Windows XP - Screen Too Dark

S

Slickriptide

First time out of the vault
My computer is running Win XP with DX9 and Nvidia 5500. Not sure of the vintage of the Nvidia drivers, but I'm reasonably certain it was updated at least once in the last year.

Fallout runs fine, except that it's way too dark. I have to turn the gamma up almost to maximum to see anything and even then the colors are clearly too bright, yet the overall brightness is still so dark that I can barely see in the caves and even the opening Overseer monologue is dark enough that his eyes are too shadowed to see them.

Is this a common enough problem to have an easy solution?

*edit*
I've seen a couple of instances of the screen turning normal brightness as the game is in the process of shutting down. I'm hoping this means that there's some DirectX or Nvidia option I can tune to fix the problem.
 
Slickriptide said:
My computer is running Win XP with DX9 and Nvidia 5500. Not sure of the vintage of the Nvidia drivers, but I'm reasonably certain it was updated at least once in the last year.
Click to expand...
So why don't you try to update to the newest drivers, first?
 
It's on my list of things to try. I play several online games so, while not bleeding edge, I keep my drivers updated reasonably well. I'm pretty sure I did an update for the Exteel beta last winter, but since I can't say for certain, (and I'm away from my home computer and unable to verify the version numbers) I'm avoiding unsubstantiated claims.

As I said, I posted in the hope that this might be a common problem, solvable by changing some DirectX settings. If that's not the case, then I'll have to do some deeper digging. Considering how old Fallout is, I really don't expect the problem to be solved by updating the graphics drivers. The game ran fine on the same computer a few years ago. It seems more likely that updates to DirectX and graphics drivers are part of the problem than part of the solution.
 
Slickriptide said:
It's on my list of things to try. I play several online games so, while not bleeding edge, I keep my drivers updated reasonably well. I'm pretty sure I did an update for the Exteel beta last winter, but since I can't say for certain, (and I'm away from my home computer and unable to verify the version numbers) I'm avoiding unsubstantiated claims.

As I said, I posted in the hope that this might be a common problem, solvable by changing some DirectX settings. If that's not the case, then I'll have to do some deeper digging. Considering how old Fallout is, I really don't expect the problem to be solved by updating the graphics drivers. The game ran fine on the same computer a few years ago. It seems more likely that updates to DirectX and graphics drivers are part of the problem than part of the solution.
Click to expand...
And updating again might fix those problems. It's impossible to know unless you try, and it's all idle speculation so far.

In any case, it is not a known problem.
 
Sander said:
In any case, it is not a known problem.
Click to expand...

Groovy, thanks for the info. I'll probably end up doing a monitor swap as well as a driver update, just to be sure that I'm looking at a software problem and not simply a monitor that's on its last legs (and looking alright otherwise because the system gamma was turned up).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top