Screen says "out of Range"!

[Rebz]

i can start up my computer....it loads Windows...but then the moniter goes
blank with amessage saying out of range...please help me!!!!! I've tried
running it in safe mode to get in and have a look, but the same thing....as
soon as it loads up it goes blank.
Thanks

[Earl Grey]

Hi Rebz:

"Out of range" means that you have set a video resolution that your
monitor doesn't support.

The "last known good" setup option should help:

How to start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration
feature in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852/en-us

Earl Grey

Rebz wrote:
> i can start up my computer....it loads Windows...but then the moniter goes
> blank with amessage saying out of range...please help me!!!!! I've tried
> running it in safe mode to get in and have a look, but the same thing....as
> soon as it loads up it goes blank.
> Thanks

[Rebz]

I tried that.....doesnt work. It comes up with the out of range signal as
soon as windows loads...any other suggestions? Would i be able to go in
blindly and do a system restore? If so...how?

[nass]

"Rebz" wrote:

> I tried that.....doesnt work. It comes up with the out of range signal as
> soon as windows loads...any other suggestions? Would i be able to go in
> blindly and do a system restore? If so...how?



Error messages when you start a Microsoft game: "Signal out of range" or
"Out of scan range"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/286331


It means that you have a refresh rate not supported by your monitor for some
reason, you may be played a game or run an application that changed the
refresh rate on your monitor, download this tool from here to fix the refresh
rate:
http://www.radeon2.ru/refreshfix_eng.html

If you wish/would like a system restore you can do by clicking Start >> All
Programs >> Accessories >> System tools >> System Restore.
or by command line:
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

You can do the above in Recovery Console or on Run command in windows.
HTH.
Let us know.
Regards,
nass
------
www.nasstec.co.uk

[Earl Grey]

Hi Rebz:

Can you use "Enable VGA mode"?

If you can, you will be able to reset your video resolution.

If not I think you can use the command line to reset, but I am not
qualified to help with that. In that case, post a new question and say
that 'last known good' and 'VGA mode' didn't work for you.

Earl Grey

Rebz wrote:
> I tried that.....doesnt work. It comes up with the out of range signal as
> soon as windows loads...any other suggestions? Would i be able to go in
> blindly and do a system restore? If so...how?
>

[Rebz]

thanks heaps....sounds like it would work....but i cant see what i'm
doing....totally blank screen...anyway around that?

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Earl Grey wrote:

> Hi Rebz:
>
> "Out of range" means that you have set a video resolution that your
> monitor doesn't support.


That would have been my guess too, except that he said he tried it in Safe
Mode with the same result. Safe mode would ignore his resolution setting.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup


> The "last known good" setup option should help:
>
> How to start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration
> feature in Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852/en-us
>
> Earl Grey
>
> Rebz wrote:
>> i can start up my computer....it loads Windows...but then the
>> moniter goes blank with amessage saying out of range...please help
>> me!!!!! I've tried running it in safe mode to get in and have a
>> look, but the same thing....as soon as it loads up it goes blank.
>> Thanks

[nass]

"Rebz" wrote:

>
>
> thanks heaps....sounds like it would work....but i cant see what i'm
> doing....totally blank screen...anyway around that?

What happen if you press the Windows Key on your Keyboard, does the Start
option/menu open?.
Also Windows Key + Run can open the command for you and input the restore
command line in.
HTH.
Regards,
nass
---------
www.nasstec.co.uk

[Rebz]

Also...i have valuable photo's of my babies on this computer....will i lose
them if i do any of this?

>

[nass]

"Rebz" wrote:

> Also...i have valuable photo's of my babies on this computer....will i lose
> them if i do any of this?
>
> >

Please reply to the message/ text which you want to ask or enquire about as
I don't know what you mean but I will have a guess and a guess can hurt
sometimes.
No, if you will do a System Restore you will not lose any thing.
HTH.
nass

[Rebz]

Sorry...getting really frustrated here....been up all night trying to solve
this. Okay, i think i'm going to call a mobile geek to come to my house and
fix it for me....it's now telling me my Bios isn't installed....aaargghhh!
thankyou for your help Earl Grey and Nass...cheers guys

[nass]

"Rebz" wrote:

>
>
> Sorry...getting really frustrated here....been up all night trying to solve
> this. Okay, i think i'm going to call a mobile geek to come to my house and
> fix it for me....it's now telling me my Bios isn't installed....aaargghhh!
> thankyou for your help Earl Grey and Nass...cheers guys
>

If you are not sure then it is better idea, don't forget to tell him about
your worries and needs, to clear the options for him and he know what he up
against, and not losing valuable Data and family Photos on that machine as he
can rescue your data if the only way clean install.
Good luck.
Regards,
nass

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Rebz wrote:

> Also...i have valuable photo's of my babies on this computer....will
> i lose them if i do any of this?


