Monitor not doing true color anymore

[buddyb]

I'm trying to help a friend, and she's messed up the system someway. It is a Compaq Pentium II destop with a Gateway 2000 CrystalScan 17" monitor, and the system is 98SE.

In Device Mgr. the monitor showing is the PCI VGA, and the problem is it will not give you True Color or 800 X 600; and it did. I cannot figure out what the problem might be. When I hook up my computer to her monitor it will show True Color and 800 X 600, so we know the monitor is O.K. I took the display card out of my computer and put it in hers I could not get above 16 colors and 640 X 480 and I know nothing is wrong with my card. I downloaded a set of drivers for the mon from Gateway and attempted to install several, to no avail. I could not tie anything to the mon because none of their monitor drivers had any numbers that jived with the mon serial, nor model number on the mon. Gateway says that 98SE will recognize the mon. I've deleted the driver and rebooted, but nothing. I even went so far as to reinstall 98SE. Nothing seems to work. I'm stumped and it's probably right in front of my face.

Any help appreciated. Thanks, BuddyB

[caperjack]

did you install video drivers when you install your card in her computer ,and did you check device manager to see if here video card drivers are installed correctly !

[buddyb]

Her drivers appeared to be installed properly. However, I did not install a driver when I stuck my card in there; figured 98SE would do it automatically..wrong! I will install a driver with my video card. I suppose that will tell us if her graphics card has gone kabluie, or not.
Thanks, BuddyB

[Catweazle]

I doubt very much that her "graphics card has gone kabluie".

I think it's much more likely that she's inadvertantly changed settings and instructed Windows to use a different display adaptor driver. She's most likely changed the setting to 'Standard VGA Adpator'.

[gavin]

I doubt very much that her "graphics card has gone kabluie". I think it's much more likely that she's inadvertantly changed settings and instructed Windows to use a different display adaptor driver. She's most likely changed the setting to 'Standard VGA Adpator'.

If u r unable to change your colour settings altogether and the icons appear somewhat larger or distorted, then probably the video driver is either corrupted or uninstalled in which case u can try to reinstall the drivers if u have the cd. to check this out u need to check in the devide manager whether the drivers are installed properly. a yellow qs. mark or red exclamation point shows thqat the device is not properly functional. If u have windows xp or Me u can just use the system restore feature to revert back to an original configuratiopn of your system which was working properly.

[buddyb]

I want to thank everyone for their replies. You did help me home in on the problem. She inadvertently change to the "Standard PCI Graphics Adapter" and also uninstalled the proper driver for the monitor. We did download and install the right drivers; problem solved.
BuddyB

[cliff71673]

are there any free video adapter downloads?

[Catweazle]

cliff71673, you should really create a new topic (or 'Thread') to ask a new question, rather than adding a new question to an existing topic.

But no! You can't 'download' a display adaptor because a display adaptor is part of the equipment, not part of the software installed on it! You have to buy a display adaptor and physically install it in your system. It's sorta like buying a newer and more powerful engine for your automobile, and getting the mechanic to fit it for you :D

[Thong_Ispector]

Chris...
Driver downloads are feee....
You just need to own the hardware for the supplied drivers...

[xoBrandi87ox]

I am having this problem also. I'm running Windows ME, with a dell computer, Pentium IV, and a DELL E771a Monitor. It says VGA, but in MSconfig VGA is not checked, could anyone help me i'm totally lost, i deal with software, not hardware. Thanks
Brandi