Lost Monitor Settings & Touchpad Function (suddenly)

3372 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by shadow121, Sep 4, 2005

glomedia

Discussion Starter · Aug 26, 2005

I turned on my laptop this morning (a Dell Latitude running Windows 98) and some things seemed to have suddenly changed overnight.

My display changed to 16-color, my display resolution changed to 400x600 (icons & text really big), and I lost all touch pad capability (no mouse pointers anymore -- have to navigate by keyboard only). I changed everything back to what it was via the Control Panel settings; but when I restart the laptop it reverts to these odd settings.

I don't know where to begin to troubleshoot this. Does anyone have any ideas?
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P.S. For those interested in some extra info: I hadn't installed any new hardware or software lately, and despite the above, my programs seem to be working fine.

A couple strange things happened though (occurring this morning, at the same time as the monitor/touchpad issues): (1) when I first turned on my laptop, it asked if I wanted to assign a password (even though I've been signing in with one for a LONG time - does it think I'm an additional user, but with the same name, who has different display settings?). (2) I can't seem to start up in safe mode (by holding CTRL while restarting). (3) The Windows 98 Troubleshooters don't work (the ones that ask a bunch of questions and then give options based on your answer -- the screen of questions appears but not the subsequent screens).

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ebackhus

· #2 · Aug 26, 2005

Have you run a virus scan on it? The OS may also be corrupted now. To access Safe mode you press F8.

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shadow121

· #3 · Aug 28, 2005 (Edited)

glomedia said:
I turned on my laptop this morning (a Dell Latitude running Windows 98) and some things seemed to have suddenly changed overnight.

My display changed to 16-color, my display resolution changed to 400x600 (icons & text really big), and I lost all touch pad capability (no mouse pointers anymore -- have to navigate by keyboard only). I changed everything back to what it was via the Control Panel settings; but when I restart the laptop it reverts to these odd settings.

I don't know where to begin to troubleshoot this. Does anyone have any ideas?
_____________________

P.S. For those interested in some extra info: I hadn't installed any new hardware or software lately, and despite the above, my programs seem to be working fine.

A couple strange things happened though (occurring this morning, at the same time as the monitor/touchpad issues): (1) when I first turned on my laptop, it asked if I wanted to assign a password (even though I've been signing in with one for a LONG time - does it think I'm an additional user, but with the same name, who has different display settings?). (2) I can't seem to start up in safe mode (by holding CTRL while restarting). (3) The Windows 98 Troubleshooters don't work (the ones that ask a bunch of questions and then give options based on your answer -- the screen of questions appears but not the subsequent screens).

Try this only for your graphic problem and if you have your graphics driver on cd..

Note: I cant remember if there is a hardware tab in win 98. if not just click device manager

Right click on the My computer icon>properties>hardware> device manager>display adapters>expand by clicking on the + symbol>rightclick your display device and choose uninstall> reboot and the the drivers should reinstall

For your touch pad problem what model of latitude are you using

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glomedia

Discussion Starter · #4 · Sep 4, 2005 (Edited)

Problem Solved!

Thank you ebackhus and shadow121 for your help. ebackhus, thanks for straightening me out on the F8 key. No wonder I couldn't get into safe mode by pressing CTRL; it was the wrong key! Also, a virus scan was one of the first things I wanted to do, but I couldn't navigate the GUI of my anti-virus app without touchpad functions. However, now that everything is back to normal, I was able to do a complete virus scan. It showed that my system is virus-free.

Everything is now working as usual. Shortly after I posted here, I found these instructions on another web site, so I tried them first:

1. Restart the computer and press the F8 key before Windows begins loading.
2. Choose Command prompt only.
3. Type Scanreg /Restore and press Enter.
4. Choose a Registry backup dated prior to the problem occurring.

It worked! I did the above almost a week ago and everything has been fine ever since.

shadow121, thank you for the instructions on how to reinstall drivers. In fact, an assistant at the Dell forum suggested reinstalling the video and touchpad drivers; but she gave no instruction on how to do it, so I didn't have a clue. I'll definitely be saving your instructions for future reference. However, you mentioned that the drivers need to be on CD in order to reinstall. Would they be on the Windows 98 CD, or would Dell have supplied a drivers CD with the laptop? (I bought the laptop from a place that sells off-lease computers, so I only received the Windows 98 CD.)

Thanks again!

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shadow121

· #5 · Sep 4, 2005

The drivers would have come on it's own cd.

Glad you are working again and to have helped you

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