resurrecting old Dell; only 640x480x16?
NN
95, you have to search them out; with 98 a lot of them are in there.
The Dell website has machine specific specs through their support areas.
Maybe these will help:
http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/ptwist/specs.htm
http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/ptwist/graphics.htm
http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/systems/ptwist/docs.htm
This is what I got from the download tab and video drivers - I have no
idea if it's the one on your Inspiron 3000:
http://support.dell.com/us/en/filelib/results.asp?sid=INS_PNT_PNT_3000&lang=EN&lib=6&os=W98&searchtype=filter&devid=145
In a pinch you could look for OS software on eBay.
Another idea (and this one I've tried with old machines I was playing
around with) is a Linux installation. These range from free to cheap and
I suspect there are newsgroups where you could get suggestions to match
your equipment.
HTH
NN
Joseph wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've posted this to several groups in hopes of getting an answer. PLEASE
> email any response to me at <jos...@pobox.com> - thanks
>
> I have an old Dell Inspiron 3000 that came with Win 95, and ages ago bought
> Win 98 upgrade CD for it. Over time, I've managed to lose the Win 95 CD (but
> not the serial number), and I've lost the Win 98 serial number (but not the
> CD). Go figure.
>
> At some point a year or so ago when I clearly still had the serial for '98,
> I reinstalled Win 98 to a newly reformatted drive. Should have been a
> totally clean installation. However I never got it to display anything
> higher than 640x480 at 16 colors, either to the LCD or an external VGA
> monitor (ViewSonic P775). At the time Dell tech support was no help
> whatsoever as they told me that Win 98 would never run on the Inspiron
> 3000... big help, as I *had* had it running it for about a year before the
> hard drive died.
>
> So I just pulled this thing off mothballs and am trying to put it to use. I
> can't reinstall the OS again, as I don't have the right combo of CD's and
> serial numbers. I've tried loading different drivers in "Display Properties
> > Settings > Advanced > Adapter", but none made a difference. The default
> driver is simply "Standard PCI Graphics Adapter (VGA)". I thought I had hit
> it when I loaded either the Super VGA driver or the XGA driver (don't recall
> which now) and the Settings finally let me dial in 1024x768, but alas on
> restart it gave an "unsupported resolution" error and dropped me back to
> 640x480x16.
>
> Under the Adapter tab, I get this info:
> The video card "adapter" itself is listed simply as "Standard Display
> Adapter (VGA)"
> Manufacturer: "Standard Display Types"
> Software version 4.0
> Current Files: vga.drv, *vdd
>
> Any ideas? It's really hard to use this for much of anything at such low
> resolution......
>
> thanks all, and again PLEASE reply to jos...@pobox.com
>
> -Joseph
Bill D
Joseph, why demand that people reply direct to your e-mail? The
purpose of usenets is to share the information - one asks a question,
others answer (some perhaps inappropriately) and everybody can get to
see the answers. As for your problem, are you sure the external
monitor is being recognized? The laptop screen can only support
standard VGA given its age - and ine many early laptops, the external
monitor could only mirror the laptop screen.