if vista doesn't work properly on my computer then Windows 7 won't? Is there any place I can get an inexpensive version of Windows XP? I don't have the installation disks that I originally had.