Member Avatar for alovella

Hi all. hope someone can help. I've reformatted a freinds computer which is running Win98 as he was completely clogged with bugs an all sorts. It was never defragged for 5yrs since he had it. anyway. During the time he has had it, he had the old analoque monitor but has since changed this to LCD monitor. Since formatting his PC I made sure he had all the original manufature drivers + the drivers for his LCD. only problem is, As much as i've tried. his PC shows the correct monitor type ok but will not let me load the correct drivers from the disc. I know there are a few ways to do this which I've trid but al it does is load the original VGA drivers even if I try deleting this, it still loads the old type & updating via the web seems to make no difference. I downloaded the drivers from Sony being the monitor manufacturer but this time it asks me where I want to ether save it to or open it to so I'm basically stuck so would appreciate some help. with thanks in advance. Tony
just to say He is stuck in 16bit and cannot as before adjust to 32 bit

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A few targeted checks that build on what , and have already pointed to. When Windows keeps falling back to a generic display mode the cause is most often one of three things: the graphics chipset driver is missing or wrong, the monitor package was not extracted/installed in the way Windows expects, or the video hardware cannot drive the chosen resolution/color depth. The steps below cover safe, repeatable actions to try before changing hardware.

  • Install or re-install the correct video adapter driver from the motherboard or GPU vendor first. Windows will often use a generic display driver until the adapter driver is present, which prevents higher color depths.
  • Save the monitor download to disk, extract the package (look for a .inf), then update the monitor entry through Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Monitors -> Update Driver -> Have Disk and point to the .inf. If the package is a self‑extracting exe, run it on a machine that can unpack it and copy the extracted files across.
  • Remove old monitor entries before reinstalling: uninstall the monitor in Device Manager, reboot to Safe Mode if needed, then reinstall. Back up system files/registry first.
  • If the adapter is integrated, verify its maximum supported modes; as noted, onboard chips sometimes limit color depth at higher resolutions. Try a lower resolution/refresh as a diagnostic.
  • Try a different cable or a discrete video card if the problem persists.

Caution: some modern LCD vendor packages target newer OS versions and may not contain usable files for very old Windows builds. If that’s the case, use the generic PnP monitor driver or fit a compatible GPU.

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Member Avatar for Serunson

Well you should save it to disk, then open (what is probably a zip file) and just run through the setup as with installing.

I didn't know monitors needed drivers.
What windows version is your friend now running on? , and also what graphics card are you using?

Member Avatar for alovella

Running Win98 But as yet I cannot tell which graphics card he is using as it's the onboard version so I need to find out

Member Avatar for jbennet

Can the onboard one actually do 32 bit?

I had an old win98 pc. It could do 1024x768 at 32 bit but only 16 bit when at 1280x1024

Member Avatar for alovella

Yes it did do before but has since dissapeared. However though, you have just given me a thought. I wonder if I have to reload the manufacturers own display driver? the problem may lie there. Ohh well. I will give that a try. Thanks. Tony:idea:

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