Monitor or Graphics

[cshack]

Hello,
We have an old monitor (1998) and whilst surfing the net etc. all the graphics, pictures etc. on every website is terrible - all grainy and impossible to make out what they should be. Also, any background image on the desktop is just a mess of pixels, but the Windows and office stuff is fine. I've tried to set the desktop area settings in control panel>display but it seems to be stuck on 800x600 and 16 bit colour.
We've downloaded the monitor driver for it, but still the same. Is there a way as to find out which (if any) video/adapter/graphics card there is in there so we can see if there is a driver for that.
Do you think it might be a graphics card problem which can't display any pics etc. when surfing the net?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[mudskipper]

Sounds like video card issues to me. If you are unsure, you can try another monitor.

Incidentally, are you actually stuck at 16 bit or at 16 colors?

What does your device manager say is installed (under the display adapter area)?

You might boot into safe mode and check your device manager also. Look for duplicate Display Adapters--also look for anything interesting in "other devices". If you find duplicates, remove them and reboot.

Oh--to answer your question, sometimes the device manager will give you a clue as to your video card model. Additionally, some video cards will display a video BIOS screen as soon as the computer is turned on. Anything show up there? Mudskipper
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