Display driver

Most towers can live on their side. Perhaps with a mat under to save the table surface.

There is a new drug which the FDA approved in June and was mentioned in the Uk press very recently.

I'd probably go for something like:

If you need a DVD that will limit your options a bit, but plenty of machines have them. Or use a USB DVD drive.

Many of the corporate boxes can work as towers or rotated horizontally, eg:

Keep the old machine for the floppies, or you can get USB floppy drives (they only read PC discs though, so if it was some Amiga or something you'd need the old machine)

Looks like that monitor is VGA only, so you either need a machine with VGA or an HDMI or Displayport to VGA adapter, depending on what your new machine has. The keyboard and mouse may be PS/2 only, but USB keyboards/mice are easily available for nowt.

However note that monitors have moved on a lot since yours was made in 2005. So upgrading that would also be worthwhile too. Your choice really.

Theo

Why would you be using a vista driver on a windows 7 machine though?

This sort of thing unfortunately happens with invasive software like AVG and Avast that change the registry, then fail to put it back properly when you do an uninstall. If you still have the driver, a re install of it may be your best bet. Brian

It should be possible to fix this. Many of us use older machines for things that do not matter too much. However if you know the hardware in the machine, it could be a good idea to install Windows 10, so you would be ok till the end of 2025. However a 32 bit machine will not run 10. I have a 64 bit running 7, and it can run 10. One thing to consider is that there are a fair number of refurbished machines about capable of windows 10 at the moment, if cost is an issue. Brian

Really one needs neither floppy nor CD/DVD drive these days. For £10 each you can get a USB one of either, which is what I did a number of years ago. They get used less than once a year, I'd say.

I suspect you are like me,. I have two perfectly functional computers that are in every way perfectly adequate for normal desktop use - one is a server, the other is my old machine with a fast graphics card for a semi real time game.

Both are going to be switched off in due course, simply because they chew too many electrons and the cost benefit analysis shows that replacing them with less power hungry technology is payback inside a year.

Nice chipset. I think my server has that set. And a graphics card it really doesn't need, too.

Ha! I am still running my WinXP setup in a virtual box so I can run my totally out of date RhinoCad and CorelDraw.

Curiously, around 20 years later, they *still* do all I need.

Whereas the foundation is the latest Linux.

I can't recommend what I have enough. Refurbed HP EliteDesk quad core i5. It has a DVD, which I still sometimes need.

Low power, very small footprint, and cheap as chips. I think I paid £220 and they are now available with i7s at under £200.

They were sold in thousands into corporations. Now they are depreciated to nothing, the refurbers buy them up with no drives (they get crushed) slap an SSD in with preinstalled win10.

Rock solid machines at lower prices than I could put together a new machine with a lower spec.

I'd avoid ebay - Mutton dressed as Lamb (sic!). As I said the refurbishers who run a business model slinging these things out after testing and offer guarantees are much safer.

Ive bought a lot of stuff from laptops direct/appliances direct and its all been very very good value.

DVD drives are dirt cheap and I still rip the odd DVD onto my server: having one built on is handy, although I agree its is no longer necessary or even desirable.

Especially now most computers will boot from a USB stick

The press report I saw said the NHS weren't going to approve it as it was so expensive. It didn't say how much expensive was...

Tim, if you live long enough you'll need the computer. If you don't it won't be your problem. Enjoy life while you can.

Good luck

Andy

Somebody will shortly whinge about OT posting:-)

My Father was dead about 2 years after initial diagnosis.

I was called in on a modest PSA increase. Up the bum snips in 2018 found one suspect sample. They put me on Tamsulosin and regular tests. Very impressed with the overall size shown by an MRI scan 120cc! and last November 152cc!.

Different sampling technique of 16 random biopsies found nothing of note

Life is about to get scrambled! I have ordered a re-furbished desktop PC!

Dell Optiplex 5060 SFF desktop PC i7-8700 8th. generation with W11 installed.

As pointed out elsewhere, it is unlikely that my HP L1706 display and Packard Bell keyboard, model 9205 will suit.

How best to proceed?

Microsoft wants all their <cough> "security features" to be working.

That is why they will still insist on a TPM 2.0 . and a processor with MBEC support (a feature that's not even listed on the hardware feature page for a CPU). What is listed is SLAT (EPT Extended Page Table), but MBEC is a refinement on SLAT, so having SLAT on a five year old processor may not be good enough. A slower emulation of MBEC may work on a five year old processor.

MBEC = Mode Based Execution Control

Even though my setup has two TPM 2.0, my W11Home install uses neither of them. (One of them is the "stuttering kind" and I would not use that anyway. That's why I'm glad I bought a hardware device for the pin header.) Mine doesn't need TPM, since it is set up for CSM (legacy) boot and no Secure Boot. The OS is likely using MBEC though.

There was an opportunity for manufacturers to make TPM 2.0 dongles, but they declined to make them with "old pinouts". There could be as many as half a dozen pin header configurations for TPM plugin solutions. The older ones were 20 pin. Mine might be 12 pin.

G965 = GMA x3000

DDR2, Core2, LGA775, maybe E7500 (1066). PCI Express x16 slot for graphics replacement.

The following might work the integrated graphics.

