Computer Geek Assistance Required

12/19/03 | TC

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Because of a virus I was forced to erase my HD. A major difficulty remaining to be conquered is setting my display properties, currently I'm prevented from going above 16 colors and 640x480. I was running well above that before the erasing. I have attempted to download drivers, even after deleting the existing in the safe mode, yet my PC rejects them. The only one which was successfully downloaded was a super vga from my 98 disk yet again the PC rejected my attempts to upgrade from present levels.

Could the virus have infected my video card?

I simply cannot "see" the internet at these settings. For instance I have no idea what is in the far right breaking... columns being unable to ascertain background from print. Gifs and jpgs are blobs and Flash is annoying (you can't appreciate how much it's used until this kind of a situation).

Thanks in advance for at least reading this.

[red-dawg]

It is not likely that the virus affected your video card. Your best best is to shut down your pc and remove the video card to get the *exact* make and model of it for obtaining the correct driver. I found www.driverguide.com to be quite useful for Win98 drivers.

[petuniasevan]

I asked poorman - he builds computers for fun.

He says you need to find the disk that installs programs to your motherboard and chipsets.


Without that your computer will not recognize the video drivers for your card so it defaults to the minimum.

Hopefully this works.

We're on night shift so we won't be online until late this P.M.

I'll check back then.

[Trampled by Lambs]

I have seen this. I build computers for fun also :)

If your video card is an AGP card, go in your bios and check two things.. Make sure it is set to init the AGP slot rather than PCI and also make sure that it is set to assign an IRQ to the AGP slot. If you (carefully) fish around in your bios, you should find those settings, wording may vary. If its a PCI card, I believe it still needs to have the IRQ assigned to it.

I could tell you more if I knew what motherboard and vid card you have.

If you don't know how to get into your Bios, I suggest you may want to find someone to work on it for you. You can really hose your machine by fooling around in there if you're not careful.

[Trampled by Lambs]

Erm, it would also help if I knew what OS you are using. Windows98 and later should have built in drivers for most common video cards though in most cases, you should still get to the card makers site and download the latest revision.

[steplock]

All the earlier answers are correct, but if you have a "Name Brand" computer (Compaq, IBM, HP, etc) and if you can get on line, go to the manufacturer web site and then go to SUPPORT enter your model number in their search engine - look for downloads or drivers - the FAQ section is usually good, and they also have fairly quick response to email questions.

But use their search function when you get to the manufacturer web site.
Video drivers can be ---errr--- interesting to install at times. some you can load directly from your HD, others you will have to save to floppy disks then load to the computer. The instructions for all the drivers should be on the site.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I forgot to mention that, I have an HP, thanks.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I could tell you more if I knew what motherboard and vid card you have.

Hey TC. Remember the site I directed you to a few days ago?

Belarc Advisor

Go to the site and download the utility and run it. It will give you all the system info you need including motherboard type and all that.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222)
Hewlett-Packard HP Vectra VL 8/400
400 megahertz Intel Pentium
Board: Hewlett-Packard HP VL Mainboard BETTY
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies Ltd. HN.02.01US
Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA) [Display adapter] EMC 15.7 [Monitor] (15.7"vis, May 1998)

Great site.

[steplock]

HP doesn't show a VL8/400 but it did have a VL400 or a VL6/800 So I will assume a VL400

It was easy enough ...
I went to http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html
SAVE that URL!
Select the "Download drivers and software"
Enter your model # in the box
click on the little double-arrow to the right
Select Microsoft windows98
And you'll have a whole page of drivers,etc.


get your video drivers, audio drivers, modem drivers, etc.

Since you had to reformat everyhting, I would go ahead and download the latest drivers they have for all of your hardware.
Do not download a CMOS update unless you have experience doing this - it can totally/permanently crash your system if an error is made.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Thanks. I bookmarked the URL to do what you described tomorrow morning, have been waiting before I load everything else. Half my desk is filled with floppies and I have to send myself emails in order to make notes, many times they end up in my out box. This ordeal has been anything but easy. Tomorrow marks one week since I caught this damn virus. Hoping to end it soon.