Resolved Screen looks strange

We had a power outage due to an ice storm. I was able to shut down the computer correctly since we have a UPS. After the power came back 16 hours later, we restarted the computer. It booted up but the screen looks strange. The colors are wrong, the background is wrong, and most of the desktop icons are not visible. Only the farthest right column of icons is visible and they are all the way to the left of the screen. I right clicked on the desktop and clicked properties, but they never appeared. Everything almost looks like they do when in safe mode, but it doesn't say safe mode. I'm at a loss on what to do next. Any assistance will be much appreciated.

 

A few additional points. When I opened my browser (Google Chrome) to get on this site, a message appeared across the top saying something like, "The following plug-in has crashed, Shockwave Flash." Also, on my desktop, it appears that perhaps my icons are all off the screen to the left.

 

Your system specs would be helpful (see user control panel to enter specs).

Have you tried a system restore?

The fact that objects on the screen have shifted and colors are all wrong points to either the graphics card or the monitor itself. In a perfect world you would be able to just try another monitor to eliminate that.. but since most people don't have another monitor laying around I would try the restore first, then update monitor drivers, then the graphics drivers (not at the same time because then you wouldn't know what worked - if it works)

Mitch

 

Well, I entered what system details I could. When I downloaded the System Information for Windows, the Setup program opened, I believe, but did so off the screen so I couldn't use it. With the exception of Chrome, pretty much every program I try to open does so off the screen to the left, so I can't see it to use it. I had also thought of doing a System Restore, but when I tried it also opened off the screen.

I anxiously await further suggestions.

 

Yes, the monitor was plugged into the UPS.

I may be able to borrow my mother-in-law's monitor this evening. Other than plugging it int to see if it works, what else should I do?

 

If you are really stuck try as is metioned above to get hold of another moniter if not and you are in a really desperate situation you might have to think about doing a full reinstall of windows...

 

Right on, Pete.... see what another Monitor does is the best idea so far. Sounds to me like he may have fried (or at least sauteed) the electrics in the current monitor.

Happened to me at work last week: monitor was fine at shutdown but when fired back up it had some "very weird" ideas of the colours we'd previously specified. Luckily, once we shut it down a second time and restarted it, a bit of smoke was released which restored the equilibrium of the ether. (Unfortunately, it did NAUGHT for the monitor, which ceased to function on the spot.)

Substitution of another monitor solved all problems, by which we inferred the problem was NOT the video board, nor the computer, but was probably the internal workings of a monitor which had served its time and was now retiring. (Or, perhaps, a Gremlin? One is never quite sure of these things...)

Too bad. I liked that Monitor.

 

Well, I unhooked my monitor and hooked up my mother-in-law's monitor and nothing changed. That seems to have ruled out the monitor as being the problem.

 

Working on it....

 

The latest developments. My son was able to get the rest of the icons back on the visible screen. He clicked on one of the visible ones, used a keyboard shortcut (Control A, I believe) to select all then dragged everything to the right.

So now, the background picture on the desktop is centered and not taking up anywhere close to the whole screen. The rest of the screen is this green color. Everything looks kind of fuzzy.

I tried right clicking on the desktop and clicking on properties to get to the display settings but nothing happens. I was able to open Control Panel, Appearance and Themes, but when I click on Display nothing happens.

We have a program called Webshots Desktop from which we get the photos for the desktop background and screensavers. The icon for that is a camera. That same camera is present right now on the taskbar, but when I click on it nothing happens. I thought I would mention this in case it is relevant to the problem.

I've tried getting into Safe Mode by tapping F8 when booting up but it doesn't work.

My video card is fairly old. If by chance it is the problem, could I just remove it? Would the computer then operate off the onboard video? Would I have to get into the bios to change any settings if I went that route? The computer itself is eight years old. It wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to get a new computer, but I would like to be able to transfer things off this computer if possible.

Thanks in advance for any guidance on this.

 

Ok, the latest. I removed the video card and hooked up to the onboard video. That helped a little. The icons all seem to be on the screen now, but the colors are still strange and stuff is the wrong size. Clicking on the icons does open the programs at least.

When I went to Display Properties, my screen resolution was set at 640X480, with the slider all the way to the left. I was unable to make the slider go to the right to change the resolution. The Color Quality was set at Lowest (4 bit.) The drop down for that had no other choices.

Regarding the UPS not doing its job, it's possible maybe I had something to do with that. After shutting down the computer when the power went out, the UPS kept beeping, I guess to tell me that it was running on its battery. I turned the power button on the UPS off to silence it and didn't turn it back on until the next day when the power came back on. Would the UPS not provide protection against a surge or spike with it turned off?

As far as backing up goes, I have an external hard drive that I back up to once a week. Hopefully that has been working correctly.

I'm feeling that being able to change my screen resolution would help.

I await further advice and say thank you in advance.

 

Intel (R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller

Above is what is listed under Display Adaptors.

I will next try uninstalling and rebooting.

 

I uninstalled the graphics adaptor and rebooted and nothing has changed.