16 colours is all that the generic VGA driver provides, because that's all
that's in the VGA spec.
  The closest things to generic specs supporting 256 colours are (a) a VESA
SVGA spec that seems to have been largely abandonned, or (b) the IBM 8514/A
spec which was emultaed by many ATI cards and a few others.  Drivers for
these, IF you can find them, MIGHT work with some random unidentified card.

  If the card was legal to sell in the US, it probably has an FCC ID number
on it somewhere.  I believe there are sites where that can at least give you
the manufacturer, if not the model.

Dave Gillett


On 3 Jul 2004 at 7:18, Bob Zuccarello wrote:

> I have an unknown vga video adaptor card that displays only 16 colors. Does anyone have a generic driver that will allow me to get 256 colors? Or any suggestions as to what I can do otherwise. Using the settings on the display does not alter the setting from 16.
>
> Bob Zuccarello
>
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