Win98 prob. Help.

Tony_ire

I have a problem with windows and i haven't a clue what caused it or how to fix it, so hopefullly somebody here can help and save me a trip to the repair shop.

My brother was on the pc last but said that he did nothing different/wrong.

When I turned it on later it asked me to log in, which is unusual because I never have to log in.
So i press cancel and when it loads up the screen has reverted to the plain green wallpaper, screensaver turned off etc. The display has reduced to 256 colors and the resolution has dropped to the minimum (and wont change back!), and the display area has also shrunk, there is now a balnk frame around the display. Oh and when I start up I get an error message for Mic Money telling me that it cant run with only256 colors (which is odd because I hadn't tried to run that program and i dont even think i have it!!).

Any ideas????

Thanks.

Capt'n Midnight

M$ money was probably running in the background all the time slowing your system and not raising it ugly little head until it got upset.

someone has change the display settings (control panlel display settings etc.) if you can't easily change the settings then when you computer starts make a note of the display adaptor - the line of text on the black screen when the computer starts - so you can match the correct driver.

oneweb

If you log in with whatever username you originally had instead of clicking cancel, it should get you into your settings (display, files on desktop etc). Under the users/profiles option in control panel deselect "users must log on".

Your bro was fiddling round, tsk tsk tsk >:-(

Tony_ire

I looked at the properties of the display adapter and everything seems to be fine.

When I try to change the resolution of the screen and the color from 16 or 256colors to 16 bit, it tells me that i must restart for the new settings to take effect, (whilst it used to just tell me that it might take a few seconds), - then when i do restart nothing happens and the display is just as it was before.

Tony_ire

anyone?

Tivoli

my guess is that there was a network card that was disabled and somehow got enabled, now you have to login (to get onto the network, and the card conflicting with your graphics card

did you do what the capt'n said?


i.e.-find out what make you graphics card is, then download the latest drivers for it and intall them,

Tony_ire

Thanks for replying! I went into the advanced part of the settings part of the Display properties.I have an Intel 810 Chipset Graphics Driver. I searched for any new drivers but it said that i was already using the best one.

Could a bluetooth adaptor have caused this. I've had it for a long time without any trouble but somebody could have done something with it.

Bebop

If your PC was working fine before and you have changed nothing since,

I would say that you have a possible hardware problem, maybe your on-board Graphics card, it may just be the driver
This problem may have caused your PC to start in safe mode, do the words "SAFE MODE" appear anywhere on the screen?
or the crappy graphics may be just a symptom of your graphics card failure

I would advise starting by taking off any software or hardware [lose the bluetooth for now] that was recently installed, then download a new Win 98 driver for your graphics card here;
http://www.intel.com/design/software/drivers/platform/810.htm
make sure you pick the Win98 driver! follow the instructions
install and reboot

The logon issue, does it say logon to Windows? or something else?
do you have a network card installed?
windows 98 does not require a logon, except on a network, nor does it support user profiles like Win 2K/XP, you get the same screen no matter who logs on
the brudder may have just put in a windows password, these are stored as PWL files, do a search for *.pwl files and delete any file found, this will stop windows asking for a pw

Tony_ire

That worked!!
I downloaded that driver and now my display is back to normal. Thanks for all the advice. I wouldn't have found it myself.

Bebop

Glad to hear it!
What about the password problem?