An old computer acquired from a friend will only display 16 colours and will not allow any higher colour depth to be selected. The Device Manager says the graphics card is a Standard PCI Adapter. Do I need drivers for the card and, if so, where can I get these drivers? The computer is running Windows 98.

Since the Device Manager is displaying the video card as a ‘Standard PCI Adapter’ this is a tell-tale sign the correct video card drivers have not been installed. Instead, the Windows default drivers have been installed, which only allow the lowest colour and resolution settings to be enabled. The rationale behind this behaviour is in case the proper video drivers have become damaged or corrupted, these standard drivers can be loaded (which should work with all video cards, since they only allow the lowest settings to be used) allowing the user to at least boot Windows and fix the problem. So, we need to find the proper drivers for the video card.

Unfortunately, there is no one universal place where you can find all the video drivers. You will need to visit the video card manufacturer’s website and download the drivers. The first information you need to determine are the manufacturer and model of the video card. Unless you have the box handy (or the original computer specifications) this could be difficult. The only other way to determine the card installed will be to open the computer and physically examine the video card for a clue to the manufacturer and model. Having determined the manufacturer and model, you will need to find the website for the manufacturer and the easiest way is probably to search Google. Once you have found the manufacturer’s website, proceed to the support or downloads section to locate and download the drivers. Make sure you are at the official manufacturer’s website, since unofficial websites could contain downloads with dangerous content (e.g. viruses, spyware).