Hi.I am having some problems with my system and would like very much to see if anyone can help or make any suggestions on how I may fix the issue.My system specs are as below.Windows XP Professional with SP3.ABIT IC7 MAX3 Motherboard.Corsair Extreme RAM 2 Gigs.Intel P4 3GHz CPU.Seagate Barracuda 300 Gig HDD and the same again but 200 Gig.Hercules Digifire 7.1 sound card.Nvidia Ge-force 7800 GS Graphics card with 512 on board RAM.Two 22" TFT Monitors.My Problem started the other day when I accidentally caught the mains power plug whilst playing MS FS2004.After re-booting the PC I got two black screens with the white writing at the top saying "Windows could not be started because the system32 file hal.dll is missing or corrupt" so after speaking with a friend of mine I went into the BIOS and set the boot up option to CD instead of HDD as the first boot device.Then re-booted the PC and selected the load from CD. At this point we selected the R for repair and then using the dos based commands we re-built the boot.cfg.This then solved the hal.dll message and I was able to get into Windows, but I noticed that the display was at 800x600 on both monitors and could not be changed.So I uninstalled the graphics card drivers and then re-booted and went into safe mode and ran driver cleaner pro to make sure nothing was left behind, then re-booted again and started Windows normally.This then gave me the message that new hardware was detected and asked if I wanted to install it automatically, I selected no and installed the Nvidia drivers as I usually do and all went well. I then re-booted at the prompt.Then when at the desktop I was faced with a nice big display as per the norm of 1400x1050 but just on the monitor in front of me, the one on the left was blank.But as soon as I right clicked on the desktop to select 1400x1050 and enabled the second monitor I was faced with two monitors of 800x600 each.No matter what I tried I could not change the display properties. I could get to the display properties settings and change them and select apply, but as soon as I did this it just went back to two monitors displaying the same desktop at 800x600.I am totally stuck now, and despite calling myself an experienced PC user, I have never come across this scenario before and confess to not having a clue as to what to try to resolve this issue at all.I have tried both the New Nvidia drivers and a couple of older ones as well just in case it was related somehow, but no joy.I realise of course that I could simply re-format and re-install XP etc, but I would like to avoid this if it is at all possible.Re-formatting etc is no problem whatsoever, it's putting the rest of the stuff back on and getting it back to how you like it and with all of you're other programs and applications etc on there that seems to take about a week.So, Please if you have any suggestions or thoughts would you be kind enough as to share them here so I can try and get back to normal again.Many thanks, and thank you in advance for any suggestions you might have.PS Everything, and I mean everything is working and running just fine, they just look horrible at 800x600.

Hi.I am having some problems with my system and would like very much to see if anyone can help or make any suggestions on how I may fix the issue.My system specs are as below.Windows XP Professional with SP3.ABIT IC7 MAX3 Motherboard.Corsair Extreme RAM 2 Gigs.Intel P4 3GHz CPU.Seagate Barracuda 300 Gig HDD and the same again but 200 Gig.Hercules Digifire 7.1 sound card.Nvidia Ge-force 7800 GS Graphics card with 512 on board RAM.Two 22" TFT Monitors.My Problem started the other day when I accidentally caught the mains power plug whilst playing MS FS2004.After re-booting the PC I got two black screens with the white writing at the top saying "Windows could not be started because the system32 file hal.dll is missing or corrupt" so after speaking with a friend of mine I went into the BIOS and set the boot up option to CD instead of HDD as the first boot device.Then re-booted the PC and selected the load from CD. At this point we selected the R for repair and then using the dos based commands we re-built the boot.cfg.This then solved the hal.dll message and I was able to get into Windows, but I noticed that the display was at 800x600 on both monitors and could not be changed.So I uninstalled the graphics card drivers and then re-booted and went into safe mode and ran driver cleaner pro to make sure nothing was left behind, then re-booted again and started Windows normally.This then gave me the message that new hardware was detected and asked if I wanted to install it automatically, I selected no and installed the Nvidia drivers as I usually do and all went well. I then re-booted at the prompt.Then when at the desktop I was faced with a nice big display as per the norm of 1400x1050 but just on the monitor in front of me, the one on the left was blank.But as soon as I right clicked on the desktop to select 1400x1050 and enabled the second monitor I was faced with two monitors of 800x600 each.No matter what I tried I could not change the display properties. I could get to the display properties settings and change them and select apply, but as soon as I did this it just went back to two monitors displaying the same desktop at 800x600.I am totally stuck now, and despite calling myself an experienced PC user, I have never come across this scenario before and confess to not having a clue as to what to try to resolve this issue at all.I have tried both the New Nvidia drivers and a couple of older ones as well just in case it was related somehow, but no joy.I realise of course that I could simply re-format and re-install XP etc, but I would like to avoid this if it is at all possible.Re-formatting etc is no problem whatsoever, it's putting the rest of the stuff back on and getting it back to how you like it and with all of you're other programs and applications etc on there that seems to take about a week.So, Please if you have any suggestions or thoughts would you be kind enough as to share them here so I can try and get back to normal again.Many thanks, and thank you in advance for any suggestions you might have.PS Everything, and I mean everything is working and running just fine, they just look horrible at 800x600.

