No taskbar and mouse moves off screen??

[troy512]

Hi, i searched around the forum and didnt find an answer to my problem. my dads friend as recently got a new computer and i took out the video card from his old one. its an ati radeon 9200 (thats all i know sorry). i have a compaq presario s4020wm with 1.5 GB of DDR ram running xp sp2. i bought this computer used and i do not have the manual for the mobo. i installed the video card plugged in the monitor and turned on the computer. windows installed a set of drivers from 2004 and identified the card as radeon 9200.

everything seemed to work pretty good except there was no taskbar and the mouse would move off the right side of the screen. the taskbar wouldnt come up even when i pressed the windows button on the keyboard or by pressing ctrl+esc. went into the control panel and clicked on the taskbar and startmenu icon and nothing would happen. i tried this three times. i then adjusted the screen resolution to 1024x768 still the same. played with the monitor settings with the buttons on the front of the monitor but still no taskbar.

shut down and removed the card and reseeded. started up in safemode and the taskbar was there. restarted in to normal windows and the taskbar was again gone. went to here (http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeon-prer300-xp.html) and downloaded the latest driver. installed along with some cool program to adjust alot of settings but still no taskbar and the mouse would move off to the right of the screen.

currently using my onboard video card and have uninstalled and removed the radeon.

thanks in advance,

troy

 

[tmike]

a CRT monitor, by chance? sounds like the taskbar and edge of the screen are off the bottom and right ends of the monitor. adjust the screen dimensions using either the front-panel controls on the monitor (if it has an onscreen adjustment menu) or using the screen adjustment pane of the catalyst control center to correct the height and width (and probably the centering) of the displayed image.
adjusting the image by using the former method is preferable; if the latter is used, it can result in an annoying flash accompanied by the mouse being re-centered when catalyst effects your changes after each login. this doesn't happen if you use the monitor's own adjustment controls.

 

[jedi940]

I have seen this problem before. Your problem is that your Raedon graphics card can use 2 monitors and is trying to output to 2 displays. The monitor you have hooked up is set as the secondary monitor so your taskbar will be on your primary monitor that isn't really hooked up. Safe mode loads only minimal drivers and settings which is why your taskbar appears in it. The simplest solution is to hook up a second monitor. Then your taskbar will appear and you can see to change which monitor is primary or just disable the second monitor. I have fixed this problem before with only one monitor but I can't remember how right now because any window you open will appear on the "phantom" monitor. I will try to remember and post it tomorrow. Hopefully someone else will know how and will post it before then but that is definitely your problem.

For further proof that that is your problem, I am betting that your mouse only dissapears off the left side of the screen and not the top or bottom.

 

[troy512]

yes, it is a dell crt monitor. also i have adjusted the horizontal and vertical position controls with the menu buttons on the front of the monitor and with the catalyst program. i could open windows with them maximized and see all edges, even with ie explorer 7 in full screen mode all edges of the window are seen.

i just can not access the start menu or see the taskbar. even after pressing the windows button on the keyboard. if i use the onboard video card or start in safemode the taskbar and start menu are there.

i hope the card is not bad. everything else seems to work okay. no strange errors or crashes during the time it was installed.

 

[troy512]

jedi940, i was typing my reply to tmike before i seen your post.

that sounds like a very good possibility. i did notice that there was two moniors in the display properties settings tab. i do have another monitor, i will connect both monitors and try your suggestions.

yes the mouse does only go off the side but it is to the right not the left.

 

[jedi940]

oops, I meant right. default monitor positions are 1 on the left and 2 on the right. Since yours have been reversed, monitor 2 is on the left and 1 is on the right.

 

[troy512]

thank you for you help.

today i installed the radeon and i now have a taskbar/start menu and my mouse does not move off the screen.

what i ended up doing was going into display properties, settings tab, right clicked on the correct monitor and selected set as primary then right clicked the other two monitors and unchecked attached.

ive never actually had a video card besides the onboard type. this is all really new to me. thanks again for you help.

 

[jedi940]

Glad I could help. Good luck with the aftermarket card. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

[zyggy]

hi, i have this same problem. how do you get to display properties, settings tab? thanks

 

[Kari]

right click on the desktop - properties - select settings tab - advanced (I think it's somewhere there, though it's not showing up on mine since I only have 1 monitor connected... or something )

 

[rangers]

I have seen this problem before. Your problem is that your Raedon graphics card can use 2 monitors and is trying to output to 2 displays. The monitor you have hooked up is set as the secondary monitor so your taskbar will be on your primary monitor that isn't really hooked up. Safe mode loads only minimal drivers and settings which is why your taskbar appears in it. The simplest solution is to hook up a second monitor. Then your taskbar will appear and you can see to change which monitor is primary or just disable the second monitor. I have fixed this problem before with only one monitor but I can't remember how right now because any window you open will appear on the "phantom" monitor. I will try to remember and post it tomorrow. Hopefully someone else will know how and will post it before then but that is definitely your problem.

For further proof that that is your problem, I am betting that your mouse only dissapears off the left side of the screen and not the top or bottom.

well good advice who could ask for more

 

[jimdodds]

I had this disappearing XP Taskbar problem and solved it by changing my monitor from PlugnPlay to Default. Taskbar came back and the system changed itself back to PlugnPlay.

jemd@wcvt.com