Cannot Display This Video Mode

Hello. I'm new here and I'm really not computer savvy. I have a Dell Inspiron 531s and Windows Vista.

Basically, my little cousins were messing with the computer monitor and whenever I boot the computer, it would have a black screen that states "Cannot Display This Video Mode, Optimum Resolution 1440 x 900 60 Hz"

I tried googling up solutions and many of them said to go into safe mode and change the properties. However, I tried that and it didn't work. After I entered safe mode, it would still show the black screen that says "Cannot Display This Video Mode". So I don't know how I can select the properties or anything like that.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Reboot the machine. After it beeps hit F8. You'll get
a menu. One menu item will be "vga mode". Choose that, and use
the control panel to A) set 800x600, boot normally, and fix it
or B) try setting your normal mode.

Sounds like they may have changed your display resolution or refresh rate to
values that are outside the range that your monitor (where the message is
coming from) can handle. Safe Mode itself should automatically run with a
low resolution setting that most monitors would be able to handle. When you
boot the computer do you get the normal messages on your screen up to the
point that Windows starts loading? Does it display all the Safe Mode options
on screen after you press F8? If so you can try running System Restore from
the Safe Mode menu to reset the computer to a point in time before the
cousins got hold of it. After you get it running again you should see
about installing a proper driver for the monitor you are using. To help
prevent this sort of thing happening in future, in Windows, in the advanced
Display settings also enable the option that says "Hide modes that this
monitor cannot display".

In case you aren't getting any display signals at all from the computer, the
monitor may have been manually switched to use an input that is not
connected to the computer (eg. DVI, VGA, HDMI). If that's the case use the
monitor's menu buttons and on screen display to change the input setting
back to the one that is actually connected to the computer. Some monitors
have an auto-detect feature/button which should do the same thing, presuming
that the computer is turned on at the time. If other monitor settings were
messed with, the monitor may also have a factory reset option that you can
use to set everything back to its default settings.

Right click desktop , graphic properties , settings , change as you
wish .

Thanks guys! Got the problem fixed

hey i currently have this problem as well i have seen some replies saying to press f8 but nothing comes up on mine please help i would appreciate it and could you reply to me

Now I have entered the safe mode wat shuld I do help plz contact me on my

Thanks now the problem I have is dat I don't knw hw to connect to my internet

Yeah... many times the F8 doesn't work (normal). But I would like to ask you that have you checked by changing the display settings. First try to change the settings in normal mode. If it is not getting changed then try to change it in safe mode. If nothing is going according to your way, then in safe mode, uninstall the drivers of display and then reinstall it. I am sure that after that you can change the settings accordingly.