After installing Office 2007 on a "Windows Vista Capable" Dell Inspiron
E1505 I've noted several graphics issues.
1. Outlook 2007 tends to have a flicker, which is mildly annoying.
2. When using drawing objects in Excel the screen literally goes black for
an instant, about once per second or two.
Dell doesn't seem capable of solving the problem. Is this perhaps related
to the way the new Microsoft software displays graphics, and if so, what's
the answer?
And yes, I have all the latest updates and drivers!
Thanks.
Have you tried turning down hardware acceleration a notch or two?
Also (and this will sound weird, but it just might resolve the problem), try
making sure your printer driver is certified for Vista, and set that as the
default printer.
"JRT" <JRT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9ADCC9F3-171B-4734-83A2-15AF527933D4@microsoft.com...
> After installing Office 2007 on a "Windows Vista Capable" Dell Inspiron
> E1505 I've noted several graphics issues.
>
> 1. Outlook 2007 tends to have a flicker, which is mildly annoying.
>
> 2. When using drawing objects in Excel the screen literally goes black
> for
> an instant, about once per second or two.
>
> Dell doesn't seem capable of solving the problem. Is this perhaps related
> to the way the new Microsoft software displays graphics, and if so, what's
> the answer?
>
> And yes, I have all the latest updates and drivers!
> Thanks.
Yes, turning the hardware accelration even completely "off" has no effect.
I will try to get a vista certified driver (even though I'm still using XP)
and then report back.
FYI, if this helps... the display is listed simply as a plug and play
monitor. apparantly there is no specific driver for the laptop display
itself. One of the tests I've tried is to uninstall/reinstall it (using
hardware devices) to no effect.
Thanks.
"Echo S" wrote:
> Have you tried turning down hardware acceleration a notch or two?
>
> Also (and this will sound weird, but it just might resolve the problem), try
> making sure your printer driver is certified for Vista, and set that as the
> default printer.
>
> --
> Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
> What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
> Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/
>
>
> "JRT" <JRT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9ADCC9F3-171B-4734-83A2-15AF527933D4@microsoft.com...
> > After installing Office 2007 on a "Windows Vista Capable" Dell Inspiron
> > E1505 I've noted several graphics issues.
> >
> > 1. Outlook 2007 tends to have a flicker, which is mildly annoying.
> >
> > 2. When using drawing objects in Excel the screen literally goes black
> > for
> > an instant, about once per second or two.
> >
> > Dell doesn't seem capable of solving the problem. Is this perhaps related
> > to the way the new Microsoft software displays graphics, and if so, what's
> > the answer?
> >
> > And yes, I have all the latest updates and drivers!
> > Thanks.
>
>
>
Thanks. I only mentioned "vista-capable" in case that helped with the
diagnosis. My drivers are XP certified, and I did change the default
printer, twice. Once, to adobe 7.9 and the second time to Microsoft XPS
document writer.
None of these actions had any effect on the flickering.
heh, yeah, up is worth a shot, too. I think we might just say "change" on
the PPT FAQ entry for hardware acceleration, because with some issues you
gotta go up, but with others you gotta go down! :-)
Actually, I wonder also if it's something running in the background. I know
I used to have a screen flicker problem in PowerPoint, especially with
transparent objects, but only if I had SETI (distributed computing app)
running in the background. I've had the same flicker with transparent
objects in PPT before, but they could always be resolved by turning hardware
acceleration down. When SETI was running, it didn't matter *where* my
hardware acceleration setting was, though -- that flicker wasn't going away!
Just a consideration.
Also, the screen going black when drawing in Excel is a bit alarming! It
sure sounds like a video driver problem, but I'm sure Dell would be aware of
that. What if you boot Windows into Safe Mode (it will be ugly -- but it's
just as a test, so bear with it) and then open Outlook -- does it flicker
then? How about Excel -- does it black out when you draw?
Echo, thanks. I've never used PPT so no idea if the prob occurs there. But
I have checked in safe mode there is NO flicker either in Outlook or Excel.
And even though one would think it would be "ugly" as you say, the graphics
in safe mode really aren't all that bad! I was even able to move "layered"
objects around in safe mode without flicker.
As to Dell, they will not acknowledge any issues with their drivers, hence
they haven't been able to solve the problem. They want me to do a complete
system reinstall but I am resisting because of the tedious work involved.
However, I've uninstalled/reinstalled the drivers, tried older ones, newer
ones (from the dell support site) and even tried the "latest" driver directly
from Intel for this chipset (945GM). I've upgraded BIOS as well. None of
these work.
Also, did I point out that the graphics themselves are "ugly" on web pages?
Pixellation, fuzzy pics and fonts... even at max resolution and color depth.
I will post again if Dell or Intel publishes a "fix" for this.
Echo, another idea.. your mention of background processes got me to check
task manager. I have 62 processes running, even with only a few apps active.
There are two "microsoft groove" processes even though "groove" is turned
off. ( haven't even bothered to learn what "groove" is all about yet).
Could that be an issue?
"
Last edited by davy : 04-07-2007 at 03:04 PM.
Reason: Repitition of quotes waste valuble space
office 2007 screen flicker 
Linear Mode
