I have just gotten my computer upgraded and noticed that I can change the screen resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 High Colour. I normally use my computer at 800 x 600 because after that I find it hard to read what is being displayed on the monitor because the letters are too small. The other day I wanted to see what the screen looked like at the highest resolution (1280 x 1024) but when I put the screen at this resolution the monitor went berserk and I couldn’t distinguish anything on it. I rebooted but it still was like that when the Windows 98 desktop loaded. Now I can’t use my computer because I can’t see anything on the monitor! Could you please help me restore it back to normal?

The best way to tackle your problem would be to boot your computer up in Windows Safe Mode. This is a special diagnostic mode of Windows which only loads the minimum amount of drivers needed to startup Windows. In this mode when the Windows desktop is loaded it will only load at 640 x 480 with 256 colours. When the computer has loaded, go into the Windows Control Panel and open ‘Display’ then click on the ‘Settings’ tab. Under ‘Color’ it should have a drop down box and displayed in it ‘256 colours’. Click the down arrow in the drop down box and select ‘High Color 16-bit’, click ‘OK’ and reboot your computer. When the desktop has loaded, it might be displayed only at 640 x 480 High Color. In this case, follow the previous instructions to get into the Display Settings. Under the ‘Screen Area’ section, use the slider to select the correct resolution for your purposes. NB: Make sure though that you don’t select 1280 x 1024 again.