Help requested

Benderino

Loyal American Democrat
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Mar 17, 2003
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A couple of days ago, I switched the colors thing on the desktop to 16 in order to run a program. When it asked me to restart the computer, I said "NO" and continued.

Now, however, I cannot bring it back to 256 colors. Everytime I try, I press apply and it tells me that the computer has to restart. So I allow it to, but when it comes back on, nothing has changed, its still in 16 colors. Is there anyway to fix this?

I have Windows 98 and the program needed to run was something on the new RealOne Player I installed a couple weeks ago.

Keep in mind that I'm not very computer literate, but I'll do what I can. Thanks for the help in advance, I'm sure its some simple problem that's easily fixed, I just don't know how to.:(
 
I had a bit of a problem with this a few days ago. What graphics card do you have? Try re-installing the drivers, that got it working for me.
 
Only got 16 colours and you know your video can do better?

Right, what it sounds like is Win98 is finding only a little graphics driver to give you a bare minimum (16 colours). It can't find the driver it wants, so you have to put it back. It helps enormously if you have a driver install CD that came with the video card. if not, you will have to download a driver from the people that make the graphics card.

First, you have to remove the old driver. Right click on My Computer and select Properties. You will see something like this:

CRUDESK1.jpg


Click on the 2nd from left tab marker (Device manager). You will see something like this;

Crudesk2.jpg


Now click on Display adapors + to show your videocard. Make a note of this. Don't worry, any changes won't happen unless you press OK - so have a poke about with Device manager to see what's under the bonnet and click CANCEL when you have finished.

So, have you got a video driver CD or not? If not, copy the note you made into a search engine like Google, with the added words "driver download homepage" and click search. You should get a list of sites that have a driver for your video card. Download it and either copy it to a folder on the hard drive, or put it on a floppy (if it fits - doubtful) or burn it onto CD to save downloading some other time. If it's an EXE type file (it has a name something.EXE, EXE last three letters) just double click on it to install.

If you have a driver install CD that came with the video card, just pop it in the drive and it should autostart. You might need to click an icon or two to actually start the installation but they are usually pretty simple.

IF THE MACHINE SAYS IT NEEDS TO REBOOT - IT'S NOT JOKING. It is usually a smart move to reboot after installing ANYTHING. DON'T try to save time by installing more than thing, then rebooting only once - Windows doesn't work like that.

Hope this helps
 
Well, I haven't tried it yet, but thanks for the detailed explanation and assistance. If I do this, will it change, damage, or erase anything already on the computer? I just wanted to know that before I start something like this.

EDIT: Actually, I looked into it, but I couldn't find "display adapters", only "DISPLAY" and when I clicked on that, I got STB Velocity 4400. :confused:
 
OK! Excellent stuff.

No, you can only do "harm" if you change things around and click OK on Device Manager - Cancel ignores all the fiddling around you've done, and it's a great way to look inside the machine without unscrewing it all and staring at the bits for the tiny writing. If you haven't changed anything (just looked around) then even Clicking OK won't do any harm - you didn't ask for a change so Device Manager won't change anything.

Well done. Now if you Google web search with "STB 4400 driver download" (OK, I admit the "homepage" isn't needed) you'll go to the exact page to download from. It's an exe, so when downloaded you can just click on it and it installs itself! It won't even harm the 16 colour driver you are using now - it just tells Windows to look at the full colour version and not the 16 colour version you are using now. Once it has installed, the machine will need to reboot - and your colour changes should be back to normal.

And when I say "Harm" on Device Manager - when you get more acquainted with what's in there you'll be tempted to fiddle and change to improve speed of your system. My advice is - if it isn't broke, DON'T TRY TO FIX IT! It is possible to sort out problems with Device Manager and even make your computer run a bit faster - but effects are unpredictable.

I do recommended you have a good look at it though, because there's a lot of useful information about the guts of your PC. It may not be useful now - but it might come in handy one day when another device has a driver problem and you need to find a driver for it.

EDIT: Some geeks are scratching heads and sayin "go to the NVidia website! latest drivers are there!" And they are right.

HOWEVER, I have found that installing latest NVdia drivers on a fresh install doesn't work. When I try to do this, the machine locks up. By getting an old driver and then updating to latest, this problem is avoided. So don't think I've been giving you more work than is needed - I'm just going from my own experience.

OK, so I don't have an STB Velocity 4400 - but I do have NVdia TNT2, which is really very similar. AND Win98... So maybe getting latest drives before older ones is not such a good idea.
 
I see. What I meant by my question about causing harm was not about searching around, but it pertained to the actual--I don't know what the word it--"rebooting" of the video card program thing. By reinstalling it, will that change or delete anything, aside from the old video card program?

So it's really that easy, just download the thing off the site, and I'm done? Thanks a ton! :D
 
Yep. Once you know what video card you have, you know which driver to get. A more up to date driver might work better - but if you get one that works, who cares?

Something I LOVE the internet for... getting drivers.
 
Also, on the settings tab of your display properties there is probably a button called "Advanced". Click that and another windpw will come up. Somewhere in that window will be a menu that lets you choose whether to restart when you change your color settings. Choose the option not to restart.
 
Uh oh. I saved it onto the computer, and now its asking me to make a disk from drive A or B and all I thought I had to do was download it. I did download it, but do I have to do anything else, of should I go into the desktop and try to make it back into 256 colors?
 
Well, downloading it does nothing on its own. You have to double click on the .exe file you downloaded to install the driver.

I'd try changing colours first, and see if that works.

If it doesn't, then the new driver hasn't been installed yet. You can either persevere with the one you have... or see if an alternative download is more user friendly.
 
Private Message for you Benderino - could be the answer.

EDIT: You have problems with changing a driver that isn't an .EXE? This pic might explain where the Change button is (Start>Settings>Display>Settings>Advanced>Adaptor). Look at the red arrow.

Change.jpg
 
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