Monitor Says Out of Range

[pp79wc]

Just reformatted and installed WinXP pro yesterday. Last night my daughter changed the screensaver and now the monitor will only say "Out of Range". Tried restarting the pc - same result. Tried restarting in safe mode - same result. I'm thinking I should take out the video card and then put it back in to reset it, but I'm not really sure that will work. Does anybody know what's wrong?

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers pp79wc

Safe mode should most certainly work and not produce the out of range error. Are you sure she hasn't been fiddling with the menu system on the monitor itself?

Try unplugging the monitor from the computer and from the power. Start up the computer - without the monitor attached. Then use the powerswitch to shut it down after a minute or two. Now plug the monitor back in and try for safe mode again.

[mib]

Just reformatted and installed WinXP pro yesterday. Last night my daughter changed the screensaver and now the monitor will only say "Out of Range". Tried restarting the pc - same result. Tried restarting in safe mode - same result. I'm thinking I should take out the video card and then put it back in to reset it, but I'm not really sure that will work. Does anybody know what's wrong?

My suggestion might seem pretty obvious, but does your motherboard have a built-in video card?

When you install a PCI-based (expansion slot) video card, which I think you have, the built-in video card is automatically deactivated.

This might sound silly, but a lot of people (me included) sometimes plug the monitor cable into the deactivated built-in video card, instead of the one installed in the expansion slot. Thus, the "Out of Range" error.

Check how many video connectors you have, and if you have two, connect the monitor cable to the other one.