Hi Raze, thanks for your help.

I did the dxdiag run and it didn't report any problems.

Also on that tab, you could disable the DirectDraw, Direct3D and AGP Texture acceleration

I tried disabling DirectDraw and Direct 3D but then the game won't start.
The AGP Texture acceleration is not available. So I think this is what causing my characters to stay white. Also lowering the hardware acceleration did not help.

I haven't tried your second option yet, it's a bit too complicated and I don't want to go through all that trouble.

I think my graphic card is just too old (about 7 yrs) and that I should get a newer one.

Thank you very kindly though for all your help and support, I really appreciate it.