Black

[Grappledog]

Hey,

I have been looking for suggestions on an issue I am experiencing .

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100-WIndows XP Home edition. Lap top is nearly 3 years old. I purchased it refurbished.

 

Problem: I turn the PC on, it goes through there normal start up process. HOWEVER, when its time to go to the desk top, the screen is black...NOTHING. I contacted Dell, they had me go into safe mode then uninstall the "Display Adapter" then restart the PC.

Well, it worked and I was able to do normal things, but....I noticed the all Icon’s are to big. I changed them through the setting but there is now only Three different choices. If I select smaller, the icons look bent and some what blurry.

 

SO....I system restored the pc and did what Dell support had me do. It works but lasts short term for some reason.

 

This began 7 days ago. It happened when I was in Iraq but kind of went away on its own. Weird....

 

Let me know if you can help or have can point me in the right direction. Dell support gave me one free call as I have been in the Middle East for the last Three years. Not looking for free bees, Just assistance.

 

Thanks...

[Cybersun]

I thought this forum was for people with Windows on a Mac? There are other forums for people with PC's...

[Metrogirl]

I thought this forum was for people with Windows on a Mac? There are other forums for people with PC's...

 

Well - the forum started out as a discussion point for MacOSX on a Windows PC, then Windows on a Mac followed. But this sub-forum is for anything to do with Windows on any platform, so the post is just fine.

 

@Grappledog - This may sound very basic, but it looks to me as if you have a problem with your settings. The reinstallation of the display driver has probably defaulted to the wrong resoluion, hence the big and distorted icons. Find out your screen's native resolution, 1024x768 for example, and set your display properties to that. If it had set itself to 800x600 that would explain the big icons and the distortion. Changing icon size in the settings usually isn't all that satisfactory.

 

Occasionally some third party software changes the display resolution while it runs (a lot of games do this) and they might fail to restore it properly afterwards. That might give you a clue to what's going on.

 

Just occasionally laptops have a problem with the plug(s) where the ribbon cable snaps into the motherboard. Some IBM Thinkpads had this issue a year or two ago. That produces a smearing of the display, but I wouldn't go pulling the thing to bits until you've tried all the available setting options.