Computers, can anyone help??

[Cath (Lizzy)]

Hi, I seriously need help, I turned my computer on today and all the icons on the screen came up around 3 times biger, it’s a windows pc anyone know who to fix it Please? Al soeverything seems to have gotten bigger on the internet, I’ve tried changing the text size but that doesn’t help.

[Spy_Master]

ok I can help u there, it would be helpful 2 know wot version of windows ur running but I'll try anyway

Go to the control panel
Go display
Settings
and then fiddle around with the screen resolution until it looks right

My computer did that once and not knowing how 2 fix it I used windows xp's settings restorer but not knowing if u have windows xp that may or may not be an option 4 u.
Hope that helps if it doesn't I'll c wot else I can think of
Spy_Master100880

[Steve]

It sounds like your screen resolution has somehow changed. Most people use 800 x 600 pixels, or 1024 x 768 but it sounds like yours is set to 640 x 480.

If you right-click on the desktop and select Properties, and then click on the Settings tab, it will show you the screen resolution. Move the slider to 800 x 600 and then click on Apply. After you click on Apply, it will tell you that Windows is going to resize your desktop - it's very simple, so just take notice of what the message says and you will be ok.

If it still doesn't look right, then do it again but this time change it to 1024 x 768.

If that still doesn't work then let me know which operating system you use, i.e. Windows 98 or Windows XP or whatever, because you may have to do a System Restore, and the method is different for each operating system. Hopefully though, changing the screen resolution back to where it should be should fix it.

While I was writing that, SpyMaster replied and she says the same thing. If it's good enough for Spymaster then it's good enough for me, so give it a try.

[Steve]

I think that's pretty amazing. I'm a professional electronics engineer so I'm expected to know about this stuff. SpyMaster is an English schoolgirl goalie but she made exactly the same response, covering the same points - screen resolution needs changing - knowing the operating system would help - system restore may be required.

You're a phenomenon, SpyMaster, and no mistake.

[Spy_Master]

Thanks Steve but it wasn't all that hard, I mean it was something that had happened 2 me so I knew wot was wrong and how 2 fix it.
I don't really think I am a phenomenon, I just knew it so I tried 2 help. You've embarrassed me now lol
Spy_Master100880

[JJD lover]

aww spymasters gone ;D

[Cath (Lizzy)]

Tanks you all so much! It's kinda worked (it's the right colour but it's still arboud 3 times to big.

Thanks spy_master and Steve, by the way was a Ms-dos computer but we upgraded it to a windows 95 I've no idea what went wrong but it's over 10years old so I think it's kinda having a natural death. Thanks again.

[Steve]

It's beginning to sound like your graphics card driver may have become corrupted. If that happens, then when you go to change the screen resolution you will probably find that the only option you have will be 640x480, and the higher resolutions either won't be there or they will be greyed out, meaning that you can't select them, so I wonder if that is what you found.

Also, you would probably find that your colour depth would be limited to 16 colours, and the higher colour depths (256 colours, 16-bit colour, 32-bit colour) would all be missing.

If that is the case then you would need to re-install the driver for your graphics card. With a computer that age, it would likely be on a floppy disk which you would have got with the computer, or with the graphics card, if you added that later.

If you don't have the driver, you can almost always find them online and download them. You would need to know the name and model number of the graphics card though. You can find that out by going to My Computer - Control Panel - System - Device Manager. Then click on the little plus sign beside Display Adapters. Then highlight the adapter which is shown there and then click on Properties. Device Status will tell you if the card is working normally or not. Clicking on the Driver tab will tell you which driver is installed for it, and clicking on the Resources tab will tell you what resources are allocated to it. If the card is not working, then it may say that no resources are allocated as there is a problem with the device (more likely a problem with the driver).

If you're running Windows 95, and if you know how to navigate through MS-DOS, then you have the option to restore the registry from a backup. MS-DOS isn't a good place to be though unless you have a good idea what you are doing so I won't go into that right now. If there is somebody there who can use DOS then let me know and I'll go through the steps to do a registry restore.

I'm typing a lot in here because I won't be around after this evening as I fly abroad tomorrow (England!). I'll be around this evening though if you have any questions.

[Cath (Lizzy)]

Thanks again for the advice, I managed to get it up the a bigger number if pixies and then I made everything smaller manualy so it's kinda working. We don't have any of the graphics card stuff or we wouldn't know it. Thanks for the advice but I live in a town where if the computer breaks you hit it (and thats the computer repair team!) so I'll stick with it the way it is, so long as it doesn't go on fire it's all good.