I'm having PC problems again. It's been a while since I last posted, and the help I received was great! My Gateway PC tower is about 5 years old. About two years ago, I decided to upgrade my monitor and buy a Gateway Flat Screen/Panel monitor. It's been working great until now. I don't know if it's my monitor, or my actual computer.

About a few weeks ago I booted up my computer and noticed the resolution wasn't all there. The best way I can really describe it, it looks like the computer is in 'Safe Mode', but I assure you it's not. It just has that 'Safe Mode' resolution, or another way to describe it, is it looks like the resolution from a really old CRT monitor. I don't know if my monitor is going out or if it's my actual computer. The monitor is only two years old. I read on the internet somewhere that it could be something with the video card. Is that possible?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

UPDATE:

I attached a picture below. It's a picture of the smilies when I was making the post. I don't know if this is of help or not. I also noticed when I was restarting my computer because of a windows update. The resolution kept jumping back to normal to what it is now back and forth, until it finally stayed back to problematic. So now i'm thinking it might not be the monitor.

Hi again,

It could be something as simple as your screen resolution being set incorrectly. Test this theory by doing the following;

1) Minimize all applications so that you can see the desktop.
2) Right-click anywhere on the desktop background (not on an icon).
3) In the resulting pop-up menu, choose Properties. This will open the Display Properties dialog box.
4) In the Display Properties dialog box, select the Settings tab.
5) In the Settings tab, in the lower left corner, is a "slider" which allows you to change the screen resolution.
6) Slide this control to the left to decrease the screen resolution and to the right to increase the resolution. The resolution will only change in preset steps usually starting with 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and getting increasingly larger. IT is recommending at least 1024x768 unless you have a specific reason to use a lower resolution.
8) Try changing the resolution one step at a time. Click the Apply button to actually change the screen resolution.
9) If you see a message asking if you want to keep the new settings, click the Yes button within 15 seconds. (If you don't want to keep the changed screen resolution, either click the No button or wait 15 seconds and the change will be reset to what it was before.)
10) Keep sliding the resolution control one step at a time until you are satisfied. (Repeat steps 7 & 8.)
11) When done, click the OK button to close the Display Properties dialog box.

I went ahead and did what you described, and that didn't help the problem at all.

Now you need to tell us the exact model number of that Gateway.

Well the Monitor is a FPD1760 TFT LCD Color Monitor.

The actual tower is a RWL D0303

Sorry, but I can find no details on that product number. Can you go here: Gateway Computers & Home Electronics: Laptops, Notebooks, Monitors, Desktops, All-in-one, One, Displays - enter your PC serial number into the support section and then follow the links to the downloads. When in the downloads section for your PC, download the latest VGA driver for your PC and install it.