Monitor kept at 16 colors ??

[ylan]

I was helping a friend to reformat his HD and re-install Win98 SE ( Mobo : Abit BE6-II, 128 Mb RAM,Pentium III 550 Mhz) . The reformatting and re-installation went O.K. Now the problem is the monitor is kept at 16 colors for some reason. All the drivers for the mobo and the video card ATI Xpert99 ( 32 Mb video ram, AGP 2x) were loaded correctly and checked several times. If I change the display to 16-bit color, the system goes into "Safe mode" ! When I change back to 16 colors, everything is back to normal.

_I tested this video card on another PC with the same mobo, it works fine !

_ I also installed another PCI video card on the machine in question and no problem at all !

Did I miss something ? Please suggest some ways to solve this perplexing problem. Thanks.

 

[ski]

Uninstall and reinstall the video card's drivers.

 

[edfair]

Some manufacturers require you to install the drivers through an install program called by the autoload function on a CD supplied with the M/B. Some require you to update the driver after initial load.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[ylan]

Thanks ski and edfair for the suggestions.

_I installed and re-installed the driver for the ATI Xpert99 several times, nothing changed.

_I also reformated drive C: and re-installed Windows 98 SE twice to make sure ! Still, I could not changed display resolution : it got stucked at 16 colors !

__In the Control Panel->System->Device manager , I clearly saw the correct driver for video card.

__I cleared out all entries in <autoexec.bat> and <config.sys>.

This apparently simple problem really drove me up the wall ! Please give instructions. Thanks,

 

[ski]

Did any drivers have to be installed for the monitor?

If not, then what description is shown for the monitor in Device Manager?

 

[ylan]

I did install the correct driver for the monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 750s). Before this installation, "Plug-play monitor" is shown for the monitor in Device Manager.

BTW, the video card is actually Xpert 2000 ( Xpert99 has only 8Mb Ram onboard; Mine has 32 Mb Ram . Otherwise, they are the same functionally). I double checked the driver . It is the correct version for the card. The behavior of the display has indicated that the default PCI VGA driver is being used !

Best regards,

 

[edfair]

One step up would be through device manager, display, change card and use super vga. Or at the same place try browsing to the drivers on your install CD.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[ylan]

Finally, the problem was solved ! The installation CD was apparently not compatible with the installed video card !! I D/L several driver versions and loaded them one by one . On the second trial I got it right ! The driver installed the first time in the shop was correct but an incorrect installation CD was enclosed with the PC !

Again, thank you so much for your kind advices !

Best regards,

 

[ski]

Glad that you solved the problem, and thanks for posting back with the fix.