Alright-here's the deal. One night it was stormin a tad, mainly just a lot of wind. The computer was off, and the power blinked at our house. After that, the computer got unplugged incase the weather got real ugly. This all happened when I was gone. I get home, go to turn on the computer and now its messed all up. It starts up and everything like normal, but when the screen that has the user names that you click on for your settings is supposed to come up-the screen goes totaly dark and I get a message like this-

60.1 KHz, 75.1Hz
Frequency out of Range
Try other Resolutions

And it just blinks on and off real slow, thats all it does.
I also noticed the screen shape or whatever you would call it, went from a square shape that I had it set at, to an almost egg shape with the top and bottom cut off.

Also, when I would turn on just the monitor, and not the tower, it is light gray and says "31K" in black text right in the middle. Ive never noticed if it always did this with the tower off, but I always thought the screen just stayed black when I did that.

Everything was plugged into a surge bar, and it all still powers up and everything.

So for now I have the OLD tower hooked up. Windows 95, 256 KB ram, 20 gig HD-all old skool like. And old skool is usually cool--this just sucks a$$

Thanks.

 

sounds like your video card is going out of range...
Probably got changed from a surge. So when it loads the video driver then it loads those setttings. When this happens it ussually drops down to 16 colors, and 640x480 res. This is to low for some newer monitors especialy a flat panel.

Can you boot in safe mode?
If so then go in and adjust your video settings on your card. Then reboot.

If not then try putting an old skool monitor "the older the better" as long as it os capable of atleast 16 bit, 800x600. That will get it in range for your monitor to recieve the signal.

If you don't have an old skool monitor and it's still not working, then you may have to go into the bios and change it.



When my wifes laptop is docked then the external monitor will flash "out of range" then come on and say "new mode" then boot as normal. I can't figure that out. But it's always done it on every monitor and I've put 3 on it.

I hope this helps...

 

Ill try that later tonight maybe. When its like booting up and stuff I can hit the Esc or Enter key or something like that to go into a menu to get it to start in Safe Mode, correct?

QUOTE "If you don't have an old skool monitor and it's still not working, then you may have to go into the bios and change it."

Hmm, Bios?? Lol, please tell me what your talking about in English. I barley know crap about computers.

Thanks a ton Matt.

 

Bios, shadow, and CMOS will be a last resorts... There is some risk involved with them. So lets try the others first. We'll also try updating the video drivers then reinstalling the video drivers first too.

Definition of Bios provided by Answers.com
BIOS (bī'ōs)
n.
Pronounced "bye-ose,"
The set of routines stored in read-only memory that enable a computer to start the operating system and to communicate with the various devices in the system, such as disk drives, keyboard, monitor, printer, and communications ports.

(Basic Input Output System) An essential set of routines in a PC, which is stored on a chip and provides an interface between the operating system and the hardware. The BIOS supports all peripheral technologies and internal services such as the realtime clock (time and date).

On startup, the BIOS tests the system and prepares the computer for operation by querying its own small CMOS memory bank for drive and other configuration settings. It searches for other BIOS's on the plug-in boards and sets up pointers (interrupt vectors) in memory to access those routines. It then loads the operating system and passes control to it. The BIOS accepts requests from the drivers as well as the application programs.

BIOSs must periodically be updated to keep pace with new peripheral technologies. If the BIOS is stored on a ROM chip (ROM BIOS), it must be replaced. Newer BIOSs are stored on a flash memory chip that can be upgraded via software.




Every company uses different key strokes to enter safe mode. but it's ussually like Esacpe or F8 or something.

 

Ahh.. I see, I see. So if you mess that stuff up your pretty much screwed, ehh.

Hopefully tonight Ill get a chance to try starting it in Safe Mode and see what I can do.

Thanks

 

F8, if it's XP, the best thing to do is go into device manager and uninstall your video adaptor and reboot, it will redetect it and set the refresh rate at 60 Hz, you can bump it up to something acceptable from there.

 

Alright heres what I did last night. I can get it to run in safe mode. Once I got it in safe mode this is what I did-maybe Im doing stuff all wrong. Right clicked ont the desktop and clicked 'Properties' which brought up the Display Properties box. Clicked on the 'Settings' tab then messed around with the color pallete and desktop area. Tried a bunch of different settings and restarted after all of them, still the same deal. Then, in the same place, I clicked the 'Advanced Properties" button and clicked the "Adapters" tab. Clicked on a button (cant remember what it said) and it brought up a window where I could select a bunch of different resolutions and colors. I could select one, click apply, and it would either bring up the "freq. out of range" message I was getting in the first place, or it would adjust the screen settings. I thought I was getting somewhere there, especially when I put it on 600x800, TrueColor 32 but I believe it was, and my screen went to normal shape and stuff. Applied it, restarted the computer, and I ended up getting the same message that I did in the first place.

So, was I doing it right and that wasnt the problem, or did I do stuff wrong or what?

Thanks for the help.

 

Sounds like it's not remembering the settings so it is going to default.

Go back to safe mode
Print this off and try this or have on another computer to follow along.

Make sure that you have the CD for the adapter and your XP disk handy. If you do not have a cd then you may end up haveing to find and download the drivers off the net. on another computer and burn a cd. If this is the adapter that came with the system then the adapter will be on your OEM XP disk.

1. Right click on My Computer
2. Go to properties
3. Click on the hardware tab
4. Click on device manager
5. Click on Display adapter (here you should see your adapter listed)
6. Right click on your adapter
7. Click on update driver
8. Follow the wizard.
   (it may ask for the adapter CD and/or Windows XP disk)

If that dont work....

• repeat steps 1-6
• Click on uninstall
• reboot

If it don't find video card when it reboots then the card is likely bad, if it does find the card but can't find the drivers when it reboots, then you will have to use one of the cd's.

 

Alrighty, Im going to give that a try right now. Thanks.

 

Alright, I'm getting ready to leave for the evening. If that dont work let me know and I'll post another suggestion tomarrow. But if that don't work, then it is starting to get serious...

 

Well, hopefully your not gone yet, anyway, I was looking through all the disk and the only one we have is a system restore disk, and I remember now this is the only disk that came with the computer.

In the manual for the computer is says it will restore software including XP, and also restore lost or destroyed drivers. Im assuming this is the disk I need, and it just has both of the disk you are mentioning on one disk kinda?

Anyway, maybe this isnt the right disk, but I tried the first thing with this disk and it said there were no updates.

So since in the manual it says this disk restores lost or destroyed drivers, when I do the second method (uninstalling the driver) and have this disk in when I restart the computer, would it be the same??

Thanks for all the help.

 

Sorry just got back... yes that is the disk you will need. It will have your drivers on it if it is the video card that came with the computer. So if it ask for it after you have uninstalled the drivers and it finds it again. Then that is the one that you will put in. Do not start the computer with that cd in the drive. It could start to format the hard drive. If you have to restart then take it out first and wait until it ask for it.

 

Alright, Ill give that a shot later. Thanks

 

No problem, let me know how it goes.

 

Alright, I tried the update driver method and it did nothing. So I did the Unistall method, restarted it and it worked. Everything was normal (icons were a little bigger than I remember them being) and on the right side of the task bar it said it found a new device and was installing it, then a window popped up and said I needed the restart the computer. I thought I was in business about that time. I restart, and same old "Freq. out of range" message comes up.

So I try it again. Same deal.
Right now Im on the computer, did the unistall and restarted it and thats how im running it now. A little monitor icon with some colors on it is showing up on the right side of the taskbar and when I hover my mouse over it Intel Extreme Graphics comes up.

So, bad video card you think?

Thanks a million