How to Eliminate Video Difficulties After Loading Games in Windows 95

The video difficulties from loading games in Windows 95 usually occur when the DirectX video driver is installed. This happens when the game's installation program prompts you to "Replace existing display drivers with DirectX drivers? Setup has detected display drivers that have not been tested with DirectX. To get the best game performance, Setup can replace your existing drivers. Do you want Setup to replace the drivers?" If the Yes button is selected, DirectX replaces the current driver with the generic Windows 95 driver for the video adapter. If the No button is selected, the current drivers are left alone and the video is not affected. However, some games automatically overwrite the video drivers without prompting for your input. In either case the video is erratic, unusable, scrambled, etc. The following instructions contain the optimum way to restore the video settings. These steps require that you download and install the latest version of the video drivers for the video card/chipset in the computer. These drivers are available in the file download area here on the web.

Reloading video drivers

1. Once the new video drivers are downloaded, extract the new drivers into a temporary sub-directory on the hard disk. Most of the video drivers have an *.EXE extension. This allows you to simply double-click the file name and the drivers will extract.
2. Right click an open area on the Windows 95 desktop. Click the word Properties that appears on the menu. The Display Properties window appears. Across the top of the window are numerous tabs, depending on the video currently installed on the system. Click the Settings tab to view this information.
3. Click the Change Display Type button on the lower right hand side of the screen. At the top of the window is an Adapter Type box. Click the Change button to the right hand side of this setting.
4. In the Select Device window, click the Have Disk button in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Click the Browse button on the right hand side of the screen. Locate the temporary directory where the video drivers were extracted. Double click the DISPLAY.INF file.
5. The Select Device window appears again. Click the correct drivers for the display adapter, then click the OK button to continue. Click the Close button at the bottom of the Change Display Type window. Click the Close button at the bottom of the Display Properties window.
6. If a message appears asking you to restart Windows, click the Yes button. Otherwise, click the Start button in the lower left hand side of the screen. Click the words Shut down. When prompted, click the Restart the computer? option, then click the Yes button to reboot the computer. When Windows 95 restarts, the video should appear clearly.

For additional video troubleshooting information, please refer to document 3109. Or, if you prefer, you can get this or other documents from our FaxBack^® service, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. U.S. customers dial 800-846-4526 or International customers dial 605-232-2561 from a touch tone telephone to order this document.


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