Member Avatar for kahawten

I installed Windows ME on one computer and is shows up in 16 million colors. When I install the same thing on another computer is shows up in 16 colors. Why does it work for one and not the other. I currently have it installed on one computer with 16 colors. When I search for an updated driver, it says that it is already installed. I can't do windows update because I don't have internet, but I use my mom's computer and burn stuff on a cd. I have a HP computer. Do I go to their website and download it.

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Dani AI

Generated

Short diagnosis and practical next steps.

Most likely cause: the problem machine is running the generic VGA driver, so Windows ME only shows the 16-color option. As requested, the single most useful piece of info is the exact display adapter name and the driver version shown in Device Manager (or the Display tab of dxdiag). Because the machine is offline and identified it as an HP system, the fastest route is to retrieve the correct driver on the other PC and install it from CD.

How to collect the needed info (on the ME machine):

  • Open System -> Device Manager (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager) and expand Display adapters. Note the exact adapter name and the Driver tab’s Provider/Version/Date.
  • Or run dxdiag (Start -> Run -> dxdiag) and check the Display tab. Use DxDiag’s “Save All Information” to produce a text file that can be burned to CD.

How to fix it (using the offline workflow already mentioned in the thread):

  • On the other PC, search for the display-adapter driver by the adapter name (or use HP’s Support site with the machine model) and choose drivers for Windows ME (or, if none are listed, Windows 98 drivers which often work for ME).
  • Copy the installer or driver files to a CD. On the offline PC run the installer, or use Device Manager -> Update Driver and point it to the CD folder. Reboot after installation.

Extra checks and cautions:

  • If Device Manager already shows a vendor driver but Colors remain at 16, try uninstalling the display adapter driver, reboot, then reinstall from the downloaded package.
  • Check video card seating, monitor cable, and BIOS video selection (onboard vs. add-in card) if drivers don’t help.
  • Do not install drivers for a different GPU model; always match adapter name and OS. Thread helpers still need the adapter name + driver version (from Device Manager or dxdiag) to match the correct driver.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for DMR

We need to know what make/model of video card the computer has, and what driver that video card is using in order to help you most directly. You can get the that information by looking in Device Manager. Copy down the name of the video card and driver (including version) and post it here.

Member Avatar for kahawten

are these the serial numbers

vectra vli8

d7958t

us94252197

Member Avatar for Killer_Typo

serial numbers for what?? you gotta be more specific if what your looking for??

Member Avatar for dlh6213

New thread was started for some reason:

Member Avatar for DMR

I've merged the threads; things should make sense now.

Member Avatar for DMR

are these the serial numbers

vectra vli8

d7958t

us94252197

That information is for the make/model of the whole computer, not the video card. To give you the most accurate help you need to give us the information for the video card itself as I asked in my previous post.

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