Graphics card / Resoluton = Please Save Me!

[Rips]

I'm a computer noob, and I need someone's help badly. Over time, my computer resolution has been screwing up. The screen would go really big and look jumbo size, and quickly go back to normal after seconds. It usually happends when I open FFXI. Now today, I got an error message. I forget what it said but it said either send error report or ignore. Something like that. I clicked ignore like the other million error messages I get and it usually goes away. (I know I shouldn't do that.) It said something like my graphic card being reset. My resolution was then permenantly huge and screwed up. My friend taught me how to change my resolution over msn and said play around with it. Bad idea.

Now, the screen went 100% black with a little blue square in the middle saying "Out of Range". If I restart my computer, instead of the normal screen, I get that black screen again. I'm soo screwed, and I was wondering if anyone knew what to do. I'd really apperciate it.

Edit: I'm on my laptop now.

Thanks

 

[Rips]

bump.

 

[Darkdante]

Hook your computer up to another monitor. If it works it's the monitor.

 

[Anttaru]

I'll help you. Just need/want to know What kind of Graphics card are you running and what resolution did you set it to ?

 

[CmdrFly]

Now, the screen went 100% black with a little blue square in the middle saying "Out of Range". If I restart my computer, instead of the normal screen, I get that black screen again.

Next time you're turning your computer on, boot into Safe Mode. To do this, as soon as your computer turns on, start mashing the F5 key as if it just raped your entire family and the only way you can exact revenge is to tap it on the forehead until it self-destructs.

Eventually you should be presented with a list of Windows boot options. One of them will say "Start Windows XP in Safe Mode".

There are others, such as "Safe Mode with Networking" and "Safe Mode with Command Prompt". You don't need these, just regular old Safe Mode is fine.

It will spit out a bunch of lines of text and eventually you'll be in Windows, in all it's 640x480 glory. Change your resolution again to something low - 800x600 or so. It will not change until you reboot.

So... reboot. Do not mash F5 this time, let it boot up normally. You should be tossed into Windows at a res of 800x600.