Not so much for now, but for the future, let me point out that it is always
possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning strike, virus
attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss of everything on your
drive. As has often been said, it's not a matter of whether you will have
such a problem, but when.

If you have anything on your drive that you consider valuable, and you don't
have backup of it, you are living very dangerously.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

[JazzVeggies (Paul)]

Rebz:

I had the same frustrating situation with one of my computers, except the
"out of range" message was not caused by some unknown glitch but was due to
the fact that the last time I used the machine, it was hooked up to a 19-inch
monitor at a resolution of "1280 by 1024" pixels.

By the way, as resolution numbers increase, things on the screen get
smaller, though you can then see more of these things at once, whether they
be icons, windows or what-have-you.

The next time I went to use the computer, I'd plugged in a smaller, 15-inch
LCD monitor, which unfortunately was not able to display "1280 by 1024."

Since I had the luxury of a second computer nearby -- which was also set to
"1280 by 1024" -- I pulled it over and went through the procedure of changing
the resolution to "800 by 600," which the smaller "out of range" monitor
could handle. As I did so, I carefully watched every single keystroke,
noting exactly what I did to get from the Desktop to the point where, when I
would execute that final "OK," the change to "800 by 600" would take effect.

Note that, instead of using the mouse, I used the "Tab" key as needed to
move down through the Display Properties dialog box. If you cannot see the
mouse pointer on an "out of range" display, obvously you cannot determine
where to click. However, to first enter Display Properties from the Desktop,
I did perform a single right-click on both machines, since when Windows
starts, the mouse pointer (some refer to it as the "cursor") sits precisely
in the middle of the Desktop. Presuming that your Desktop does not happen to
have an icon directly underneath this point, you're OK.

Alternatively, you can avoid using the mouse altogether by going the route
of pressing one of the "Windows" keys to bring up the Start menu; from there
you'd navigate to Settings > Control Panel > Display. (This is the path if
you're using the "classic" Start menu; if not, go to Start > Control Panel >
Appearance and Themes > Display.

Anyway, at the same time I went through the procedure on the "good"
computer, I performed the same right-click followed by the same keystrokes on
the "bad" computer, the one with the "out of range" indication. Here is the
procedure I followed:

1. Right-click the mouse (brings up the "context menu" for the display).

2. Press the <up arrow> key once (gets to "Properties").

3. Press <Enter> once (gets to the Display Properties dialog box).

4. Press the <Tab> key five (5) times (highlights the "Themes" tab).

5. Press the <right arrow> key four (4) times, but make sure to wait five
seconds between each of these four keystrokes, to allow time for the
respective tabs to show. The "Screen Saver" tab in particular may take a
while to appear and you don't want your keystrokes entered too fast for the
tabs to follow along.

At this point, the "Settings" tab should be highlighted.

6. Now press <Tab> once, which will move you down to the "Screen resolution"
slider bar.

7. Press and hold the <left arrow> key for two full seconds. Do this
because I don't know how many "stops" your computer has between its current
resolution setting and "800 by 600." Holding <left arrow> will ensure that
you move to the lowest available resolution setting, whether this is "800 by
600" or "640 by 480."

8. Press <Tab> four times (highlights "OK").

9. Press <Enter> once (changes the resolution).

If the monitor does not light up right away, that means Windows is showing
the "Compatibility "Warning" dialog, asking you to confirm that you really
want to change the resolution. To resolve this dialog:

10. Press <Tab> once (highlights "OK.")

11. Press <Enter>.

Now your monitor should be displaying your Desktop, although with the icons
rearranged, depending on what the resolution was before you just changed it.

Since both of my computers are identical and are running the same version of
Windows, I was certain that as I went through each step on the functioning
machine, the "out of range" machine was following perfectly. If you are not
so fortunate, well, you have nothing to lose by giving this a shot.

If this is all that's wrong with your computer, you should be good to go.
If not -- you did mention some sort of BIOS error message appearing later on
-- at least you or the technician will be able to see the Desktop for more
troubleshooting.

Good luck!