On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

Naturally there is nothing on either the NEC web site or Sony (monitor) re
the issue of 16 colors vs. 256 colors re an old computer.
Sony tech support referred to a laptop issue in response to an email??
Obviously given the age of the components no company is going to provide
quality FREE support.
Using Google and other SE's has produced limited solutions and none that
have worked.

I know there will be some members of this NG who will simply suggest
trashing the desktop and monitor. But, will that solution help teach a
gradeschooler how to keyboard or
to surf the web ....? Besides, simply trashing workable computers is quickly
filling our landfills with hazardous waste.

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.


someone2

someone2 wrote:

On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

Naturally there is nothing on either the NEC web site or Sony (monitor) re
the issue of 16 colors vs. 256 colors re an old computer.
Sony tech support referred to a laptop issue in response to an email??
Obviously given the age of the components no company is going to provide
quality FREE support.
Using Google and other SE's has produced limited solutions and none that
have worked.

I know there will be some members of this NG who will simply suggest
trashing the desktop and monitor. But, will that solution help teach a
gradeschooler how to keyboard or
to surf the web ....? Besides, simply trashing workable computers is quickly
filling our landfills with hazardous waste.

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.


someone2

Hi Someone...

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that neither
the computer nor the monitor is your bottleneck here...

Suggest you try another video card; one with more on-board
memory.

Take care.

Ken

"someone2" wrote in message
news:_euNe.2214$ej5.1915@lakeread05...
On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

Naturally there is nothing on either the NEC web site or Sony (monitor) re
the issue of 16 colors vs. 256 colors re an old computer.
Sony tech support referred to a laptop issue in response to an email??
Obviously given the age of the components no company is going to provide
quality FREE support.
Using Google and other SE's has produced limited solutions and none that
have worked.

I know there will be some members of this NG who will simply suggest
trashing the desktop and monitor. But, will that solution help teach a
gradeschooler how to keyboard or
to surf the web ....? Besides, simply trashing workable computers is
quickly
filling our landfills with hazardous waste.

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.


someone2

\



What type of video card is in it? You'll have to install the correct driver
for that, if you can't find one for the specific card you should be able to
find one for the chip it uses.

Hi Someone...

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that neither
the computer nor the monitor is your bottleneck here...

Suggest you try another video card; one with more on-board
memory.

Take care.

Ken



Definitly *not* the monitor, VGA monitors are analog, they'll display
anything the computer sends them.

someone2 wrote:
desktop is a NEC age ~1996.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

If the monitor is also ~1996, then it's way too new to be limited to 16
colors, regardless of resolution. But at 640x480 resolution, standard
VGA adapters are, so see if the video processor chip supports better.
www.hardwarehell.com has much useful information on vintage hardware,
and driver software isn't that hard to find.

someone2 wrote:

desktop is a NEC age ~1996.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.


If the monitor is also ~1996, then it's way too new to be limited to 16
colors, regardless of resolution. But at 640x480 resolution, standard
VGA adapters are, so see if the video processor chip supports better.
www.hardwarehell.com has much useful information on vintage hardware,
and driver software isn't that hard to find.


Get a different video card, something that did not come with at best a 75-
100 MHz pentium. (although even they should handle what you want to do
with proper drivers)

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In article _euNe.2214$ej5.1915@lakeread05,
someone2 wrote:
The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

Are you using the correct driver (MDF) for the monitor?

--
*If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:50:21 -0400, "someone2"
wrote:

On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution. I have
performed the usual video troubleshooting steps without success.

Naturally there is nothing on either the NEC web site or Sony (monitor) re
the issue of 16 colors vs. 256 colors re an old computer.
Sony tech support referred to a laptop issue in response to an email??
Obviously given the age of the components no company is going to provide
quality FREE support.
Using Google and other SE's has produced limited solutions and none that
have worked.

I know there will be some members of this NG who will simply suggest
trashing the desktop and monitor. But, will that solution help teach a
gradeschooler how to keyboard or
to surf the web ....? Besides, simply trashing workable computers is quickly
filling our landfills with hazardous waste.

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.

Don't use Windows drivers, us the ones from the manufacturer of the
video card chipset.

Tom



someone2

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:50:21 -0400, "someone2"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

Now the problem is the very common issue with windows '98 and the video.
The monitor only recognizes 16 colors at the lowest resolution.

As others have said, you need to install a different video driver. You
can identify the graphics chipset by looking at the card. Otherwise,
including those cases where the graphics is integrated into the
motherboard, you can watch the POST screen for the info just prior to
boot. Or you can query the BIOS using DOS Debug, as follows:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp....e=source&hl=en
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....e=source&hl=en


- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 's' from my address when replying by email.

"someone2" wrote in message
news:_euNe.2214$ej5.1915@lakeread05...
On occasion I am offered legacy computers which I setup for donation.

The most recent incoming desktop is a NEC age ~1996. The desktop arrived
with Win '95 and a failing hdd.
I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.


I appreciate all the informative input.

I will work on the video problem this week.

someone2

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:50:21 -0400 "someone2"
wrote:

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.

It's just a matter of determining what make and model of video card it
has, and then installing the correct drivers for that card. You can
get the Win98 driver for that car at the video card maker's web site.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

"Jim Adney" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:50:21 -0400 "someone2"
wrote:

Any suggestions re having the video recognize 256 colors and higher
resolution would be appreciated.

It's just a matter of determining what make and model of video card it
has, and then installing the correct drivers for that card. You can
get the Win98 driver for that car at the video card maker's web site.

-


And if you can't find the driver I probably have a few crappy old cards with
win9x drivers lying around, I could send one for the cost of postage.

There is your problem, you installed windows on it.

a computer that old is probably not suited for 98. maybe thats why it had 95
on it. if you want to get better use of the computer.. boot it up to win 98,
douse it in gasoline and then throw a match on it. that will fix everything






"someone2" wrote in message
news:_euNe.2214$ej5.1915@lakeread05...

I replaced the hdd and installed a licensed copy of Win '98.

"Heavy G" wrote in message
...
There is your problem, you installed windows on it.

a computer that old is probably not suited for 98. maybe thats why it had
95
on it. if you want to get better use of the computer.. boot it up to win
98,
douse it in gasoline and then throw a match on it. that will fix
everything





95 and 98 have similar hardware requirements, if it's at least a P100 with
16 MB then either should be fine, not that either is a particularly great OS
but you don't have a lot of options that will be useful to the average
person.