Revamping old PC for my young child

Windoze · 04-01-2005, 03:06 AM

Hi Folks,

I have years of PC experience, but just a grab bag of skills, and some "hard-knocks" experience. A relative gave us his (pretty good & powerful) system (Win98 os) for my 6-year-old to use. He removed a bunch of stuff that was either personal, or inappropriate for kids.

I wanted to do a thorough clean-up, since it's only to be used for "games", and maybe Word at some point. Recently I went in and used Add/Remove to remove all kinds of things; and I deleted some others. To make a long story short - maybe I went too far. The Display Settings now only gives two choices for colors: 16 colors, and 2 colors. The other settings (that you would need for games) are no longer listed. And - I can't move the slider for screen resolution size; it is stuck.

I found some articles on Video Drivers and Video Cards, but I am really starting from scratch; I know nothing about drivers and cards except that they're necessary.

Another issue: ideally, I'd like to just "wipe" the computer and reinstall Win98 as if I had a new machine. Maybe this is not so easy. I know the hard drive tends to retain everything, at some level? ...I have never tried playing with "registry" functions, I gather that can be risky. But is it less risky if you don't care about data loss? Is the registry the key to this?

Another thing: I don't have an internet connection for this machine. But maybe I will want one if I intend to do tweaking and fixing? That's where I'm at: a 90% free resources machine with terrible color. Thanks for any advice on these issues!

xDarkWizardx · 04-01-2005, 03:26 AM

Just reformatt the hardrive. It sounds like you deleted some stuff for your video drivers.

Sebouh · 04-01-2005, 03:00 PM

well maybe u uninstalled the driver for the graphic card, try to reinstall the correct one...or better yet format ur drive and start over.

tomb08uk · 04-01-2005, 03:18 PM

Just insert the OS CD-ROM into the drive and when it runs the CD just select the option that allows you to delete and create a new partition, this allow you to start from scratch and this will most likely able you to alter the display settings as the drivers will be reinstalled and set to default.

Windoze · 04-02-2005, 06:19 AM

Thanks to all for the tips! I've never done those things, but I took the plunge, using my own computer to access the internet for help articles and resources such as bootdisk.com

For better or worse, I wiped the hard drive clean using fdisk, managed to format, and finally managed to reinstall the Win98 os which I then upgraded to 98Plus. Pretty much achieved my goals... except I still have only 16 colors! Higher settings such as 256 no longer are listed; resolution control still stuck. Monitor picture looks lousy and settings controls are messed up somehow.

I know how to get to Hardware Properties from the desktop but not how to do anything. Is there any way to work on the drivers or whatnot... i.e., possible fix without spending money, or having web access? Or should I be looking in C drive program files, and doing something there? I ran Dr. Watson but it reported no obvious problems. Thanks for listening.

Yeti · 04-02-2005, 06:37 AM

It sounds like you need to install the video card drivers. They should have come on a CD with the computer or the card itself. What are the computer specs?

**Praetor** · 04-02-2005, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Maybe this is not so easy. I know the hard drive tends to retain everything, at some level?

Yes that's correct hwoever I wouldnt suspect that the kids would be able to do anything with it.

Quote:

Just insert the OS CD-ROM into the drive and when it runs the CD just select the option that allows you to delete and create a new partition, this allow you to start from scratch and this will most likely able you to alter the display settings as the drivers will be reinstalled and set to default.

Not all OSes do this

flame1117 · 04-02-2005, 07:19 AM

if you konw what the video card is try gping on maufacter's website and download a driver for it.

mgoldb2 · 04-02-2005, 07:24 AM

your problem is you need to install the video drivers in order to get your resoultion and colors back. First step of this is determining what video card you have. If you have no clue what video card you have then download everest.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html go into the program then click on display on the side then click on pci/agp on the right it should give you the name of your graphic card. After you determine the name of the graphic card post it and we will help you locate the drivers for it.

Windoze · 04-15-2005, 10:56 PM

Thanks again to all who responded. I had to swallow my pride and get my brother to work on his old computer. I thought I had managed to partition and reformat, but "not quite" it seems.

Neither of us can believe my Bro failed to keep certain old manuals and installation discs, but so far we're still missing some key stuff. Need to reinstall an o/s; I may have to just buy one(!). And get hooked up to the Internet. Anyway, I learned some lessons here. Glad I found this forum.

