Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Monitor Troubles

0 helpful
20 replies

by williams887

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I really dropped the ball on this one. I was messing around and, accidently set my screen resolution to 1600x1200. I should have known my montior would not support this but being me, I applied the new settings. Now I can't make out anything on my monitor at all. Is there anyway to set my resolution back to 800x600 without using the screen or am I screwed. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

20 replies

by dmiles

Click Start->Settings->Control Panel,double-click the Display icon,select the settings tab,their is a slide bar under the Screen Area,slide it back to the leftit should reset to 800x600

Also you may want to check the Monitor refresh rate and set it to Default
Click on the Advanced button,in the panel that opens you click on the arrow next to select the refresh or click the default button

by dcosgrove

While booting, continuously tap yhe F8 key and boot into safe mode. From there set your display to the lowest setiings (640X480 at 16 colors) and reboot. Once you are back in windows, choose the appropriate settings and you should be back in buisness. That's one of the main functions of safe mode.

by williams887

I tried safe mode but the screen is still unreadable. Im not sure what I've messed up but something. I think I may try another video card. Maybe that will work.

by manny_sanghera

HI,
if your os is win98 , reboot the machine whilst holding down the shift key, this will then boot up into safe mode with minimal VGA drivers.
Alter the display properties via control panel.

Good luck

by joe

If the safe mode don't work, see if you can borrow another monitor. And set it back to 800x600 and try your monitor. It could be that the monitor may be bad.

by paulp

You didn't mention what OS you're running, so hopefully it's Windows XP. You can restore your system to a known good configuration. It's one of the options presented to you when you press F8 during boot-up.

If I'm not mistaken, WIndows ME has that feature too.

by rcom

Boot the computer to a DOS prompt. Hold f8 and select command prompt only. You should be at the C prompt. Type in the following commands, followed by enter.

CD windows
edit system.ini

A blue screen with white letters will open. Use the arrow keys to get around.

Find the section that starts with

[BOOT]

Using the arrow keys get to the line that says

vga.drv=pnpdvr.drv

change it to read

vga.drv=vga.drv

To save the changes press alt then F select exit from the dropdown menu. Choose yes when prompted to save and reboot.

This will set the colors to 16 and a resolution of 640/480. When you reboot you can set the display back to desired settings. The system.ini file will be reflect the changed setting again by havingvga.drv=pnpdvr.drv again.

Try another monitor, install another video card? Not!

by jboardman

Borrow another monitor and BOOT UP IN SAFE MODE. If the settings blew your monitor, best not to blow another one. If that works, it's your monitor. If not, try a different video card and again boot up in safe mode first.

by matthew_killick123

Sometimes if you have a spare monitor around or if you can get hold of one, you can use it to bring the resolution back down. Or you can try through Safe Mode, but i find it more successful with another monitor.

This discussion is closed to new replies.