It is possible there is something amiss in your monitor settings (not the drivers). go under the Control Panel/System/Hardware/Device Manager and the look at the monitor section and see if it matches what you have.Did you have any software that you installed that came with the monitors themselves?Try removing one monitor and then switching between the monitor connections on the card and see if one monitor works in both connections.If that works, then you might have to get it to a "pro". Do you have another card that you can try out just to make sure it is not the card??John

---------Then when at the desktop I was faced with a nice big display as per the norm of 1400x1050 but just on the monitor in front of me, the one on the left was blank.But as soon as I right clicked on the desktop to select 1400x1050 and enabled the second monitor I was faced with two monitors of 800x600 each.No matter what I tried I could not change the display properties. I could get to the display properties settings and change them and select apply, but as soon as I did this it just went back to two monitors displaying the same desktop at 800x600.

Did you first click on the left monitor outline to specify it, then set the resolution you wish? In my WIN XP you left click/drag the pointer to set resolution.After clicking "Apply" you must reboot to activate these settings. Beyond this I'm stumped.Alex Reid

Do you happen to have an on-the-motherboard video card which is still enabled? Maybe it could be switched to AGP when it should be something else?Mark

Double check the nView settings and be sure that CLONE is not selected. open NVidia control panel and select multi monitor setup - that should get you into nview.

What do you mean by 'caught the mains power cord'? Does it mean you YANKed or UNPLUGed your PC (power cord) while it was running? If so, did you wait 1 minute before you re-connected power plug to re-start? Could of done a 'Restore' to 'fix'?What Mark is trying to say (I believe) is that IF you have 'on board' video, you must go into BIOS to disable it. Then you set the priority be given to AGP for video (as opposed to VGA). Reboot. I believe your problem is going to be solved thru BIOS settings. You shocked that too, I guess. Then RIGHT click anywhere on desktop, go to 'Settings' and see if your video card is listed, and move slider for MAIN monitor resolution, then LEFT click 2nd monitor, and set resolution for that (as it could be different). If nothing happens when you click 2nd monitor, left mouse grab 2nd monitor and move it over and left of Main monitor to 'activate' it (it's sleeping?). Make sure you know what 'native' (ie: max resolution) is for both monitors (Google model to find info). So, this sets the XP resolutions (desktop). When you go into FS9 you then set the resolution for FS9 in 'Options\Settings\Display'. The FS9 and Desktop res should be the same for best results. Keep your chin up. Help is here (at AvSim) or on it's way (at the repair shop-hehe). I never have done this, but 'stuff' happens I guess. Good luck.Chuck BNapamule

When you played around in BIOS, did you change anything besides start-up order or could you have possibly put BIOS into default? (I know I've done that a few times that caused some headaches) Also, from my experience, 'repair' options seldom work well and usually just cover up problems instead of fixing them. It's possible that your windows install is still corrupt yet you just don't get any errors any more. I know it's not what you want to hear, but I've been around computers long enough to know that if something like that is wrong, its best to start over as you don't know how many other problems this may cause further down the line.