Display stuck in 16 colour mode

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Charlie - 09 Apr 2004 23:34 GMT

Can anyone help? Please excuse the long explanation, but I don't know which
facts are relevant

My PC display appears to be stuck in 16 colour mode. I'm unable to view or
change the display settings from Control Panel. On double-clicking
"Display" in Control Panel nothing happens. The mouse pointer just briefly
changes to the hour glass. I've tried replacing the Desk.cpl Control Panel
Extension file in Windows\System but this made no difference. I've also
checked the Display Adapter settings in System Device Manager - no apparent
problems or conflicts and the listed display drivers appear to present on
the hard disc. I haven't tried replacing the driver files - I assume that
any damaged files would have been found by Scandisk. The PC is a Toshiba
Satellite Pro 400CDT and the Toshiba hardware diagnostic doesn't show any
problems. I've run out of ideas.

The problem became apparent after I tried to install Eraser software which
failed to install properly and had to be uninstalled manually. (Deleted the
directory, deleted any Registry keys that referred to Eraser then ran
RegClean.) I then installed the Mozilla browser, but all the images were
poor quality. It was then that I found I couldn't view or change the
Display properties. The PC is running Windows 95 version 4.00.950B and
Internet Explorer version 5.5. Both are fully up to date with any Service
Pack and critical updates, etc.

Windows 95 is an OEM version and I didn't received any installation discs
from the person who originally set up the PC and the utility for creating
installation discs isn't on the hard drive. However all the Windows Cab
files appear to be present. If the recommended fix is to reinstall Windows,
can this be done using the Cab files - if possible overwriting the existing
installation rather than creating a second copy. The Cabs directory
contains Setup.exe, Setup25.i.exe and Setup32.exe.

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Jeff Richards - 10 Apr 2004 00:48 GMT

Do Start / Run / MSConfig and make sure Normal Startup is selected. Choose
Advanced and make sure VGA 640x480x16 is NOT selected. Do Start / Settings /
Control Panel / Display / Settings / Advanced / Adapter and note the adapter
description. If this is some type of generic VGA driver, or if it doesn't
exactly match the adapter installed in your machine, then you need to
download and install the video adapter drivers specific to your particular
hardware. These should be available at the video adapter card
manufacturer's www site, or if the video adapter is integrated into the
motherboard then it should be available at the motherboard manufacturer's
www site. You may have been provided with a CD as part of your system
deal - in that case the drivers should be on that CD. If you have upgraded
your video adapter since you bought the machine then the upgrade should have
included a CD that would have the drivers on it.

Signature

Jeff Richards
MS MVP W95/W98

> Can anyone help? Please excuse the long explanation, but I don't know which
> facts are relevant
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> installation rather than creating a second copy. The Cabs directory
> contains Setup.exe, Setup25.i.exe and Setup32.exe.

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Charlie - 10 Apr 2004 01:20 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion. However Start / Run MSConfig produced the error
message "Cannot find the file 'msconfig' ....". Start / Find / Files /
msconfig.* (including subfolders) didn't find any files. My other Win95
machine, which is stable, doesn't have the MSConfig file either.

Start / Settings / Control Panel / Display doesn't work. This is one of the
symptoms I reported. The "Display" window doesn't open. The cursor just
briefly changes to an hour glass but nothing else happens. The PC is a
notebook and none of the hardware or drivers have been changed in the last
five years.

Regards
Charlie

> Do Start / Run / MSConfig and make sure Normal Startup is selected. Choose
> Advanced and make sure VGA 640x480x16 is NOT selected. Do Start / Settings /
[quoted text clipped - 51 lines]
> > installation rather than creating a second copy. The Cabs directory
> > contains Setup.exe, Setup25.i.exe and Setup32.exe.

Reply to this Message

Jeff Richards - 10 Apr 2004 02:07 GMT

MSConfig isn't part of W95, and that part of the response should have been
deleted. It is still possible that you need to adjust these settings, but
since you don't have the program this makes it a bit unlikely.

The rest of the description is appropriate. It is not unknown for a video
driver to simply become corrupted and produce the symptoms you are
reporting, whether or not the software setup has changed.

Re-installing Windows is generally not effective, as it simply installs the
generic video driver and that's probably what the problem is.

Signature

Jeff Richards
MS MVP W95/W98

> Thanks for the suggestion. However Start / Run MSConfig produced the error
> message "Cannot find the file 'msconfig' ....". Start / Find / Files /
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> notebook and none of the hardware or drivers have been changed in the last
> five years.

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