Screen Rotated Ninety Degrees

Hi All,

A friend brought me his IBM R50 Series Thinkpad for help with the computer's problem. The OS is WindowsXP Pro SP2. The weird situation is that the screen's information is turned 90 degrees clockwise. The taskbar is along the left side and all desktop icons are at the top of the screen. To read any printing you had to look from the left side across the screen.

According to him, the problem happened when he wanted to go to the Task Manager screen using Control- Alternate-Delete. A program was hung up and he wanted to exit it. He had the Con-Alt keys held down and in moving to the Delete key accidently hit another key. He is not sure which key but that was when the screen flipped.

I was not able to provide any answers, can anyone help him?

 

derfsch--

I have understood you to say that the actual content of the screen is rotated. In other words, to read something normally, you would have to stand the laptop on its side. (Just having the taskbar on a side can be solved by dragging the taskbar, and icons can be moved provided you turn off the various restrictions from right click on Desktop|Arrange Icons By.)

It sounds like the monitor is operating in Portrait rather than Landscape mode.
My desktop monitor can be swivelled 90 degrees and I can then set it to read normally but in Portrait mode. See the instructions for the laptop's screen. This may be online or in a downloadable User's Guide.
For example, my Dell 1704 provides the following
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/1704FPVS/EN/rotating.htm#Rotating

 

To reverse the upside down screen mode, press ctrl, alt and the up arrow (arrows console) at the same time; the screen will probably go blank. Turn off the monitor, turn it on again and the display will be normal again.

The above works I would think that if it is only a 90 degree turn you could try the right or left arrows depending on the direction of the monitor.

 

Problem Solved

Jim,......... Your understanding of the Thinkpad problem is correct. One could stand the laptop on its edge to read normally, but that would make using the keyboard awkward. I did look at the Dell link and it applies to the mechanical rotation of the monitor with some software changes. Impractical and much too complicated for my friend.

balo............ Further searching on my part confirms that your suggestion was the way to go. When I passed on the your approach (by telephone) he called back with the good news that his screen is in the normal position.

Thank you both for your support.