blurry screen with lines!?

[impactaway]

im running 98 on an old gateway. On my screen there are lines and it is really fussy. The lines are coming out of the title bars. I thought it was a monitor issue until i switched monitors but i still have the same problem. I am thinking about reformatting. Any suggestions?


thanks in advance

[glc]

It's more likely a failing video card. The only software thing you can try is reinstall the video driver.

[GaryRouth]

Can I guess that the Win98 Gateway has an onboard MPact2 video chip from Chromatic Research in it? If so, and you don't have drivers for it, there are some at http://www.driversguide.com

Try booting the computer in Safe Mode (start tapping the F8 key as the system is starting up). If the display still has blurry lines or other problems, then it's likely what glc mentioned: the video chip or it's memory is failing. If your motherboard has an AGP slot, you might be able to find a workable AGP 2x or 4x card around for about $30 (USD). If the motherboard supports 4x, that's not so bad (I'll assume it's not going to be recent enough to do 8x).

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[we just had another thread earlier this week on a Gateway from the same timeframe as yours - so you have some company in your adventures].

[P.S. -- on some systems, you need to manually disable the onboard video in the Bios Setup screens if you add an AGP card. Some motherboards even had a jumper that had to be changed... See if you can find a manual for your motherboard model - it will have the details].

[impactaway]

Thanks Gary, but i just bought a new nvidia Rage TNT2 64mb.

its a agp 4x. Install will be next week, ill update. thanks for the help.