Unknown said:
OK, this happen last night when I was trying to change the fonts of my screen..but
then instead of changing the fonts I changed the resolution instead (thinking it
would work) then I clicked apply then all went Out of Range. I tried restarting my
computer it load for few seconds then the message shows up (Out Of Range). Then,
I searched up on google on how to fix this kind of stuff and one of them says I
need to connect the computer to another monitor, which I don't have and F8 for
safe mode but no luck..
Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem..=(
Thanks in advance.
Suziiee
EggHeadCafe
This is just a guess.
One approach might be, to boot into Safe Mode (press F8 during startup),
and use System Restore to return the computer to a restore point just
before you changed the resolution. Such an approach relies on an appropriate
restore point being available. If you normally leave System Restore disabled (such
as might happen after fighting with some malware), you might not have
a restore point to rely on. So a working System Restore could make
solving this pretty easy.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449
My guess is, the resolution choice is stored in the registry. So if
there was some way to edit the registry, it may be possible to
correct the setting there. But I'm not sure that all graphics devices
store the information in exactly the same format in the registry.
So it may not be possible to give instructions for correcting
it that way. (There was one user, who made me aware of some registry
keys that could be deleted, for an Intel built-in graphics chip, but
I couldn't find similar entries for my ATI AGP card.)
If you start in Safe Mode, I don't think you can correct the
resolution setting at that time, because the video driver wouldn't
be loaded. And that is the reason for starting in Safe Mode in the
first place. So Safe Mode should give you a usable monitor, but
it may not allow the usual Windows controls to correct the situation.
That is why I'm thinking that System Restore (rstrui.exe program),
is one way to fix it, while in Safe Mode.
Uninstalling the video card driver, while in Safe mode, may not
correct the situation either. Because, as soon as you reinstall
the driver, the old preferences will remain stored in the
registry. If the video driver was careful to remove *all*
video card related registry content, then that would be a potential
solution. But I don't think that will work. So I'm not suggesting that
as a Safe Mode solution (uninstall/reinstall driver).
Doing a "Repair Install" of WinXP is another solution, but that is
pretty extreme, and is hopefully unnecessary.
Paul