• NOTE: This document refers to systems containing the
• following Intel chipsets:

C:\Intel\Logs\IntelGFX.log <=== previous driver install may have dumped here

Paul

They make adapters, to change graphics standards. These are the ones I own.

HDMI to VGA \ DisplayPort (DP) to VGA \___ Have these three types. These are all active converters, one chip inside. DP to HDMI active / Bought the DP one, since Optiplex 780 is unlikely to be DP++

DP++ to HDMI passive <=== Don't have one of these. A lot of DisplayPort outputs can be converted to HDMI, merely by the wiring of an appropriately shaped connector (passive operation).

The first two types with VGA output, could work for you. I would start with an HDMI to VGA, as they're easier to unplug in some cases and you will not be cursing the thing. Some DisplayPorts "grip".

COVID made a mess of inventory, so at least at my (poorly stocked) local computer chain, sometimes you have to buy the "up-market" version of one of those. For example, my last HDMI to VGA (I have several) has audio output (since HDMI and DP can carry audio digitally from the video card). That handles cases where a monitor has (crappy) built-in speakers.

This is the characteristics of your current monitor.

So far, all of the adapters I've bought, have good picture quality. Just got lucky, I guess.

Packard Bell keyboard is a PS/2 purple connector. Conversion adapters for this, have been somewhat unreliable. Some keyboards are actually dual-protocol, and such products come with a "passive" adapter in the keyboard box, which is female USB on one end, and male DIN on the other end.

Whereas currently-shipping keyboards are likely to be all USB protocol.

Prices can vary on keyboards, by a factor of eight. Some keyboards today, have back-lit keys, but you need to see the unit in person, to inspect the lighting quality. My cheap keyboard, yes, light pours out of it, but it is not "useful" light. The XPG keyboard, uses double-shot keys where the letters are rendered in transparent plastic, and the LED underneath the key, illuminated the letter, on a black background. That's the kind of keyboard you can use in a dark room.

Paul

The 5060SFF here, has two DP++ connectors on the back. A DP to VGA adapter will serve to power your existing monitor. It does not need DP++ in the adapter name, as DP to VGA will do the job. At my store, the adapter is $20 CDN.

There are half-height half-length video cards, or at least there *used* to be cards like that in the old days. Today, with the monster video cards, getting a card for an SFF would be a challenge. Not that the graphics won't be fine as is, on the box. Refurb computers hardly ever come bundled with an add-on video card (as it spoils the profit margin for the refurbisher).

The machine appears to have LineOut audio on the back, no Microphone evident, but with luck, it will be a dual-mode connector and can be assigned microphone duties for a plugin electret microphone. Normally, re-assignable audio would use a black connector. The front of the box, has a headphone jack.

There is also an SD card slot on the front. Inspect carefully with a magnifying glass, before using one of those, to check for damaged electrical contacts inside.

The PSU in the unit, is 200W. It appears to have a green LED for self-test purposes.

Processor Graphics Intel UHD Graphics 630 4K Support Yes, at 60Hz Max Resolution (HDMI) 4096 x 2304@24Hz Max Resolution (DP) 4096 x 2304@60Hz

TB2 "When in a turbo mode, this is the defined frequency the cores will run at. TB2 varies with how many cores are being used." [ One core running ? Then you get 4.6GHz ]

Turbo power could be as high as 115W (likely on one core, if the thing has a power limiter). It might use a slightly higher VCore on one core, to reach 4.6Ghz. Dell is unlikely to set the BIOS power limiter value that high.

Some BIOS have a control, to turn turbo off.

The best way to study power behavior, is with an AC power meter. My machine currently goes from 48W to 224W wall power, as a function of turbo behavior. Just to show how they get those high clock rates.

The power and slot limits, are why I don't personally like SFF or USFF for refurbs. My refurb is an MT (Mid Tower). I stuck a thirteen watt HD6450 video card in it, just so my Windows Upgrade would finish. Your UHD 630 won't have that problem.

Paul

Bringing a Vista driver forward like that, to Windows 7, is what you do when your graphics are crusty. Drivers can actually come all the way from Windows XP.

For example, Windows 10 will accept XDDM drivers, except when you try to upgrade to W10 22H2 (I didn't believe this at first, until my Optiplex failed to upgrade itself and it was the video standard that broke it).

XDDM drivers are pretty old.

The OS really wants to use WDDM drivers, which are up to around API version 3.0 or so now. The card I have in the Optiplex right now, is WDDM 1.3, whereas the chipset graphics (GMA x4500) were likely to be XDDM.

If you run "dxdiag" in Windows 10 (or in any other Windows for that matter), it will tell you what driver type it is using at the moment.

For the case I described, where the card claimed "WDDM 1.3", the reason for that, is the card is out of support, and the very best driver for the card escapes the XDDM doldrums :-) I pulled that out of the junk room, that card, knowing it would be barely enough to pass the test.

The machine I'm typing on, the graphics are "WDDM 3.1".

Paul

Of course they will

Keyboards are standard issue and so are monitors

Plug the old ones in and see what happens.

I plan to but have copied off Paul's comments for reference.

Fortunately a new neighbour has suitable knowledge but he is busy re-building our old farmhouse and I don't like to take up his time.