I'm desperate for help on this one- can anyone help me fix my PC? Please?

[Haylstones]

For ages now my PC has been very strange. Everything on it is the wrong size- the icons are huge, I have to scroll wildly to get to see a whole page and it just Isn't Right. I've tried messing around with settings, icon size, resolution etc and even bought a new monitor but to no avail. I asked on here a while ago and got lots of advice but nothing worked!
Any tips or advice? Please?

it is the same with both monitors ?

what operating system ? winxp, vista etc ?

Id windows you should be able to right click on the background and get the screen setting and move the screen resolution to the right one (eg 1024x768) - and you should be able to get that one from the monitor manual. Then click apply.

It's the same with both monitors.
I use XP
I've tried every screen resolution and none of them make it right- they make it bigger or smaller but it doesn't fill the creen properly iyswim
Sorry, I'm not making much sense- I don't do technology very well!
I've stopped using it and use my laptop instead but the printer is connected to the pC and the laptop keys keep sticking so I would love to be able to use the pC again!

on the screen itself have you tried using the menu buttons to adjust the positioning ? you can stretch or squash it (IFYSWIM) or move it left/right up and down.

Yes, I've tried that too. I know it was dd that did it (by accident!) so surely I should be able to work out how to change it back?!
It bugs me so much. Even if I get the text and icons to be the right size everything else is distorted, like the start menu or text outse the windows.

Have you considered using system restore to put it back as it was? I hesitate to recommend it because it puts other things back too, but in this case I doubt you have installed new programs or made other major changes since this started anyway.

To do System Restore right click the My Computer icon and select properties. You will see the System Restore tab.

Thanks onagar, I might try that
dhhas recently installed some stuff so he can work from home so I will check when he did that first!

Try this before the system restore.

Right click on the desktop and click on Properties, then the tab Appearance, then the Advanced button. Go through every option in the "Item" menu and change the settings until you find a good one.

Thanks for that cherry. I did try that but it didn't make much difference.
I also tried system restore but the earliest restore point I could get to was in Januray, which is after dd messed up all the settings- it's been like this for aaaages!
I've fiddled a bit but the taskbar and bar along the very top are too wide and the text is still huge. When I change the resolution it becomes narrower but the actual size inside the window doesn't change
It's definitely not right!

Perhaps changing Themes and changing it back again (A tab near 'Appearances') after a reboot would reset whatever is causing the problem. If not how about looking at updating the display drivers? If there are later ones that might jog something back into place.

Since you will have changed several things now in your search to fix it you might look at the documentation for the monitor to find out its default resolution. That will be one that should fit the screen properly if you choose it.

What options are you getting in the resolution settings?

Does changing the resolution change the size you see at all?

Are you using LCD or CRT monitors (flat or cube)?

Do you know what type of graphics card you have (ATI, NVidia, Intel, S3/via)?

My strong guess is a driver issue (probably you are just using the build in vga/svga),

Try lower the number of colors (same page as the resolution settings), then increasing the resolution?

Try running Control Pannel->Add hardware and see if it asks you for a driver.

See if you can find the driver disc that (May) have come with your computer, and run that.