Win98 help

[Paulo]

Hi all
I have installed Win98 and it kept most of the configurations of the previous Win95.
The only problem I have is that the video on control panel does not work and shows this message: "An error occured while windows was working with the file c:\windows\system\desk.cpl from control panel."
And I cant change colors or refresh rate or anything cause control panel-video does not work.
I reinstalled Win98 but did not help.
Anybody have any idea how I can solve this ??

Thanks in advance

[ridefree]

Win98 now has the ability to change your
resolution and color depth on the fly. If your card has been mis-identified or has an incompatible driver it may explain your problem.

Win98 should have put an icon on your taskbar of a monitor. Try to see if that link will bring up your "Display Properties".
Right clicking on it will give you a list of available options. (If it is not there, you will not be able to get it there until the rest of the problem is remedied. It has a check box within the Display Properties / Settings window to enable the taskbar icon.)

If it is there and can't adjust the settings, go to Control Panel/System/
Device Manager/Video Adapter. Check to see if Win98 correctly identified your video card. If it shows the wrong video adapter, then click on Properties and "Update Driver" and see if it comes up with a new driver or offers you a list of drivers for different cards.

Also, have you downloaded the latest driver for your card, hopefully one for Win98? If so, try that as opposed to Win98's default
offering for your card.

If none of that works, try highlighting the video adapter in the device list and then click on remove. Click "yes" to the prompt.
Don't worry if you haven't done this before,
your screen won't go blank. Then do a normal shutdown/restart and see if it comes up correctly on the reboot.

Failing that, you might try using the Standard SVGA setting just to see if anything is workable. With that you should at least be able to change between 16 and 256 colors.

Also, curious if you ever got a message to the effect "Your video adapter is incorrectly
configured." when you originally installed
Win98.

[Jin Vitas]

1st. Boot to safe mode..then go into display properties are you getting the error?
if so go on to two..if not go to A

2nd. using.. system file checker.. extract. deskw95.cpl into the windows\system directory..

3rd. rename deskw95.cpl to desk.cpl

A. use msconfig in safemode and under startup tab uncheck everything.. and reboot then if it does come up.. then it is one of those u unchecked that is causing the prob. recheck each one at a time. If it doesnt work.. then do what.. ridefree suggested.

[Paulo]

Jin Vitas and ridefree thanks very much for the instructions.
I will try them later(I am at work now).
My video card is Viper 550 and I think something went wrong when was installing Win98.
As long as all previous configurations were kept (and I have plenty of softwares installed) it is very worth while trying to solve the error without going to a fresh install.
I will let you know what happens.
Thanks again

[Jin Vitas]

forgot to mention this problem also happens if u swap out.. video.. cards..

if u did.. the fix would be to change display to standard display type. then delete the old video card drivers.. file by file.. (or find where the lines are calling for these files.. most likely registry or system.ini..).. delete them and then install your video drivers for the current video card.

[Paulo]

Hi all
Jin Vitas and ridefree
I have finally solved the problem. I deleted windows and reintalled it. I tried almost everything you genlty sugested in your messages. Did not feel like trying to delete the drivers files one by one. Seemed to difficult for me so decided to delete win.
Removing the drivers either through safe mode or normal mode was no avail. Changed the agp card with a pci one but still could not enter display properties. First I thought it was cause a conflict in the driver adapter but proved it was not for the pci video card showed none in system manager.
Before that there was a odd message from windows telling it found the video too late or something like that. Looked funny but I could not laugh.
Thanks a lot

[chas3rd]

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