Display Only Allows 16 Colors - PC Hardware Questions & Answers

Andrew writes in with a hardware question.
Question:My computer only has 16 colors. I tried to get more by going to properties but it only has two color settings.

Answer: It sounds as though you may need to reinstall the driver for your video card. You can go into Device Manager and check under display adapters and see if your video card is listed by name or if it's just shown as something like standard VGA adapter. If this is the case you can go to the manufacturer's website and download the latest driver for your card and install it. That should take care of the problem. If not then you may have a problem with the card itself. If you have another computer to put it in as a test you can give that a try. Or if its a PCI card you can try a different PCI slot. If its AGP or onboard then you wont have that option. If you do not know the model of your video card you may have to take the case off and look at the card for a model number or name.

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