"fixing" a lappy, need advice.

holy re-fried chicken burger, Batman! holo has an actual question!

hi

heres my (more my little sisters) issue. not sure what category this falls in, maybe all of them..
but what i have is a lappy, err netbook, rather, with a fubar'd screen. it's pretty much split in 2. but through trial and error, i managed to boot the system up, and get it running on my crt monitor, via VGA mode. booting normally, is a no go, it loads the windows logo, then goes black. the problem with vga mode, is it makes everything gigantic, and jittery, virtually unusable for any kind of productive use. and attempting a resolution change everything goes black. to my understanding, VGA mode is only capable of 640x480...

Sooo is there a way to change the display settings (in VGA mode) for the NORMAL boot so that i can use my external display at 1024 resolution? maybe a cfg file or similar?

here are the units specs.
MFC - Acer Aspire One (AOA150 - 1949) (hotpink...)
CPU - Intel Atom n270 @ 1.6Ghz
RAM - 1GB ddr2 (800Mhz?)
GPU - Intel Integrated Chip 950
OS - Windows XP Home SP3

and the monitor im trying use is a generic CRT 15" w/ 1024 native res.

If you think you can help, fire away.you'll make a 12 yr old girl very happy.
I realize that this maybe futile, but so is resistance, and that the lappy will no longer be portable. Discuss?

-edit-
forgot to mention. the netbooks screen is tiny, 10" maybe, and idk what the native reso/refresh rate is. not sure if it matters, all is i know is that whatever it it set to, it is unusable with my external monitor. i figure that it has wide screen resolution, that my monitor cant display, hense the black screen. which is why i need to change it somehow, possibly in safe mode or other....

AFAIK, the only two options you have are to
a) hook it up to a external monitor with support for such a resolution (widescreen LCD or even a big ol' plasma TV) and change it, then try it on your CRT.
b) memorize the keystrokes to get to the display control panel.

Does Safe Mode work in getting a display on the CRT?

Winphreak said:

AFAIK, the only two options you have are to
a) hook it up to a external monitor with support for such a resolution (widescreen LCD or even a big ol' plasma TV) and change it, then try it on your CRT.
b) memorize the keystrokes to get to the display control panel.

Does Safe Mode work in getting a display on the CRT?

hmm... i was hoping for something a little easier than running blind. im quie sure the local wally-world had smallish WS for $100. i might try rigging it to my TV, but im a little worried about burning the tv screen. (that and i just made the last payment haha)

and yes, i can boot up in safe modeon the CRT. but the image is to distorted and choppy to really do much. i think i melted a few brain cells from looking at it for as long as i did.

^ hmm. i'll have to experiment with that then.

the biggest "lol-factor" i have found so far, is that a replacment sceen costs nearly 2x as much as the unit did. when they bought it, it had the warrenty, service plan, the whole nine. they sent it to texas, to have it repaired, which was denied. and to my understanding, they could have just brought it back to walmart, and replaced it.... but the ship back and forth to texas, used up any time they had to just return it....LOL! (im sorry, thats just funny..to me)

on a lighter note, my whole reason for trying to fix this thing is (and this is funny) that the PC my genetic others have for daily use, is slower that s***. windows XP on 256MB ram is NO picnic. doing the most basic tasks is a waiting game.
(opening the context menu can take up to 28 seconds, yeah, i timed it)

which i find odd, because i'vee XP machines with lower specs, and it was tolerable. but this thing is a cruel joke. so i want to 'replace' it with the lappy. along with USB keyboard/mouse, etc.

Any chance of repair/restore with original CD or DVD on this laptop? Do you think it's solely the monitor?

Jacee said:

Any chance of repair/restore with original CD or DVD on this laptop? Do you think it's solely the monitor?

the system appears to be fine. i figured after the drop that slip the screen in 2 (or 3), that the HDD would be shot. but it boots up on the external monitor in VGA mode without a problem. it's getting to boot in normal mode, that's the issue. i pegged the the native resolution to the laptop @ 1024x600, which my external monitor refuses to display.

Snuffy said:

This unit does not come with cd or dvd it only has usb ports. also the restore option is OFF be default in the BIOS. where you have to BIOS to turn on as to RESTORE.

if it came down to it, i could use the USB install method. but i believe you are correct, and there is a recover partition installed. (though not the issue)

and as far as buying a new screen, the little kid who keeps bugging me to fix it, is only 12, and cant work, under US law (ergo = no $ to buy one)

i think my options are running scarce. but thanks for the help guys.