I was having Direct Draw problems everytime I tried to play video games. My directx is now ver. 9x, but it still hasn't worked. I went to a website that said that my driver for my Display adapter needed to be updated (ATI Rage 128 Pro. So, I updated the driver and then the monitor would shut off just after system start-up. Now I can only use a Standard PCI Graphics Adapter with 16 colour. Everytime I try to change it, it says there is a problem with the driver or it doesn't think my ATI is the most compatible one (even though it's been in the computer since day one)...Is there any way to get everything back the way it was even though the computer doesn't recognize it anymore!!!!!?

Was there some problem with the original driver and do you still have the driver CD?

What I'm thinking is that you could take out the driver in Control Panel/Add-Remove, then install the previous one again.

If you were originally running on the default W98 drivers then they should install again automatically when you reboot.

Derek.W

The problem that I had was that directx kept saying that the direct draw and direct 3D weren't going to work with my Graphics card, even though all the right components were there. So I updated the driver for the ATI card as this one site suggested and that's when everything went wrong. I don't have the original CD because it was already installed on the computer. Thanks for the advice.

It seems the driver you downloaded must have been incorrect.

If you download a program called EVEREST (search Google "Everest System Information") this will tell you about your card and might give a link to the appropriate driver website too.

When you find one that is suitable, remove the old one as suggested before installing.

Derek.W

Look here for a driver after you verify with Everest exactly which version os the Rage card you have. http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/powered.html

Perhaps restoring the reistry to a date when it worked may fix the problem??

Well, it seems like something has worked...I went to Everest and checked things out. I found out the my graphics card is an ATI Rage 128 Pro AGP 4x. So I went to the ATI site and downloaded the latest driver for that card. So, I'm one step closer. I now can get 256 colours instead of the bleek 16. There is still a slight problem in that it's suppose to use the true 32bit graphics which I have the option for that now....but, when I try to go back to the 32 bit, the screen goes blank, but at least I can operate it at 256 colours for now. Thanks everyone for the help. At least I'm closer to the 32 bit graphics as it once was.

Chris

You may have the resolution set too high to use 32 bit color also. The combination is dependent on card memory. IMO 16 bit color is plenty of color range.

It was originally set at true 32bit 1280x1024 before all this craziness happened. Thankfully I'm at least able to get it to 256 colours 1024x768 instead of the 16. I've tried different combinations with the colours vs. resolutions. Even at lower settings, after I reboot, the screen always goes blank just before the desktop comes up. I suppose I should count my blessings and be happy that the computer is at least working a bit, but it'd be nice to get it back to what it once was.

Chris