I have my laptop set at 32 bit colors, but it looks more like 256 or perhaps 16 bit. Is this a common issue with laptops, or what's the deal? Using my Desktop's copy of Windows XP on an old laptop as a test before I buy an OS, and I want to be sure this is a hardware limitation, not an OS limitation. I think I saw "Trident" somewhere on the driver screen. (I've sort of formatted it before solving the problem, but I'm still interested in possible solutions to help me decide which OS to get.) Anyway, is this a common laptop problem, or could this be a display/card?
My laptop looks just fine. Cheapy integrated Intel Extreme Graphics on a 15" LCD and looks A1. Looks just as good as my desktop PC which is also running a 15" LCD. Are you sure you had the correct video drivers and they were installed properly. The OS should have nothing to do with the situatoin at all. I recently installed Windows 2000 on an old 200 MHz laptop. This thing was so old it didnt have USB ports and was running Windows 95. Output looked top notch with no problems. The OS shouldnt have anything to do with your problem - Im guessing drivers.
