Originally Posted by diablo

The KNOPPIX thingy...i have done a similar thing with with the canadian guy and they never worked.

Please be specific as to what you mean.

Can you burn a copy of knoppix or ubuntu from another computer or are you saying that you have already tried knoppix?

Unless you are able to perform all of the tests I am suggesting then we can't determine what is the problem and otherwise I don't know how I can help you because you aren't giving me anything to work with. You could branch out and either replace the monitor or reinstall the OS but it is possible that neither are the problem.

There is absolutely no way for you to borrow a monitor or camera? I don't know what to tell you. I can't yet say this for sure but if you had the same thing happen on another computer as you stated here then it sounds to me that its the monitor but again without you performing all of the tests we can't be certain. I'm not even understanding what the problem is because I can't visualize it.

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Looks fine there-but my start button was barely visable.it had sunk into the grey plastic part of my screen.

If the screen shot is correct then I think that your settings are right. If the only way that you can fix it is through the monitor's buttons then it sounds to me like something is wrong with the monitor.

maybe your right-but why would a monitor correct itself after been on for a while?.

Maybe because it has heated up. I don't know.

me neither.

Why not just move your Taskbar to the top of the screen?

At least a workaround until you can get a new (used) monitor.

Many times on Craigslist or a Salvation Army store you can find CRT's for under $20.

i was thinking about my video card...how do i find out what type i have?-i can't seem to find it?-maybe its not installed-updated etc?

Look in Device Manager. (Start, Run, devmgmt.msc)

If your graphic drivers aren't installed your computer will be using window's one size fits all generic drivers. With XP you probably wouldn't have a higher resolution than 800x600. Basically it would look like you are in safe mode. If you where having driver issues your computer would probably have extremely corrupted graphics & it might even cause your computer to crash. If you where having trouble with your card/chip you would probably have either corrupted graphics or your computer might not even boot. The fact that it corrects itself leads me to believe that it is your monitor especially since it also messed up on another computer and that your problem is fixed by manually adjusting the settings on your monitor. The best way to determine whether or not it is your monitor for sure is it borrow a monitor to test in your current monitor's place. Doing so would eliminate your computer if the symptom went away.