(no subject)

[nny]

Plz help. My computer's broked and I don't understaaaaand.

It was absolutely fine yesterday when I turned it off, but today it keeps defaulting to 800x600 and 16 colours. (Linn, love? It's made your art look bad. I didn't think that was possible. KILL IT, KILL IT!)

I've changed it in the control panel about ten times, and each time it says You Need To Restart! So I restart, and it starts up exactly the same. I've scanned the disk, I've defragged, I've run a spyware-y thing, everything's coming up fine apart from the computer persisting in LOOKING LIKE CRAP.

What do I do?

I'm seriously panicking here, 'cos I should be getting the internet in my room very soon and MY COMPUTER CANNOT BE BREAKING NOW!

:(

Comments

[ctah.livejournal.com]

Broken gfx card quite possibly. This may or may not be an expensive issue, depending on your PC needs :)

[ignescent.livejournal.com]

It sounds like your video card is having problems - have you tried finding new drivers for the card, to see if that helps?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Um...

Please treat me as though I know nothing about computers, 'cos I? Know nothing about computers. Seriously. I have no idea how I'd do that. :D

[silveraspen]

Okay. *rolls up sleeves* First, a few questions:

1. What operating system? (Windows 2000? Windows XP? Something else?)

2. Have you installed or uninstalled any software recently?

3. Did you have any trouble shutting your computer down and/or did it crash right before this started happening?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I saw your icon and it prompted an involuntary "shiny!" XD

It's running windows ME currently, gonna change to XP soon.

I uninstalled the Sims right before it did this using the icon that Maxis helpfully put in the start up folder. :D

The computer... didn't have trouble shutting down right before this, but it did go through a period last week where it just went to a blinking cursor on a black screen instead of shutting down.

:D?

[pat-trick.livejournal.com]

if you're running windows me, get rid of it as quickly as possible. it is the worst operating system that exists.

windows xp will be much happier.

that said, it sounds like a graphics card driver problem, or a problem with the card itself. what model computer do you have?

[silveraspen]

*beam* I love The Mummy so very much. :)

Also, what Pat said about ME below. It's the OS from hell. HOWEVER, in the meantime...

Okay. It sounds as though a driver file got damaged by one of the crashes (the blinking cursor thinger where it wouldn't finish shutting down, because sometimes when things aren't finished in the shutdown process and it loses power, the files that are still open get corrupted) OR as though the uninstallation of the Sims removed a file it shouldn't have. I'm betting on the latter, based on the timing.

We've got a couple of options here for fixing. One, you could try reinstalling the Sims right quick to see if it re-provides the file in question. (Unlikely but possible.)

Two, I need to get more information about your computer, graphics card, etc., to point you at a driver file and how to install it. Probably best if I go through this with you on AIM, but in the meantime: go to the "My Computer" icon on your desktop. Right-click on it and choose "Properties." I don't remember exactly where it is in the ME layout, so look through tabs and buttons there until you find one called "Device Manager." That should give you a long list of information about your system's hardware. We're looking for information on your video card/graphics card: namely the make/model of it.