Screen shrunk on me

[s37d]

Ok, here's the problem. I have a laptop that recently started having monitor issues. The screen is shrunk to approx 3/4 of its original size, but not cutoff, just shrunk proportionally. The right side of the monitor is just a black strip now, and there's a strip on the bottom of the monitor that resembles the coloring of the bottom horizontal XP bar, but when you move the mouse down to it, the mouse cursor gets distorted. Also the visible 3/4 of the screen is darker than normal. I'm not sure if it's a video card issue, a monitor issue, or what. I've built desktops before but am not too experienced with the hardware of laptops. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Here's a pic of the screen I took with my digital cam:

 

[ShackledPhoenix]

Whoa weird....

What happens if you change the resolution? Check the bios, most laptops have an option to stretch screen to fit. Try updating drivers. If you have a desktop monitor, plug it into that, see if it still looks that way. Did this happen all of a sudden while working on it or one morning as you powered it on?

Otherwise I'm honestly not sure, the blue strip is really odd. I would guess graphics card but it's honestly just a guess..

 

[superdave1984]

I had a similar issue with my laptop a while back and did a system restore back to the last date that I know worked and all was fine. For a while. I eventually found the problem and fixed it but can't rememebr how. I'll see if it is on here somewhere.

 

[s37d]

Ok thanks. I tried hooking it up to a normal desktop monitor and it worked fine, so maybe it is the laptop's monitor. Could it be the battery? I recently replaced it.

I also checked BIOS and there was an option that expanded the screen if it was too small, but it was already checked. Tried unchecking it and rechecking it again anyway, no help.

I'll try a rollback now in the hopes of a temp fix.