No colour or very little colour in MP menus - video plays OK (1 Viewer)

[gwillia1]

TV-Server Version: Not used
MediaPortal Version: 0.2.3.0
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two
Windows Version: XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2600 @ 2.16GHz
HDD: Seagate Momentus 5400.2 ST9120821AS 120 GB
Memory: 2GB SDRAM
Motherboard: Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook E8110 Laptop
Motherboard Chipset: Intel 945GM
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Intel GMA 950 (integrated)
Video Card Driver: 6.14.0010.4906
Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio
Sound Card AC3: no AC3
Sound Card Driver: 5.10.0000.5229
1. TV Card: no tv card
1. TV Card Type:
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: no remote
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

Hello,

I am running MP happily on two other systems with different specs. I have recently installed MP on a Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8110, intending to use it around the house. The problem I am having is that the MP menus seems to have no colour or very little colour in them, so are not useable. I attach an example with Blue Two, but other skins (XFace and Core Reloaded tested) are having the same problem.

I have toggled "VMR Exclusive" mode to no effect.

I have updated to the latest Intel GMA 950 drivers. There are posts from others on this forum who say they are happily using GMA 950 integrated graphics with MP.

The issue is seen in window and full screen mode.

I seem to have run out of ideas... has any one seen this issue before?

Thanks in anticipation,
G.

 

[gwillia1]

Hi All,

I've experimented with lower desktop resolutions, still no luck. Has anyone got any further ideas as to what I could try?

G.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Try SimpleMP skin, this is one of the least demanding.

Can you possibly increase the memory for the graphics in the BIOS.

 

[cybrmage]

Memory: 2GB SDRAM
Motherboard: Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook E8110 Laptop
Motherboard Chipset: Intel 945GM
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Intel GMA 950 (integrated)
Video Card Driver: 6.14.0010.4906

In the system try you should have a blue icon that has a tooltip that reads "Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver For Mobile"...
Right click on this icon, and select "Graphics Properties". This will launch the driver configuration interface.
Click on "Display Settings"... It will display a page that shows the current settings...
Make sure that the Color Quality is set to "32 bit".
Click on "Information" in the lower left of the form... This will bring up a "System Information" screen which will tell you what the memory utilization is... it should show something like this:

Physical Memory: 1014 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 224 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 9 MB

(This is from my Gateway cx2724 tablet PC... without MediaPortal running... with MediaPortal running, Graphics memory in use goes up to 97 MB @ 1280x1024 resolution... plenty of memory to spare...)

Make sure that the drivers you have installed are the correct ones... There are several different GMA950 driver packages available, each supporting different chipsets.

Make sure you have the latest chipset drivers installed (The Intel "INF update" package).

And, try reinstalling the DirectX9.0c package... It can become corrupted if you change/update your graphics drivers.

 

[gwillia1]

Thanks for the tips guys. I can't seem to adjust the video memory in the BIOS, but it is an old version so I will try flashing an update to see if it gives the option. Video memory seems to be set at max 32 for me now, which, from cybrmage's stats, is not going to work too well!

G.

 

[cybrmage]

Video memory seems to be set at max 32 for me now

This would indicate that you have the wrong GMA950 drivers installed... with the drivers for the wrong chipset, It can't access the video memory properly...

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Driver should be version 6.14.10.4704

thats available from here support downloads.html Fujitsu Siemens Computers

 

[gwillia1]

Thanks for the help guys, this is now fixed. Fix was to:

1) Flash the system BIOS to the latest version (I was on a very old version) that included the option to specify the maximum allocatable video memory. The old BIOS simply didn't have that option.
2) Set maximum allocatable video memory to the highest setting (something like 224MB IIRC).

Then Media Portal is running fine - tested with Blue Two and Core Reloaded.

Thanks for your assistance on this one.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Glad to here another Hardware problem solved.