ok I re-formatted my hard drive and now i can only get 16 colors. I need to know what type of video card i have so i can install the proper drivers for it. is there anyway to find this out without taking the computer apart? and if i have to take apart the computer where is the video card located? this was a custom computer so i dont have any documentation about the drivers. please help!!! thanks

As long as the video card has been detected, you can find out what it is by: Goto StartMenu/Settings/Control Panel/System Look for Display Adapters, click the plus sign. Your video card should be listed here. Check the driver tab and see if you can install/update drivers there. If not you can search the net. Some cards have software that can be used, so be sure to check manufacturers website for software/updates/patches. Hope that helps.

ok i did that... under the display adapters it has my monitor name listed but I only get 16 colors...whats wrong?

It should have your video card not the monitor listed under display adapters. Go into add new hardware and try to detect your video card. Let me know

ok i detected the following: PCI Multimedia Audio device PCI communication device PCI Network controller PCI Universal Serial Bus Controller Unknown device Is any of these the video card?

Doesn't seem to be. I wonder if you have onboard video. Which is on the motherboard. In device manager, tick the box that says view by connection. Not sure exactly where, I never worked with onboard, somewhere it should have info about it. If you do have onboard, you should be able to go into the bios of motherboard and check if it is enabled.

another place to check is StartMenu/Settings/Control Panel/ then click on Display. Look for the advanced button and see if there is anything listed there as a video card tab.