Unsolved
3 Posts
0
714
August 4th, 2020 20:00
Dell Optiplex 320 Windows 7 Boot Screen Distortion
Hi, I am new to the forum. I just acquired three Pentium 4 Optiplex 320’s from a computer lot. I know they’re very old but I’m a computer reseller and I know I can try to get them Windows 10 worthy and be intended for office use. Two of them boot up great and I have Windows 7 32 bit installed on them now but this screen distortion issue comes up on the boot loader screens with the logo on both sides of the screen on the picture. It does it on both of the machines. Other than that, no flickering or distortion at all inside Windows! Everything else works perfectly fine! I’m guessing it has to do with the ATI Vista driver. I know Windows 7 or Windows 10 isn’t supported on that model. Yes, I am aware that Windows 7 is unsupported as of January 14,2020. How can I solve this? Should I install an older Vista driver? Why is this happening? Suggestions and answers are welcome, Thank you!


speedstep
11 Legend
•
47K Posts
0
August 5th, 2020 08:00
The problem with 320's is that max ram for them is 3 gigs.
4 gigs will not post or boot.
Not supported does not mean not working.
https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_320techspecs.pdf
So you put 1 2gig and 1 1gig dimm. You cannot use 2 gigs because the BARE MINIMUM ram is 2 gigs for 10. The onboard ati video steals system ram and you dont get that back if you add a video card.
The onboard integrated video uses 512 megs of system ram and needs a legacy driver. RADEON XPRESS 1100
Other than that if you have legit win7 COA key you can put 32 bit 10 on and it will work.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/legacy-graphics/ati-radeon-x-series/ati-radeon-x1xxx-series
Analog Devices HD Audio driverMore details
http://downloads.dell.com/audio/R140162.EXE
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 1.1.5 System BIOS This update includes critical microcode updates from IntelMore details
OptiPlex 320 1.1.4 System BIOSMore details
OptiPlex 320 1.0.9 System BIOSMore details
AMD 8.36 Vista 32bit driver for X1100.More details
http://downloads.dell.com/video/ATI_ATI-Radeon-Xpress-X1100_A03_R172873.exe