locked at 640x480x 16 colors

[Flash]

ok, im trying to fix this ladies computer. she said she uninstalled/deleted acrobatic reader and some old games, like jazz ball. when she reboot, the computer was stuck in 640x480x16(colors not bpp). her specs are as follows

windows 98
cyrix ii-300
62mb ram
the graphics card says SiS 5597/5598 in the device manager and is 2mb.

Anyway, i got the drivers off of the sis site. i got the 5598_113_win98.zip drivers. So after that i uninstalled the old drivers, reinstalled these ones, and rebooted. then i got a 'the display options you have selected do not work for this graphics card' error on boot(it said something of that nature). So its still stuck in 640x480x16colors. What else can i do? did i get the wrong drivers?

[drpeterbright]

Is it diagnostic mode?

[FLaCo]

Back up some files and reformat win98 on it...

[Flash]

Is it diagnostic mode?

if thats the same as safe mode, no.
theres gotta be an easier way than reformatting.

[Mr. C]

So after that i uninstalled the old drivers, reinstalled these ones, and rebooted.

Offhand I'd be tempted to say you skipped a step or 2.
Change the Display Adaptor to Standard VGA - then reboot. Then remove all the drivers for the SIS - reboot. Change the Display Adaptor to the SIS and then reboot and install drivers.

Haven't had any experience with the SIS myself, but isn't this pretty much SOP for uninstalling/reinstalling a video card:?:

Hello............guys?

[Flash]

how do i swithc the display adapter to standard adapter?

[SegiY]

Do her a favor
Tell her that the cyrix is a heap of crap and to buy a new computer, and NOT another cyrix.

I know the problem is not cpu, or probably not age, but you would be doing her a favor.
Fail that it sounds like drivers.

[Mr. C]

Control Panel - Display Properties - Settings tab - Advanced button - Adaptor tab - Change button

You might see also if you can find a list of files for manual removal of those drivers, just to make sure you get the registry nice and clean.

And I'd bet dimes to doughnuts that formatting and reinstalling is your best bet. Sounds by the tale your telling this system has gathered a lot of digital goop from normal usage over an extended period of time

[Darthtanion]

Is the graphics card an add-on version or an inbred type on the motherboard? I'm guessing it is built-in? If this is the case, what is the primary chipset version?

It is possible to have upwards of three main chips involved with the entire chipset of your board. If so, tell us all three numbers from the chips.

I ask this because I still have some old POS SiS boards of the Super7 variety at work. It is possible that if your board matches the ones I use, I can email you some appropriate drivers for it.

[Flash]

i got frustrated, and when i do that, i do totally wierd random stuff. so i loaded windows 95 drivers and it worked(remember this system is running win98).....? i dunno, but anyway thanks for the help.:)

[drpeterbright]

FLASH - Glad you got it figured out.

[bigjackusa]

This is not a putdown, just an observation. If you are not yet at a level where you know how to switch to standard VGA on a Windows box, you shouldn't be working on other people's boxes yet. That is a good way to make enemies out of friends and neighbors.