Graphics Problem (color and contrast issues)

[littlemike]

Hey all. I just bought this game and when I loaded it up, I noticed that all of the menus were very difficult to read. Since I could not find a similar issue in the FAQ, here is a picture.

Can you read it?

If you maximize the picture, I think it says "Adjust the slider until all three lines of text are visible." Well, all I see is a huge black box so that is of no help.

I'm using an ATI Radeon 7500. I have a IBM Thinkpad R40 laptop so therefore everything is pretty generic and difficult to upgrade because it's a laptop.

I tried changing the gamma levels in game and that is the brighest that they get. I tried updating the drivers for my card and that didn't work because I don't think there were any updates (or I just downloaded the wrong thing off of ibm.com).

I am currently playing with some of the global options in the ATI preferences but I don't think that will do much good because HL2 is the only game that gives me this weird problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[alcander]

Interesting problem. Download the Catalyst 4.12's from ati.com and try again.

 

[littlemike]

I downloaded that business and it wouldn't install. Apparently it didn't recognize my video card as being an ATI...

 

[the_lone_wolf]

do the 4.12 drivers support the 7500? can't remember offhand

 

[alcander]

They should support all RADEON products, so yes. Is your card recognized in dxdiag and your display options?

 

[TEDR]

http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

try powerstrip. its got controls to brighten up, colour etc and also overclocking stuff

PowerStrip provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest GeForce 6600GT and ATI X800. It is in fact the only program of its type to support multiple graphics cards from multiple chipset vendors, simultaneously, under every Windows operating system from Windows 95 to the x64-bit edition of XP. A simple menu that pops up from the system tray provides access to some 500 controls over your display hardware, including sophisticated color correction tools, period level adjustments over screen geometry, and driver independent clock controls. A powerful application profiler can detect when programs are launched and respond by activating specific display settings, gamma adjustments, performance switches and even clock speeds - returning everything to normal when the program closes. In-game gamma hotkeys let you light up the darkest hallways during game play, and hardware control over refresh rates - with floating point precision - ensure you're never stuck at just 60Hz no matter what OS you're using. A quick setup wizard gets you up and running with minimal fuss, extensive context-sensitive help is available for all controls, and live updates are supported to ensure you're always running the latest release. Finally, an assortment of system and productivity tools - among them, extensive diagnostics, AGP device configuration, desktop icon management, a system idle thread, Windows resource monitoring, physical memory optimization, an on-screen display, and the most advanced monitor support in the industry - round out the compact 750kb package.

 

[TEDR]

They should support all RADEON products, so yes. Is your card recognized in dxdiag and your display options?

its a laptop its mobile radeon look


http://www.atitech.com/support/products/pc/laptops/index.html

you have to got to notebook manufacture to get the latest drivers for it

 

[littlemike]

Well, it turns out that by changing some stuff with the "Full Screen 3D" setting in the ATI control panel. Unfortunately I don't know what gamma looks the best so at this point it's all personal preference. Thank you for your help.

Now all that's left is to get this thing to not lag like crazy and for the sound to not shutter horribly...but there's tons of threads on that issue.