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B&W GUI Features on Q700 System 7.5.5?
Posted by: LazarusNine on 2015-09-14 12:31:25
After doing a fresh install of System 7.5.5 on my Quadra 700, I've noticed that despite its support of 256 colours on multiple resolutions, certain GUI elements, like the folder icons and the Apple Menu icon are still in simple black & white. Any thoughts as to why and what to do about it? Thanks! (I should add that I've attempted a PRAM reset and rebuilt the desktop - all without any changes)



Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2015-09-14 12:40:10
How much VRAM is installed?

Posted by: LazarusNine on 2015-09-14 12:44:56
Stock 512k - have a few chips coming my way to pad it out to 2MB

Posted by: TheWhiteFalcon on 2015-09-14 12:53:59
Yeah, you need more than 512k IMO.

Posted by: joethezombie on 2015-09-14 13:43:18
I am able to run colors on my Q700 with stock configuration at multiple resolutions, with the gui elements proper. I am on 7.5.3, however. Interesting that you are in color mode, but just the gui elements are b&w. What resolution are you?

Posted by: LazarusNine on 2015-09-14 14:09:33
Same issues on 832x624, 630x480 and 1152x870. :-/

Posted by: pl212 on 2015-09-14 14:45:42
A few ideas:

1) Are you in 256 colors mode, or 256 shades of grey mode?  The latter is optimized for greyscale monitors and, at least in System 6/7, would display the Apple Menu icon as solid rather than shades of grey. Confusingly, many color elements remain on screen when you use this greyscale mode on color monitors -- just not all.

2) Did your installation of 7.5.5 involve a network boot disk, disk tools, or other kind of "emergency" utilities disk in any way?  These Systems often had color resources stripped out of them to save space.

Posted by: LazarusNine on 2015-09-14 15:48:50
Many thanks for all of the responses! Okay, so it seems it must have been something with that particular installation of 7.5.5. I installed 7.6 over it and made sure to install the whole boatload of 'features' 7.6 forces down your throat. As a result, all of the GUI elements are back to normal. I added about 1.25MB to my memory footprint and am now sitting at a System usage of just over 4MB. At 20MB of RAM plus virtual memory accessed off the 10k RPM drive, it should be fine. Not ideal, which is why 7.5.5 was the more attractive option, but never mind.

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