Need computer help - blurry text.

[TNDemo]

Last night my daughter's computer flickered, went black and then came back up with all text blurry. The icons and pictures are fine. We did all the typical spyware running stuff and rebooted but it's still the same thing. Any ideas on what happened and how to fix it?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Could be...

The flyback transformer in the monitor going. Fear not. There are cheap answers here:

http://www.azatek.com

[Spinzonner]

3. If the graphics are OK, why would the monitor be bad

Windows doesnt use the charcater generators of old type monitors. It sounds more like either a software/font issue or perhaps a graphics card issue - maybe configuration, though I discount the latter.

I would run a virus scan, and try reinstalling the graphics card driver.

Might also check the Display settings in Control Panel.

What version of Windows ?

[TNDemo]

4. Um, 98 I think.

How do you reinstall the graphics card driver? The problem with checking settings is that all the text is blurry and I can't read it.

[Spinzonner]

6. What happens if you reboot into Safe Mode ?

Also, I Googled "windows blurry text"

One interesting possibility was:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q224507

It doesnt make sense to me that you would have a bad monitor and still be able to see an otherwise decent screen image for graphics elements.

[TNDemo]

7. How do I choose to reboot in safe mode?

Especially since I can't read text?

[Spinzonner]

8. try

http://www.pchell.com/support/safemode.shtml

[TNDemo]

9. OK - rebooted into safe mode.

Can read the text but it's huge. What next?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. Right click on the desktop and choose Properties.

Click on the Settings tab. See if you can adjust your display settings. Or what do the settings say?.

[TNDemo]

12. Under display it said "unknown monitor or unknown device."

There were 16 colors. The screen area said 640x480 pixels and had a less and more tab on each side but it would not work. Under the advanced tab I had an option to make the font smaller (it had been 125%) so I did that. That was really the only choice I got, probably because I was in safe mode. It is now rebooting. Let's see what happens.

BTW - thanks for all this help.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

13. That's right about Safe Mode. Reboot into Windows and try it.

[slackmaster]

2. Sounds like your monitor is going bad

Hardware problem. If slapping it doesn't help, you probably need a new one.

[Spinzonner]

5. Delete

Wrong reply

[Crazy Guggenheim]

11. Bump.