New girl on the board

[justlinda]

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and not all that computer literate. I gave my old computer to my grand-daughter, it's Windows 98. I inadvertantly changed the screen area in the display settings to 640 x 480 from 800 x 600 and now you can't see any info on the desk top, it's just a dark screen with scratchy lines all over it, so I can't even get back into the display to change things back. We've tried opening in safe mode and that is perfectly readable but the computer won't allow changes to the display in that mode.
I have several discs for this computer, including a PC rescue disk, start up disk, disk 1 set-up but they are for windows 95?? can they be used as we have tried to use them but the computer doesn't read them. The tower is on it's side at the moment as it won't fit on the computer desk, is this the reason the disks are not being read? or is it because they're 95 and not 98?
I would really appreciate any help.

Thanks

Linda

[Dan Penny]

Hi Linda. I saw your note to me in the other thread. Yes, you could try the registry roll back. I've just copied the contents of my other post and I'll put it here. If when you try this, if all the dates for restore are ~old~, don't use this yet, and post back.

(Copied from my other thread);

If this freezing has started within the last five days you could try a registry restore.

Registry restore;

Start the computer in RAW DOS. When it first boots, right after the POST screen when it says "Starting Windows 98", hit the Ctrl or F8 key. You have to be quick. You should get the MS Boot Menu. Choose "Command prompt only". When you get the C:\> prompt, type in;

scanreg /restore

and pick a date that preceeds the problem. Any software installs or system changes from the date you pick will have to be redone.

Post back if this gets rid of the problem.

[justlinda]

Thanks Dan, I'll give it a go, but it won't be for a couple of days so hang on for the reply. Cheers

[justlinda]

Hi Dan, unfortunately the scanreg/restore didn't work. Someone else said you had to do it within 5 days and this is day 6. don't know if that's right but it definitely didn't work anyway.
Any other ideas???

[DJNafey]

Your problem appears to be that the refresh rate of the graphics card settings aren't compatible with the monitor. I'm not sure how to explain that very clearly but, basically, your image on your screen is updated dozens of times every second. A typical setting is a refresh rate of 75 Hertz - this means the screen image is recreated 75 times every second. Your eyes see the updates but it's so fast that your brain doesn't actually register it. Different systems support different refresh rates - better graphics cards and better monitors support higher / faster refresh rates. This reduces eye strain or fatigue because, like I said, you can see the screen "flickering" each time it is refreshed - you just don't actually realise that you're seeing it because it's so fast (kind of like when they used to show subliminal images of ice creams at the cinema and you didn't realise that you'd seen it!). Anyway, that sounds like WHAT has happened.

The reason WHY it has happened is because your monitor can only handle certain refresh rates. By changing your display settings, the graphics card appears to now be set to a refresh rate that your monitor can't display.

The SOLUTION to the problem should be as follows. Boot the system up into Safe Mode, like you did before. Go into the display settings and confirm that it is set to 640x480 resolution, 16 colours and then go to the Advanced options and change the Refresh Rate setting to "Default" or "75Hz". Click 'OK' on each of the screens and reboot the PC normally. If that didn't work, reboot the PC and repeat the Safe Mode process again, selecting a different refresh rate. As different systems support different refresh rates, I'm afraid that I can't tell you which one will work.

Once you've got it working properly, go back to the display settings and put it back to 800x600 resolution with an appropriate number of colours and an appropriate refresh rate. To know what is "appropriate", you may need to consult the documentation for your system.

Incidentally, this problem is often caused if the correct drivers for your graphics card and monitor are not installed. If the Display Settings screen, above where it shows the resolution, says something like "Default monitor" or "Plug 'n' Play monitor" or "Standard PCI graphics adapter", then you often won't have the right settings available for your system.

Hope that helps

[justlinda]

[]WOW!, you're a clever lot on here aren't you thank goodness.
I'll certainly try it DJ, thanks very much. I'll let you know if it works.

[Dan Penny]

"WOW!, you're a clever lot on here aren't you thank goodness."

Well, we're* trying to make it one of the top help forums on the net.

* I'm new here myself. I don't know if I can be considered one of the "we're". I've been on help boards since roughly 1999 or 2000 and just found this one recently. It's quickly becoming one of my favourites.

[DJNafey]

Originally Posted by Dan Penny

I don't know if I can be considered one of the "we're".

The way I've seen you sweeping through that Windows 98 board, I think you're in with a chance of being considered part of the "we're" quite soon Dan

[D-A-L]

It's quickly becoming one of my favourites.

Glad you like it here Dan, your certainly adding a lot of value to the forum

[Dan Penny]

Thank You Both, very much.

I'll admit up front; "I Have An Addiction" to computers and to help forums! ;>)