video memory

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Hi all, have just bought an old PC to take apart to get my feet wet so to speak. Its an old AT type. There is only 4 Mb attributed to the graphics and in the settings the only option is 2 or 16 colours, any software i try to run tells me i need a minimum of 256 colours to run it.I was going to buy a second hand PCI graphics card to install and was wondering what would be the minimum size needed to support 256 colour mode? Also in the BIOS there is a setting called PCI VGA pallette snoop from what i can find out this should be disabled, could anyone tell me a bit more about this?
The computer runs Windows 98 366 MHz and has 384 RAM
Thanks Gary

 

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Most any video card you buy should handle 256 colors. You probably won't be able to buy a video card off the store shelves, though, because there aren't many (if any) PCI cards available anymore. You'll probably have to pick up a used one.

Just leave PCI VGA pallette snooping at it's default settings.

 

Are ya not just missing a driver for the graphics?

 

I'd agree with Raffaz - you are missing the drivers for the video card. Get those and life will be better!

Harry.

 

Yep, if you don't have the correct drivers loaded for the graphics, whether they be on-board or a separate card, you will only get 16 colours and limited resolution, as Windows will drive the card with it's own built in VGA drivers.

Check in Device Manager and you will probably see a yellow exclamation mark against the entry for *display adapter*, make a note of what the adapter is and search for the right drivers on the Internet www.driverguide.com is a good place to start looking.

Pete

 

Thanks for the replies, in the device manager the display adapter says"Standard Graphics Adapter (VGA), it claims the device is working properly. there is no yellow exclaimation mark.

 

What has happened is that because the *proper* drivers for the video are missing/corrupt, Windows has substituted the 'standard VGA' drivers that it installs as an emergency stop-gap. This is why the colours are limited, because that was what the original IBM VGA did.

Find the right drivers for it and you will improve it a *lot*.

EDIT: You need to identify the card, preferably by looking at the physical card itself.

Harry.

 

OK Thanks Harry will give it a go tonight

 

OK folks, a PCI card is installed but as you all rightly said with no drivers,there are no markings on the card but the chip is a Winbond W27C512-70. I have searched the web for a driver for this including the manufacturers site could anyone help me find a driver please?
Thanks Gary

 

Robbo,

Im not sure but i think Winbond is the chip itself nott he graphics card. Its a GPU ic that many manufacturers used back in the day for thier graphics cards. Are you sure theres no other markings onthe card? Nothing like S3 or Vodoo or such written any where on the card or main chip?

I think you used to be able to search the web using the fcc number that should be printed on the board too but dont know if thi is really possible.

Some one correct me if im wrong?

 

There is no manufacturers name anywhere on the card thats why i quoted the chip number, its the only info i have.

 

Hm - then *any* markings on the board would help.

If it *does* have an FCCID I could look it up - I have the database somewhere before the FCC took it down.

Harry.

 

OK Harry looking at the card in the centre is a number 990830 above that 5968. on the bottom right 4099. in the centre right a tick and a number N2349. On the back of the card is a quality check sticker another sticker V 1.1 and a bar code AJT 151238, other than that nothing. Thank Gary

 

Wow - that is not very illuminating!

And no FCC ID.

OK - there are a number of ways to deal with this - try this one first:

During boot on *most* BIOSes there is a text based page with info on the drives connected in a box in the upper half of the screen.

Below that is *usualy* a list of devices detected, one device per line, each with a couple of hex codes on the right hand side of the line.

See if you can ident the video card and report the codes here. It should be called something like 'graphics adaptor'.

You should be able to pause the screen with shift-pause.

If you can't get it this way I'll have to dig out a diag program that reports the values.

Harry.

 

Just a thought.. but some cards display thier name etc when the PC very first starts, before the POST when the monitor is switched on. This can be very fast so you may miss it but if its an older PC and slower you may just catch a glimpse.

 

Harry,on boot up all i can find in the list of devices is PCI slot 3 VGA, cannot see any hex codes.
Twizzle, Before the post the sceen says "SIS 6326 PCI True colour graphics and Video Accelerator 4K Byte Video memory"

 

Robbo you found it i think.

Your card is an SIS 6326 wich i think is a virge card S3 not sure. Try looking in google for SIS 6326 drivers, you may have better luck.

try this just found it http://www.softwarepatch.com/utilities/sis6326.html its not an XP driver but a win98/me one so if yopur using an older pc it may work

 

Looks like you have found the info. I'm hoping that that figure for memory was 4M not 4K - otherwise it won't do much!

Harry.

 

Thanks for the link Twizzle the update worked and a i can now run at a higher resolution, well spotted Harry it was of course 4M not 4K. Thanks to all for your help i learned quite a bit from this. Thanks Gary

 

Glad to hear that you have sorted it.

*And* you saved the cost of a new card!

Harry.