Laptop screen gone wrong!

MissSarah151

Arrowsmith: oh ok doke - it's not giving me the option to go to 1280x800 -how do I go about re-installing the video driver?

Closed: Thank you for putting the picture up for me!

Sarah

arrowsmith

You'll find the vga drivers here:

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/drivers

Enter the model of your laptop and operating system (vista) it'll bring a list of drivers up.

There are two different ones, Intel and Nvidia. Depends on the specification of your laptop to which the right one is. In the windows device manager it should tell you which one. Alternatively just try the intel one first and if it still doesn't work, try the nvidia.

Download the driver and open it when it's finished downloading.

Once installed most likely the resolution will change to what it should be or manually adjust it.

Ratboy

Sorry for not explaining further, Sarah, judging by the way the screen is shifted in the picture, I don't believe it to be a driver error, otherwise the driver would be stalled when you check your processes out, and that hasn't been mentioned.

The invertor is a transformer that powers the screen/tubes for the screen, and if is shorted out, then that is the image it might give? (A long shot I know).

You say you got it working temporarily by pressing various things? It's located top centre of the screen (usually), so if the screen has been slammed closed, it might have disturbed it, so try tapping in this area or the bottom frame of the screen, quite hard, but not violently! And see if the screen shifts in any way, kill or cure..but you can always attach an external monitor, and see if that looks the same (to prove or disprove the driver theory), OR there may be a BIOS issue, enter BIOS at boot up, f1, f2 , f12, or DEL, whatever it says, and restore settings to default.

I know it's a lot of contradictory information, but at least you have a 'to do' list, of practical information, and hopefully not overload! Easiest is to plug it into a monitor. Hit it, or reset BIOS. As you said it started working again. For a bit. Good luck!

closed

if the inverter wasn't working, the dog (and backlight) wouldn't be visible.

Lum

The thing puzzling me about this one is that the screen appears to be misreporting its size to the operating system, as well as not showing anything on the right/bottom edges.

What happens if you forcibly override the screen resolution?

Right click desktop -> screen resolution -> Advanced Settings -> Monitor
Untick "hide modes this monitor can't display"
Pick 1280x800 @ 60Hz

If it screws up, do not touch the keyboard, just wait and it should change back.

MissSarah151

ok - I've tried downloading the drivers but nothing happened.
it's like it downloaded but didn't install - I've maybe not done it right?

Ratboy- yeah it says the device is working properly. tapping didn't help (worth a shot!). yes - it was fine again for a bit, switched it off and then when I turned it on the next day it was wrong again!

Lum: Thanks, I will try that now

MissSarah151

ok - unticked that box but there was no option to change to 1280x800. don't know what this means but got this message "your current display driver does not allow changes to be made to hardware acceleration settings" - that's when I attempted to troubleshoot.

it can't be anything physical because it went back to normal temporarily, I've not dropped it or slammed the lid or spilt anything on it! It's frustrating!

S

Lum

Do you know which graphics card is in the laptop?

To find out: Start -> right click My Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> click the little arrow next to Display Adapters.

MissSarah151

it is: mobile Intel (R) 945GM express chipset family

Ratboy

closed wrote: »

if the inverter wasn't working, the dog (and backlight) wouldn't be visible.

I didn't say the invertor wasn't working; please read. I said if the invertor had an internal short. That means that it still works, but not as designed.

It's like the coil in your car, they either work, fail, or if they short out, a bit, they still work, but cause a misfire, hence in this case.

There is no need to be personal, we all make educated guesses, without being able to examine.

The OP can examine the advice given to her; decide which option she decides is the the best option. I'm not up for an argument, just giving my opinion, you are clearly available to disagree, but not slag me off, or contort what I said.

Please READ posts before posting?