washed out colors on computer

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braddy

Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
562
The colors on my computer seem washed out, which includes much of the text that is colored. Black and white text and a little colored text appears normal, pictures are almost completely washed out. The color stuff on this Blade Forum page seems normal,(the icons and the top of the page) but the word google on my google search bar is barely there. I run windows 98se, and don't have a reboot disc or a win.98 disc. Any suggestions?
 
How old is your monitor?
What size and type is it? (Brand?)
What video card do you have?
 
I'll assume that the colors weren't messed up before.

If the colors are "grainy", it could be that your video settings have gone back to a 256 color default. Try right-clicking the desktop, clicking "Properties" in the menu, and checking out the "Settings" tab. Adjust the color quality to the highest it can go (all the way to the right). While you're at it, you might want to see if you prefer a higher resolution ("Screen Resolution" setting in the same tab).

Otherwise, something might be wrong with the video card's color correction settings. Can't remember where you can change this in Win98, but probably in roughly the same place as the above adjustment.

If the colors are just plain nasty, like they're washed out or like there's a filter over the screen, another possibility is your monitor. If you use an LCD monitor, the first thing you should do is press the "Autotune" button. It might be somewhere in a menu. You can also adjust various things like sharpness and color temperature. I've seen way too many LCD's at suboptimal settings-- if it hurts to look at, you ought to change the settings.
 
I've got two monitors dated 96 and 97, I switched them so I believe it is the computer. When I adjust the settings it keeps coming back to 16 colors and 640X480 pixelsand nothing changes.
 
Is that "16-bit color" or really just "16 colors"?

If it's the latter case, then it seems that Windows is automatically using safe-mode graphics. I think this happens if the drivers for your graphics card haven't been installed yet. There's a smaller chance that you need to tell Windows what kind of monitor you're using.

No matter what, you ought to reinstall the graphics card driver first.

Were the graphics fine before?
 
My computer does that periodically -- it forgets what kind of video card it has and reverts to basic VGA, 640x480 and 16 colors. It's usually an easy fix; I just right-click on the desktop and select properties, then select the right video card and reboot and that fixes it until the next time.
 
it 16 color, I believe the driver is ok on the moniter, graphics were ok until the other day,in settings it lists the moniter then next to it, on XPERT98AGP2X english is that the video card?
 
Is the video card in those card slots? if so should I take it out to see which one it is and look for the driver?
 
braddy said:
Is the video card in those card slots? if so should I take it out to see which one it is and look for the driver?
Click to expand...

Before you do that, press the reset button on the computer. Watch the screen and see if you see the video cards logo flash up. It will only appear of a second or two, but it will list the brand and model of video card.

If that doesn't work, see if you can read the video card without taking the card out. Taking the cards out is easy, but the less you do it the better off the PC will be.
 
ok, so you swapped out the monitor, you checked the Windows settings for the display, but have you checked the settings for the video card ? Try that, i am a tech support agent for DSL (don't start throwing tomatoes and sh*t at me) I am surrounded by computer geeks, and that is the general concensus.
 
It looks like you have an ATI Expert 98 AGP video card.

I'd go to ATI's website ( www.ati.com ) and download the latest video driver for your operating system. Then change your video card driver to to "Standard VGA", reboot, and install the new ATI driver. That should do the trick.
 
Thanks for the help, Before I could work on the video card I got things to where windows won't load on that computer.I'm using one bout 12 years old now, which is barely functioning. I switched the hard drives in the two computers which neither one really worked in the other, also had to use the modem in both computers,now the screen problem is on the old computer too.How do I do safe mode on windows 98 se, My memory is I press two buttons right after the beep when it is booting up, but I can't remember the exact details. Info?
 
It is F5, F6 or F8 i believe that gets you to selection menu - there you can pick safe boot mode (among others). F8 if i'm not mistaken, it's been a while since i used that anywhere (i'm an OpenSource geek, except for WinXP on this very computer, running alongside Linux, so those M$ shortcuts don't mean much to me).
 
With Windows 98, hold down the control key while you boot it up. A menu will come up and safe mode is one of the options.
 
I haven't had success by holding down the control key during bootup, one time in computer edge magazine it gave instructions that I think, involved two keys and good timing, anybody remember how?
 
I checked (Win98SE), it is F8 like i said. This is not a two-key combination, it's just one key, in top row of your keyboard. Tap F8 few times when OS starts booting (when BIOS is done with POST) and the menu will come up.

And FWIW, i believe it's been F8 since Win95 and is still the same (key used to bring up the menu) in WinXP.
 
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