How to Fix a Sideways Screen in Windows XP
A sideways screen may mean that you run third-party software on your computer by the manufacturer of your graphics card which changed your screen orientation. You might not have realized it, but you possibly pressed a key combination that completely tilted your screen over. This doesn't mean that your computer went haywire, but it does mean that the solution to this problem can be found in your third-party software. This commonly happens in systems with an nVidia graphics adapter, although sometimes it can happen in ATI graphics systems and a few others.
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Instructions
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Hold the CTRL key, ALT key, and press the up arrow key on your keyboard simultaneously. This might resolve the problem right away. If it doesn't, continue to the next steps.
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Try to navigate to the side of your taskbar opposite from your Start menu.
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Click the small arrow leading away from the small panel with the clock.
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Look for an ATI, nVidia or other icon related to your graphics card. Look at the box your graphics card came in if you cannot identify the icon. The box usually has the image somewhere in the design. If you do not identify the icon at all, look through your operator's manual for your graphics card to see what the tray icon looks like.
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Right-click the graphics tray icon and click "Rotation Settings."
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Turn the monitor's display around as you wish. Choose zero degrees as your angle if your monitor is upright.
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References
- Photo Credit monitor image by eka from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Thank you sooo sooo much. I was a little nervous.
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Thanks. That was great information in a concise format that fixed my problem. And no third-party software.
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Martin Podvojsky
Oct 20, 2010
Recently I flipped my monitor on it's side and I like it that way, especially for viewing full pages of text. I have my graphics card software set so it displays the image as 768 x 1024, not 1024x768, the normal view. I have a dos program that doesn't recognize the windows command, so when I start that program I have to press "ctrl-alt-left arrow" to view the image correctly. I've been doing this for months now. Until yesterday. Now all of a sudden when I start the dos program and press "ctrl-alt-left arrow", nothing happens, and the screen is still sideways. Or if I press any of the arrow keys with this combination, nothing happens (but for months the screen flipped when I did this). What could have changed, and what do I have to do to get this working again?
