Hello to All,
I made this tutorial to try and help people that still have older Operating Systems but have bought a new monitor. Some of us still have older computers still doing a job and maybe the older monitor died or was upgraded with a new one.
Some people may laugh, and say “you don’t need a “driver” (actually an INF file), and it will work fine. This is true. It will work fine and I used my monitors many years ago with them as Generic Plug & Play but knew the exact INF file from the manufacturer would be better. I even went back to the computer shop and asked for the INF file for the monitor I bought and they said it wasn’t needed. Well, I didn’t fully agree, but I thanked the guy and left. I then went straight to the manufacturer’s site and found the INF file (some sites say driver) and downloaded it. When I installed the INF file I noticed the screen to be a little clearer, and sometimes the color looks better too.
The monitor may be seen as Generic Plug & Play, but if you want the monitor to be totally recognized and all its specs known to Windows, you should get the INF (INFormation) file, from the manufacturer since that has the INF, ICM (Image Color Management), possibly a CAT (CATalog) or ICC (International Color Consortium) file as a group.
The problem is the newer INF files will not work with an older OS like XP or 9x. This happened to me. I had a Windows 7 machine and several other older XP’s and 9x computers around and new monitors were purchased on sale for those PC’s.
The newer INF worked fine on Windows 7 (possibly Vista, I don’t know) and above. But a problem appeared when it was run on the older PC’s. Either it could not be found or it had an error.
NOTE: To view the newer INF files without installing it, you may have to make a copy and change the extension to TXT. This will allow you to open it with Windows Notepad.
The newer INF files for the monitor have a new command called “Monitor_Service.Install”. This command is not in the older operating systems. Further down in the INF file is another section or two that deals with a command called “SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE”. The trick is you have to make a new INF file to be able to run on the older 9x/XP systems, so you will need to make a copy of the new INF file. In the copy you will need to go through and remove the calls to that “Monitor_Service.Install” and its corresponding sections.
Note: It is best to find an older INF file for a monitor as a template or go-by. That way you will have all the needed commands from the older INF file as a reference as you go down the commands of the new copy of the INF file you just made.
Have the two INF files (or renamed TXT files) set “side by side” on your screen. That way you can compare the older file and the new one you are making. To do this, have only the two INF files on your screen at that moment, right click in the taskbar and pick “Show windows side by side”.
Once you open the files in Notepad, you will quickly notice that many of the commands, or section names (in brackets), look similar. Of course there will be differences of the model number, maybe brand name and differences of the 2 monitors with their specifications of what modes and resolutions each will do. But the main point is, the command does this or that, and you can see both INF files have the command, it’s just focused on the monitor in question.
Start by going down the list and comparing both INF files. You will quickly see the similarities. Make sure the new INF file you are making has the needed commands that the older INF file for 9x has. Remember, they will not be identical because they are 2 different monitors, but the main command (with its monitors name or specs) will be there in both.
You will eventually get down to the “Monitor_Service.Install” section. Remove it. Delete any extra lines and make the commands be separated by one blank line.
As you continue you will again see the commands and the similarities and eventually see another “Monitor_Service.Install” type of command probably with “SPSVCINST_ASSOCSERVICE” and “Monitor.SVCDESC” in it, likely under the “[Strings]” section. Remove that command.
Now look closely in that section because you may be missing one that is in the older INF file. It may be the ‘ MonitorClassName=”Monitor” ‘ command. If so, copy or type in that command into your new INF file.
Now you should be at the end. Look to see there are not any more commands or letters or anything there. Make sure that the last line in your file has a “carriage return & linefeed” after it which means, you make sure you do press the enter key and place a blank line after the last command. This step is important in .REG files because the carriage return & linefeed is the same as you pressing the enter key which tells it to “continue” and execute that command. I do this for good measure in the INF files too.
Also, look for any odd characters. I mean any non typical typewriter characters that don’t look normal. In Notepad some characters outside the standard numbers, alphabet, punctuation and characters above the number keys on the keyboard, are not printed properly and may cause an issue. If you see any investigate them. They may be a typo, a corruption or possibly used by Windows 7 and above, but I would tend to doubt that. Since you are making an INF file for Windows 9x or XP I would feel those odd characters would not be used on an older OS, delete them. You do have the original INF file if needed and this is a copy. I have seen a good number of INF files and I can only think of one that had odd characters in the Comment section. A semicolon is used at the start of a line to denote a comment or remark.
Now save your new INF file with a slightly different name that lets you know it is for your 9x computers. If you had to use the extension of TXT, then change it to INF when you are ready to install it.
Copy to a Flash drive (or Diskette if needed) and take the two or three files (INF, ICM, Cat, ICC) over to your other computer and put it in a folder on that drive with the Monitors name or model number as your reference.
You will need to have that INF file be used to have the monitor recognized as its true name rather than Generic Plug & Play.
Go to Device Manager and look for Monitor. If it has another monitor shown, and you are currently using the new monitor, then have it “uninstall” the monitor by Right clicking and choosing Uninstall. It will go away and you may need to have Device Manager “Rescan for new Hardware” where it will repopulate the monitor section and should say Generic Plug & Play monitor.
If it does say Generic Plug & Play monitor, right click and choose “Update Driver Software”. You want to take the LONG road here because I have seen it fail when trying to take the shorter path, so, tell it to not Search but “Browse my computer for Driver Software”. Again don’t let it search but you pick “Let me pick from a list…”. It will probably show the Generic Plug & Play monitor in the list but you need to click “Have Disk”. An “Install from Disk” box will appear. Click “Browse” and then in the “Look in” box click the little drop down arrow to show the other places to look. Pick your C: drive (assuming you put the INF file on our C: drive) and browse to the folder that you made with the INF, ICM and any other files it had. It should come up with the INF file and you highlight that and choose “Open”. The previously seen box should reappear with the name of the monitor you want (from the INF file it read) and you can tell it to install that monitor. Hopefully it succeeds for you, as it did for me.
Now when you go to Control Panel, Display and look at the advanced settings the true name of the monitor should be there. Check your screen resolutions and see if you have any extra ones that were missing before when it was a Generic Plug & play. Hopefully you will. Also, check the “Color Management” tab and see that the Monitors ICM (or ICC) file is used for the color profile. If not, click Add and see if it pops up as an option to choose and if so add it to that box, and press “OK” to set it.
I have done this several times on various older 9x computers with success. I hope it works for you.
