Full screen 'lock out'

[g7000]

I know my hardware is entry level & old (2002), but I feel this problem maybe more of a driver issue;

I can only use applications & games that use full screen mode from startup. Eg; If I want to play Bust-a-Move it must be the first thing I use after boot-up because as soon as I open IE or Photoshop it seems to lock out the full screen mode. If I tried to play Bust-a-Move after opening IE my display turns black, flickers then returns back to Windows desktop. To play the game again I must reboot.

If I run dxdiag after running IE/Photoshop/Dreamweaver etc.. then all tests complete except the Direct3D test which tries to run but stops with the error 'You cancelled the test by pressing a key' -but I bloody didn't!! Again if I reboot and make sure dxdiag is the first thing I run then the Direct3D test runs fine (Spinning X-box Cube thingy).

.....also a lot of Windows Media Player Visualizations run slow unless I move my cursor over the visualization draw area -werid?

Dxdiag reports my current monitor to be Generic Television 640x480 current mode 1024x768 32bit 60hz -(even though I'm using my built-in LCD display at 1024x768).

Not exactly going to stop me using my computer but a really annoying problem, any help people?

Here's the specs:

HP Pavilion zt1141s
256mb Ram
20gb HD
Celeron 1.2ghz
S3 HP Twister 32mb Shared XGA/VGA/TV-OUT
VIA Chipset
Display LCD flat Panel 1024x768

Windows XP Home Edt. SP2
Direct X 9.0c

All my games are either retro (Atari) or emulators -nothing punishing!

http://www.techimo.com/forum/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Detritus]

Sounds like in part that you need to find drivers for your lcd and install them, that may fix some of your problem.

[g7000]

I already got the latest and probably the last drivers ever to be made for the S3 HP Twister from Windows update.

S3 Graphics now count this hardware to be discontinued and so admit they won't be developing anymore drivers. ....2002 seems decades away now!

Microsoft say any display problems you are experiencing are usually down to out of date drivers, please download the latest from your product vendor.

My NeXT computer will be an Apple Mac.

[Detritus]

Hmmm...

Check out www.driverguide.com

they many have a newer driver that someone hacked if that is the issue...