All icons, desktop, control panel are very very small

[comptek]

Help guys,

I am working on a dell pc 4700 (I think, pc is at home) with XP home and the problem is that the user complained that the icons on the desktop are very ver small. I go to look at it and I boot the machine w/o problems then when I get to the window login screen the list for user names shrunk. I could not read the names of the users to select. Even there pictures next to there login names are no bigger than the checkboxes below ex "E-mail Notification", the letters are no bigger than the dot portion of the letter 'i' in Helpful Tip radio button above. I tried rebooting into safe mode but it is the same thing. I tried adjusting the resolution but I cannot tell what screen i am in because everything is so small and compressed. I called someone with xp and had them walk me through the display properties to the resolution section and when i adjusted those it made the icons bigger to about the size of a lowercase o but the lettering was not any better. I cannot read anything. I tried a different graphics card but I cannot disable the onboard. I tried in the bios, but it keeps going back to auto. It might be a virus but even if i tried to scan it I would not be able to read the output it would give. Are there any keystrokes that I can use to fix the resolution? Please help.

Thanks



Comptek
A+, Network+

 

[fizzak]

Right click the desktop and go to properties.
Click the Appearance tab. Select the Advanced button.
Make sure Large Icons is not selected and close the Advanced window.

Select the "Windows and Buttons" dropdown and switch it to Windows Classic Style. Make sure Font size is Normal.
Hit Apply.
Flip it back to XP Style. Make sure Font size is Normal.

Hit Apply.

 

[fizzak]

My bad, If its doing this on the login screen and safe mode probably a hardware issue.

 

[comptek]

fizzak,

Thanks, nice try but the problem is that everything is so small that even right clicking and going to display properties, appearance would be tough because you cannot see it. all the wording for anything is seriously about the size of the lines on the border of this box. Imagine trying to read my response so minimized that it looks like this ______ that is how everything that has wording in it looks. If you click on file menus it is the same thing. Just letting you know. Thanks though.



Comptek
A+, Network+

 

[Nelviticus]

Is the screen itself shrunk, i.e. is there a huge black border around it? Or is the screen a normal size but all the icons & text are small?

Nelviticus