Display problems...

Hello,
I have had the same computer since forever (333 still running WIN 98 ) and got another monitor about a year ago, and everything has been fine up until recently...

I have always kept my screen rez at 1024x768, and because I design web sites and sometimes want to check my site in different resolutions, I have changed it back and forth between 800x600 quite a few times with no problems. Recently however, any time I change it down I lose the ability to change it back up. After tons of troubleshooting I am at the end of my rope. Yesterday out of curiosity I tried changing it down to 640x480 to see what would happen, and again I lost the ability to change it back up. Finally out of frustration and being desperate to change back up because of feeling boxed in, I did scanreg /restore and went back to 800x600 that way.

I don't know what else to say. The slider just won't move, and 1024x768 isn't listed as an option anymore. Right now I am stuck at 800x600 16 bit high colour, I had 24 before with 1024x768.

I have updated drivers and I can't think of a single thing that I have changed or installed that would cause this. I checked in the troubleshooting for my ATI drivers and it said that the problem was likely the BIOS is being told I don't have any other options, but the only solution it gave was updating drivers. Unfortuantely this falls way outside my realm of understanding and knowledge, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Here are whatever details seem they might be relevant about my system, let me know if you need to know anything else.
Monitor: Dell 825TM Trinitron
Video card: ATI Rage IIC AGP

* also, I can't play games on my computer anymore unless they are extreme abandonware (avernum, dink smallwood) I get errors saying things like "640x480 not detected"

hve you thought of changoin your coloure resolution to 32 bit True Coloure and tht will giv you more options between ur resoultion seetings i think or u may jus need a new monitor??

Dark Civilian

Thank you for your response. As I said, my only options for colour depth are for 16 bit high colour and 16 colours now... that is what I am trying to solve. And my only options for resolution are 640x480 and 800x600. If I change my colour depth from 16 bit high colour down to 16 colours I know that I will likely lose the ability to use 16 bit high colour. It will no longer change to that. And frequently I am getting errors when playing games - such as "detected that your screen resolution is not 800x600" even though that is what it is at. The monitor seems to be working fine, and will display any resolution put to it.

For instance if I change my colour depth to 16 colouts and my display options will not let me change it back up to 16 bit high colour and 800x600, if I restore or even format my HD (which I did recently) I will get 800x600 16 bit high colours back as options, and the monitor will display that setting perfectly well. Prior to having these problems I was able to display higher resolutions and colour depths... it appears to be a driver issue. I just don't know what the problem is, but whatever it is it is beyond my understanding.

Writely, I think the frequent changes in resolution have accelerated the wear & tear on your card, It may be getting ready to die on you completely.

Though a newer system all together would save you alot of headaches, I would at least look into getting a new(er) graphics card

I am sorry I gave the impression that I changed my display propreties often... that is far from the case... I did it only when I had completed a web site, and in the nearly ten years that I have had this computer I have made 5 web sites... definitely not frequent... it is just my observation that I never had problems doing it over the years.