Laptop problems

[ebiskup]

I was given a Toshiba, Satellite Pro, 490CDT and I've been trying to make it work for a home computer until I can purchase an upgrade. PROBLEM: I had been having problems with getting the system to boot up and one day it came up in DOS and just when the seconds were running out I accidently hit a key which put me into "safe mode". I do not understand that either. Anyway I was limited as to what I could do. A friend help get me back to operating so that I could get a few things done however, 1) my screen has a black border all the way around it. 2) I noticed that my picture resolution is not the same and I cannot go into display and change it. 3) I also noticed that I cannot change the time when I hit apply or reboot. The color is really noticeable with pictures or just plain internet sites. I believe that I'm operating with windows 98. Now remember, if you try and help me, you really need to spell out how to get somewhere and exactly what to do when I get there. How can I get rid of this black border and get better resolution? Thanks for some much needed help!

[GaryRouth]

Welcome to the Pc Mechanic forums.

If the laptop was working mostly OK when you 1st got it, see if restoring the Registry from a saved copy helps. It sounds like the video driver is a bit off at the moment. [This will be just a quick stab at a fix - if it works, great. But it might be that you have troubleshooting in your future]

Here's what you do:
1) Start your computer - Safe Mode Windows, normal Windows, either will do.
2) After it has started OK, press the Start button, select Shutdown, and then from the Shutdown menu, select "Restart Computer in DOS mode".
3) From the C: prompt, type in

scanreg/restore

and choose a date from the list displayed that is prior to your current display troubles.

If that doesn't do it, you're going to learn about Device Manager and graphics drivers and other such fun. But see if restoring the registry helps. That restore is reversable, simply by typing that same command and choosing a more recent date.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[ebiskup]

Hey Gary, thanks for the reply. Prior to receiving your info, I was able to find a little help through MS web site. I went into System Configuration Utility and I noticed that there was a couple of blocks that were not checked and so I, through process of one at a time, was able to get my full screen back. Under Selective Start Up, it was the fourth block down that restored my full screen. However, I still have problems with shutting down properly. Sometimes it goes through the whole process and shuts of and other times I have to manually turn it off. Then when I turn it back on, it comes on with the screen that says "It's safe to turn off your computer". I control alt. delete and it starts the turn on process. If you have time for some suggestions, much appreciated. Otherwise, it looks like I need to take it to someone. I would rather play around and learn if we can.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

To learn more about what you want to have running in the background, especially on older Windows machines, I recommend a visit to http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk You can go through the list of things in your Startup tab in System Configuration and see which you want to keep. You shouldn't have to do a selective startup forever - there are ways to simply remove the entries from a Registry key so that they are no longer in the startup list, and System Configuration doesn't need to be used anymore for Selective Startups. I believe the pacs-portal site covers those changes.

For help with shutdown, the http://www.aumha.org site has a wonderful shutdown section, including a 15-step shutdown Troubleshooter.

Post again anytime you have questions.
. . . Gary