16 colors only, cant change monitor settings

[julz]

Hi, upon startup a warning comes up saying I can only use 16 colors. This is a new thing as all was working fine. I press ok and the Control Panels> Display > Settings automatically shows up.
Change to 16bit or 256 color and no luck! This is an oldish PC. P1
32mb etc.

Any suggys would be fantastic

[Ghost]

Sound as though you’ve lost your display drivers. Note the video card model you have and go to their web and download the latest drivers for that card and install them.

[julz]

Thanks 4 reply, no luck yet..

I have this same message even after going to ContrlPan>InstHardware>finding on list (as its still on the list) + down loading and saying have disk.

Exact msg = There is a problem with your display settings. The adapter type is incorrect, or the current settings do not work with your hardware.

Any suggestions:confused:

[RichardJones]

yeah it sounds like you have lost the drivers somehow. Note the monitor type and graphics card type then download the drivers. After installing them it should all be fine

Rich

[jtdoom]

Hi

before you (re-)install drivers, you could boot into safe mode and set it to standard VGA, and while there you could look in hardware manager to find details of previous model used.

if you do not find it there, msinfo32 may be of use.
hardware, history (you may have to be quick to click it, or look in the menus and use refresh to get to history.)

vga is what windows normally defaults to.
a remnant of the driver may prevent this.
when you set it to standard vga, and then reboot, you will again have 16 colour, but will (should) be able to install correct drivers.


if you don't know and cannot find out what make your videocards has, yell at us...

hmmm
at boot, the fist thing you see appear is vidcard info
but, you cannot hit pauze at that stage.
but rebooting couple of times may give you an idea.

if this card is not natively recognised by win98, and you do NOT see the info appear during boot, and msinfo or HW mangler is of no use, then you can still find out by booting into DOS, or from a dosprompt in windows.

VIDEOCARD DETECT
If you cannot identify your video card, you can run the following without opening the case to get an idea of the manufacturer and make:
1. From a DOS prompt, Win 3.x, Win9x, WinNT, or Win2K command prompt type DEBUG and press Enter.
2. A single dash will appear at which point type DC000:35 and then press Enter

( DC000:40 DC000:50 and DC000:90 may also work for newer cards).

3. You may need to type D at the second dash and press Enter for all of the information to appear.
You can type D more than once to see more info appear.
4. Q to exit

[julz]

hello

I tried Safe mode and changed to Standard VGA, no when I reboot I get a new message saying.

There is a problem with your display settings. The adapter is incorrect, or ther is a problem with your hardware.

My search for a driver has also been a bit hard.
this is what the screen shows upon startup

S3 86C325 Ver 100-05 1995 S3 inc

Card itself is S3 (325) Virge.

Can you shed any light folks???

Thanks for your patience.

julz:(

[jtdoom]

hi

windows 98SE CD has a drivers folder with display drivers
it has a folder for s3

actually, when you look for it in display settings, advanced, display adapter, change,
it has this exact model listed in the adapters list (if you let it show all hardware)

I found the archive for these old cards.
https://ranger.s3graphics.com/325drv/

http://www.s3graphics.com/

---------

I think you will have to shut off all power (unplug the cord of monitor too), ground yourseflf to get rid of static, and reseat the card.

you know, these cards are very useful for troubleshooting newer machines...

[julz]

Hi,

Your info was ggggreat. I reinstalled card and then detected driver etc....yes I saw S3 (325) was there, (may have overlooked originally).

After restart no messages came up....however went to settings and still cant change from 16 colors., or up resolotion past 640x480

I noticed there is info above color changer box that says

Display:
"Generic Television on S3"

Went to display again to see if I could change Monitor drivers..???? Can I?? It only had one option
My monitor is is some clone, and I dont know if monitors need a driver....??????

Sorry about all this

Thanx
julz:rolleyes:

[jtdoom]

Hi again

when you look at the sticker on the back of the monitor, you should find FCC and model information

when I google with model, I can oft find a monitor driver

if that monitor is really old, you can still try superVGA 800*600
if it is more recent (energy star compliant logo appears during boot) you can set it to plug and play

you may get away with plug and play anyhow.

if you do get in a flickery mess at reboot, you can either boot into safe mode, and change settings, or boot into DOS and run scanreg /restore where you can select to restore today's backup.

the way this thing behaves, it looks like that machine came with some really old 14 inch SVGA monitor.

this card probably has four Mb (maybe only two)
BUT, even when that card has only half a megabyte of memory, you should still be able to select 256 colours

=====
edit>
re S3 link
my cookie expired, and the hotlink required user /password.
user/ password = archive archive
a good thing I also included main page where you could find drivers link.