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Reformatted PC – Problems with monitor display
Yesterday I re-formatted the hard drive on my PC at home. I did this to get rid of the rubbish that was filling the drive and to get the machine back to full efficiency.
It’s 4 years old and runs with windows 98 which I have re-installed.
My problem is my monitor now only displays 16 colours and will only run at a resolution of 640 x 480. I have tried to change the number of colours and the resolution (using control panel – display – settings) but find these are the only options available to me.
I suspect my problem may be that I do not have the correct display adapter installed (currently this is the VGA adapter taken from the windows 98 installation disc), but I’m not really sure if I’m on the right lines.
Any suggestions? My Kids are threatening to leave home if I don’t get it fixed soon 😕
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10 Replies
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Mate, you have to reinstall the correct driver for the video card.
If you know what card it is, you should be able to download a new driver by searching for the model number in google.
Cheers
Shane -
Thanks Shane.
Is there a way I can find out what card is installed?
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It should give you a name when it boots up, or go to device manager and see if the systems sees it anyway.
Other than that, take it out and it should be stamped on one of the chips on the card.
Do you know that make of the board? Chances are, if you purchased it already built, the card will be from the same manufacturer. ie Acer or MSI.
You could go on the net and find a free program called AIDA and it will report everything about your machine. It may help.
Cheers
Shane -
Hi, since you dumped the computer (did u make a backup, a full backup Outlook/Outlook Express/Favouretes/My Docs/Desktop/That Special Folder)
You could post a pic of the video card or find the chip name like “Geforce 4” and the manufacture?
While u are inside the case, you may need to take notes of Network card/Sound Card (motherboard name/number sometimes)/internal modem?
Interesting about AIDA.. i shall google as not heard of that one before.
Dave -
Thanks again Shane – I’ll try this tonight when I get home again.
Meanwhile – I’ve been thinking. 😕 I backed up the entire hard drive to an external hard drive before re-formatting. So the original driver will be on the back-up? Presumably in the windows directory? Would I be able to use this, and how would I find it?
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yes it would but it requires the installer INF file, that route is not a good one.
You may have made a folder years ago (in 1998 maybe?) called c:\drivers\[videodrivername], you might have an installer there?
Also, another way is to Restart the computer, a quick flash of the video card startup and then the computers BIOS screen might appear, you might see some text like “VIA Graphics” or “GeForce” or another make. Only a few computers do that.
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quote DaveRowland:c:\drivers\[videodrivername], you might have an installer there?
I’d suggest Dave is right here. If you have a backup of the drive, when you go to load a new display driver, answer ‘yes’ to the question that you ‘have a disk’ and point it to the backup hard drive.
Point it in the direction of the drivers directory and you may be on a winner. That is what I would do first. Certainly, if it is a complete backup, you can expect that the driver will be there, you just have to find it.
Is it a known brand (Dell, Ibm, Compaq) or a home built no name?
I have heaps of drivers here from my techincal days, and I can check my notes at work tomorrow to see if I have it noted already
Cheers
Shane -
Thanks again Shane.
I downloaded as you suggested. This identified my graphics card (ATI Rage 128) and I was able to download the correct driver from the ATI website.
It’s now installed and me and the Kids are happy again :love: :love: :thanks2: :praise1:
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no worries, glad I could help
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