Display on Monitor Distorted

My neighbor wrote me the following note:

"Our PC is sick! The desk top and all other screens have extended horizontally on each side so that the picture more than fills the screen! The START on left side has disappeared, so I cannot turn it off. "

I went over and looked at her monitor and it indeed was "stretched" out across the screen so she couldn't see the START key or the time and other icons on the right. It also seemed as though the icons on the left, such as, my computer, my documents, were larger than the icons that were toward the middle of the screen. The screen looked as though it was elongated.

I went into the display properties, and the Settings were set to 800 x 640 with the colors set to 32 bit. Everything looked OK there and this is the setting she likes. I tried to adjust her Monitor settings, trying to shink the screen but that didn't seem to work.

I then went back into the display setting and set them to 1024 x 768. The icons and Start menu came back but it is very small and she can't see things as well due to her poor eyesight.

My question is, do you think that the Monitor may be going out on them. I didn't think so as the new setting seems to be OK.

Any ideas of how I can help change the setting back to 800 x 640 and not have the screen so distorted will be appreciated.

It is a Sony computer about 3 years old and running Windows ME.

Thanks.

Jean

 

Hi Jean

this does indeed sound like a monitor problem, try dragging a desktop icon around the screen - try it on the left, in the middle, on the right - see if the icon changes size/shape significantly depending upon its position on the screen

if it does change, then surely suspect the monitor. ?is trying a different monitor on that PC out of the question?

another thing you could try easily (without carting another monitor around!): try 800x600 (I think you mean 600?) but at a lower colour depth, ie 16-bit (Hi Colour) or even 256 colour

the colours may not look the same - but it's the screen geometry you are checking; if the width goes back to normal when you do this, check the adapter refresh rate when set for 32-bit colour

(if the refresh rate has somehow got set to a value the monitor cannot cope with you can get width and linearity hassles.)(particularly with older monitors, newer ones tend to be more tolerant)

(find refresh rate: Display Properties > Settings | Advanced (button) > Adapter (tab); if you see the refresh rate isn't "adapter default ", start to be suspicious... and try setting to "adapter default ", apply see if that helps.)

Monitor on the way out is most likely though.

best wishes, HJ.

(PS reckon we might be about to move to hardware perhaps? )

 

Thanks for answering. I'll try to get over soon and help my neighbor work on your suggestions and let you know the outcome shortly.

Thank you.

Jean

 

Jean -

good luck

see if you can get the make and model number for the monitor when you go over, pls?

other thing to check: try Device Manager, by type, to Properties for the monitor. Has Windows recognised it as the type it actually is - or has it gone in as "default monitor "... ie an older unrecognisable type

best wishes, HJ

 

Hi, I did get over to my friend's house with my spare monitor. It definitely was the monitor because everything looked normal on mine. I also took her old one home and put it on my spare computer. The Sony Monitor was distorted just like it was on my friend's. Thanks for your help. She will be looking to purchase another montior shortly.

I do believe she has another problem though because when I tried to open "My Computer" to look at a drive, the computer hung up and and I had to reset it. Also when I tried to go into Windows Explorer after resetting the computer, it hung up again. But this is another problem that I will look into later after they get a new montor.

I was afraid she may have a virus and ran Housecall from the Internet but there were no infected files. My friend doesn't update her Windows Updates or run spyware so later I will check all of these out.

Thanks for helping solve the monitor problem.

Jean

P.S. If I can't get her computer to run properly, I'll write again.

 

Hi Jean

thanks for posting back - well done for sussing the monitor - horizontal scan needs quite a lot of "ooomph" and blows up quite readily - my new Hansol went out a month back under guarantee but took ages to get it changed

good luck with the hangup thing, and best wishes, HJ