04-01-2005, 03:06 AM	#1 (permalink)
Windoze New Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3	Revamping old PC for my young child Hi Folks, I have years of PC experience, but just a grab bag of skills, and some "hard-knocks" experience. A relative gave us his (pretty good & powerful) system (Win98 os) for my 6-year-old to use. He removed a bunch of stuff that was either personal, or inappropriate for kids. I wanted to do a thorough clean-up, since it's only to be used for "games", and maybe Word at some point. Recently I went in and used Add/Remove to remove all kinds of things; and I deleted some others. To make a long story short - maybe I went too far. The Display Settings now only gives two choices for colors: 16 colors, and 2 colors. The other settings (that you would need for games) are no longer listed. And - I can't move the slider for screen resolution size; it is stuck. I found some articles on Video Drivers and Video Cards, but I am really starting from scratch; I know nothing about drivers and cards except that they're necessary. Another issue: ideally, I'd like to just "wipe" the computer and reinstall Win98 as if I had a new machine. Maybe this is not so easy. I know the hard drive tends to retain everything, at some level? ...I have never tried playing with "registry" functions, I gather that can be risky. But is it less risky if you don't care about data loss? Is the registry the key to this? Another thing: I don't have an internet connection for this machine. But maybe I will want one if I intend to do tweaking and fixing? That's where I'm at: a 90% free resources machine with terrible color. Thanks for any advice on these issues!

04-01-2005, 03:26 AM	#2 (permalink)
xDarkWizardx Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 127	Just reformatt the hardrive. It sounds like you deleted some stuff for your video drivers. __________________ Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Athlon 64 FX-57 2GB Corsair XMS (2-2-2-5) 2 Western Digital 74GB Raptors (Raid 0) 1 Western Digital 300GB (Storage) Audigy 2 ZS 2 nVidia eVGA GeForce 7800 GTX (SLI) Aspire X-Navigator 500 Watt, 5 Fans Sony 23" LCD (16ms) ^^Dream Computer^^

04-01-2005, 03:00 PM	#3 (permalink)
Sebouh Gold Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 477	well maybe u uninstalled the driver for the graphic card, try to reinstall the correct one...or better yet format ur drive and start over. __________________ sbho

04-01-2005, 03:18 PM	#4 (permalink)
tomb08uk Platinum Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 836	Just insert the OS CD-ROM into the drive and when it runs the CD just select the option that allows you to delete and create a new partition, this allow you to start from scratch and this will most likely able you to alter the display settings as the drivers will be reinstalled and set to default. __________________ Gigabyte LGA775 Motherboard Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz Socket LGA775 1GB Kingston Memory (2x 512mb Sticks) 160GB Maxtor Serial ATA Hard Disk 256MB Nvidia Geforce 6600 Graphics Card

04-02-2005, 07:24 AM	#9 (permalink)
mgoldb2 VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Age: 25 Posts: 1,259	your problem is you need to install the video drivers in order to get your resoultion and colors back. First step of this is determining what video card you have. If you have no clue what video card you have then download everest. http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html go into the program then click on display on the side then click on pci/agp on the right it should give you the name of your graphic card. After you determine the name of the graphic card post it and we will help you locate the drivers for it. __________________ Acer A11912B 19"montior Aspire x-superalien case Asus k8t800 pro motherboard athlon 64 fx-55 2GB(2 of 1GB) of Geil DDR ram Geforce 6800 ultra 2 Seagate 200GB 7200RPM Model ST3200822A configure as RAID 0 1 DVDRW and 1 CDRW 3.5 drive sound blaster audigey2 zs logitech 2300 thx certified 2.1 speakers

04-02-2005, 06:19 AM	#5 (permalink)
Windoze New Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3	Thanks to all for the tips! I've never done those things, but I took the plunge, using my own computer to access the internet for help articles and resources such as bootdisk.com For better or worse, I wiped the hard drive clean using fdisk, managed to format, and finally managed to reinstall the Win98 os which I then upgraded to 98Plus. Pretty much achieved my goals... except I still have only 16 colors! Higher settings such as 256 no longer are listed; resolution control still stuck. Monitor picture looks lousy and settings controls are messed up somehow. I know how to get to Hardware Properties from the desktop but not how to do anything. Is there any way to work on the drivers or whatnot... i.e., possible fix without spending money, or having web access? Or should I be looking in C drive program files, and doing something there? I ran Dr. Watson but it reported no obvious problems. Thanks for listening.

04-02-2005, 06:37 AM	#6 (permalink)
Yeti VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,278	It sounds like you need to install the video card drivers. They should have come on a CD with the computer or the card itself. What are the computer specs?

04-02-2005, 07:19 AM	#8 (permalink)
flame1117 banned Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 1,770	if you konw what the video card is try gping on maufacter's website and download a driver for it.

04-15-2005, 10:56 PM	#10 (permalink)
Windoze New Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3	Thanks, will keep on trying Thanks again to all who responded. I had to swallow my pride and get my brother to work on his old computer. I thought I had managed to partition and reformat, but "not quite" it seems. Neither of us can believe my Bro failed to keep certain old manuals and installation discs, but so far we're still missing some key stuff. Need to reinstall an o/s; I may have to just buy one(!). And get hooked up to the Internet. Anyway, I learned some lessons here. Glad I found this forum.

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