"out of scan area" error message

[Monique]

My brother built a PC for me about a year ago and it has been working great up until a week ago. I recently moved into a new apartment and for about 4 days, my computer worked fine in the new apartment. Then one day out of the blue I went to boot up and just as windows XP was starting to load, the monitor went blank and a strange message box came up that said " Out of Frequency Area". After a countdown, the screen goes blank and stays that way. I tried a different monitor and a similiar message pops up, "Out of Scan Area". I moved the computer to another part of the apartment and the same thing happened. I tried a different power cord, nothing. So, I took it over to my brother's house (the one who built it for me) and it worked fine when hooked up to his monitor. He loaded the newest version of XP while I was there and checked for viruses and I took it home only to get the same message again. I tried to go into safe-mode and just as it was loading, up popped the message again. It won't let me do anything. It's like it starts booting up and loses juice or something. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what this could be and why it's happening? I can't do a thing with it. It's useless. Why would it work for my brother at his house but not mine...and why would it work fine for 4 days in my apartment and then nothing? I'm lost without my computer.....help anyone!!

Here are my specs.

The OS is Windows XP Professional.
The memory I believe is 512 meg.
The processor is an AMD Athelon.
1.8 gigahertz.

 

[Capricorn]

The frequency settings (refresh rate) on your video card are set to a higher value than your monitor supports. You should be able to boot into Windows safe mode (by pressing F8 just as Windows starts to boot) and fix this.

Otherwise, take it back to your brother's house, hook it up, and change the refresh rate to a lower value (like 70 or 75). Also, make sure you have the screen resolution set to something like 1024x768 just to be safe.

Your brother has a better monitor that can handle that resolution.

 

[Monique]

I tried that but it won't let me go into safe mode either. Just as it's loading the error message appears again and the screen goes black.

 

[ApM]

He's right, it also displays that error message if your resolution is set higher then the monitor can handle.

 

[Capricorn]

See my edit above.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Try holding down CTRL for booting as this may temporarily put it down to 60

 

[Monique]

Thank you, I'll try that.

 

[Capricorn]

You may not be hitting F8 fast enough. You need to get it just as it's about to put up that first Windows XP screen. That should bring up the menu you can use to go into safe mode. If you see the Windows boot splash screen, it's too late to hit F8.

I tried hitting control while booting on mine and it came up normally. Maybe only certain video cards do that?

 

[ApM]

Some machines are F5 to get into Safemode, try pressing F5 continuasly.

 

[Monique]

Thank you everyone but I tried all that and although safe mode starts and begins to go through the process, the screen goes blank and up pops the message. I think I need to take it over to my brothers and have him do it.