Free PC Support

[Bigprawn]

I switched on my laptop to discover that I now have 6 screens. All showing the same thing, obviously, and whilst I can appreciate the aesthetic value of this phenomenon, I can't read anything because it's all too small.

I've tried resetting it to a previous state but that hasn't worked.

Can anyone help?
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"All you need is love, but that's not really practical."

[JonS]

Could be due to:
failing monitor (unlikely)
messed up graphics driver
screen resolution set too high
faulty graphics card

You don't mention which version of windows you have, or which graphics chip / card

Basic plan in a case like this is to hit the F8 key at startup until you get the menu, then depending on the version of windows select "VGA mode" or "640x480 mode" or "800x600 mode"
Let it boot into windows and then try resetting the screen to teh correct display mode
If that fails, reboot, try again and this time reinstall the display drivers
If after that you still have a problem then the graphics card si probably kaput - though check with a different monitor first

[Bigprawn]

Thanks Jon

Dosn't seem to have worked. I changed the resolution on start-up and then when it opened but I can still see 6 "miniscreens".

I'm on Windows Vista.

I'm afraid I'm too much of a layman to undersdtand changes to graphics cards and the like. Can you dumb it down for me?
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"All you need is love, but that's not really practical."

[JonS]

to do that we need to know your version fo windows, and make / model / chipset of your graphicsc ard

[Bigprawn]

Windows Vista (Home Premium).
HP Pavillion dv6500.
Where do I find the graphics card chipset?
_________________
"All you need is love, but that's not really practical."

[JonS]

try following these instructions
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Restore-a-driver-to-its-previous-version

the category you are looking for is "dispay adaptors" and you need to rol back whatever is listed there
My guess is that maybe a windows update has installed an incompatible driver

[Bigprawn]

Still no luck Jon. Any other ideas before I admit defeat and take it to PC World?
_________________
"All you need is love, but that's not really practical."

[JonS]

if that didn't fix it then I'd guess the graphics chip is failing, which could mean an expensive fix - new motherboard maybe.
Take it back to PC World by all means if its under warranty, but if its out of warranty it'll be expensive. You may do better calling HP and asking their advice.
You could do worse than raise a job request at http://www.pciq.com for one of their team to have a look at it . If they can fix it, it'll be cheaper than PCW assuming the spares are available. But thats assuming it IS a failed graphics chip - it could still just be a driver issue, in which case anyone will be cheaper than PCW....