I have a Compaq DeskPro EN with a Ultra VGA 1280 monitor. My son was playing on it and now the monitor is not working. It displays the start up screen fine but when Windows actually loads, I cannot make out the desktop or see the mouse pointer. The screen is flasing and has wavy patterns going across it. How do I change whatever he may (or may not) have changed back to what it was? :eek: Thanks for any suggestions you may have...

Sound like refresh rate may have been changed

First thing to try is to get into safe mode to see if you can get a usable windows to work n

Start the PC and

Start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message.

To resolve this, restart the computer and try again.
Ensure that the Safe mode option is selected.
Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode

I assume you are using XP.
-Right click on desktop and choose properties
-Go to the Settings tab and click on Advanced at the bottom
-Click on the Monitor tab and look for the Refresh Rate.
-Move the refresh rate to 60hz and click apply
-Close all windows and restart the PC

If this does not help, shut down PC and start in safe mode again
-Once in safe mode, click start, go to settings and click control panel
-In control panel,click the system icon and then the hardware tab then click Device Manager
-go to display adapter and click plus sign next to it if it is not already viewable with a yellow mark
-right click on the display adapter and choose the uninstall option and say OK
-close all windows and restart PC, all should be OK

Post back, hope this helps

Thank you so much for your help! I wasn't able to change the refresh rate but I was able to do a system restore from safe mode. That fixed whatever the problem was. I forgot all about running windows in safe mode. Thank you!

Glsd yougot it working, you should make a system resotre with today's date so you know when the last restore date was made and know it works for you

I will be sure to do that. I appricate your advise, I'd be lost without ya'!