Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hey guys,

Please excuse the long post here but I'm really frustrated and would greatly appreciate some help.

I recently upgraded to an 8800GTX and for some reason the only resolution I can play Bioshock at is 1024x768. Whenever I attempt to change the resolution the game minimizes itself to my taskbar and will not respond.
It ran just fine on my 7900 GS KO. I used to play it at 1024x768 on my old card but the game never crashed when I upped the resolution.

I am currently running the 169.44 drivers as recommended from the Bioshock install (more recent beta drivers do not help at all), along with the latest patch. There are no hardware conflicts in my device manager and all my other games work fine at 1680x1050.

I have contacted 2K support and so far they're giving me the generic "try re-installing the game" garbage. I am currently waiting for a reply.

Here is what I previously tried which had no affect whatsoever:

Uninstalled Ultramon (I am running dual displays)
Ran CCleaner to remove any lingering files
Rebooted + Unplugged my 17" (secondary) display.
Uninstalled Bioshock (again)
Ran CCleaner to remove any lingering files
Rebooted.
Uninstalled Nvidia Drivers
Ran CCleaner to remove any lingering files
Rebooted.
Re-installed Nvidia drivers
Rebooted.
Re-installed Bioshock (automatically downloaded the latest patch)

I have noticed that when I attempt to change the resolution and it kicks me back to the desktop, there is an invisible box (at whatever size I had just attempted to change the resolution to) and my mouse cursor will disappear when I move into that box. Terrible explanation, it's like the game is running in windowed mode but all I can see is my desktop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

System:
Intel E6400 @ 2.66 ghz
Asus P5B Deluxe
EVGA 8800 GTX
>Samsung 226BW (1680x1050)
>Samsung 173S (1280x1024)
2x1 GB Mushkin DDR2 RAM
X-FI Xtremegamer
Silverstone Strider 750W
Vista Home Premium 32 bit w/ SP1

Fresh driver adn game install, and a single monitor enabled, and it still gives you the problem? That's an odd one..

Looks like you've tried a lot. Did you try going back a nVdia driver version or two?

At one point i had a monitor very close toyours and reading taht some people had to install teh official drivers to make the monitor work, though i did not. So you may want to try that.

Oh try finding the graphics settings for Bioshock and delete any config files. Often if you remove a game settings and save fiels will be left behind. Perhaps the games' attempting a refresh rate your 22" does not support.

I'd tell you where thsoe files are, but i took Bioshock out a while ago.. it may be in you My DocumentsBioshock folder, if it's in the game install fodler just make a control chang or somehting, exit teh game, and find teh latest fiel to be altered.



PS - what features does Ultramon have that teh Nvdia drivers do not offer? I too use multiple displays ( 2 lcd, one TV) and i can get custom resolution, a massive variety of display modes and layouts, and all changable with a quick hotkey keystroke... all with nView.

I would try editing the Default.ini file after saving a backup copy of it eslewhere. Go to 2K GamesBioshockBuildsReleaseDefault.ini and where it says...

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
WindowedViewportX=1024
WindowedViewportY=768
FullscreenViewportX=1024
FullscreenViewportY=768

...change it to

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]
WindowedViewportX=1024
WindowedViewportY=768
FullscreenViewportX=1680
FullscreenViewportY=1050

When it's minimised, did you try Alt+Tab?

Well I got it working now.

After uninstalling/reinstalling so many times I realized there were quite a few files in the Program Files2K games directory that were not getting removed during the uninstall AND that Ccleaner failed to find. Removed those manually and re-installed again and after a few initial struggles I'm up and running pretty good......

Only weird thing is I can't enable vsync in DX10 or the game minimizes itself, and yeah, I can't alt-tab back in. I tried forcing vsync in the nvidia control panel... it still shows as "off" in the bioshock menu but at this point I don't really care.

thanks for the help guys.

to mikeh, nview doesn't seem to released for vista yet? If it's released I can't seem to find it. But I have no issues with ultramon... and obviously it was not the problem here so I'll stick with it.

After uninstalling/reinstalling so many times I realized there were quite a few files in the Program Files2K games directory that were not getting removed during the uninstall AND that Ccleaner failed to find. Removed those manually and re-installed again and after a few initial struggles I'm up and running pretty good......

Yeah, it's essential to uninstall anything properly to get good results. You can just use a program like CCleaner though to make it quicker. It has a RegistryIssues feature that removes lingering bits. There's also Glary Utilities, which has a pretty good reg cleaner. Both are free btw.

I'm such a stickler for thorough uninstalls I use CCleaner, Glary, Search Assistant, then look manually in the registry with EditFind searches just to be sure. CCleaner is probably the most commonly used unistall clean up tools.