Windows 7: lost part of taskbar and 1/2 inch of screen on right

So I started my computer up yesterday, and I noticed an incomplete display. I looked at my resolution settings, everything was normal. I restarted and everything went back to normal. I fired my computer up today, everything was still fine.



I was having performance issues, noticed I had 80-something processes running, and decided that it might be helpful to reduce that a bit. I ran msconfig and disabled a number of programs. I reset the computer, no issues. I turned my laptop off, went home from the coffee shop where I was studying, turned the computer on, and something's off. I can see maybe the top 1/4 of the taskbar and 1/2 of my screen on the right is not being used. That's the same 'incomplete display" that I saw yesterday. Three restarts later, nothing has changed. Most of the other errors I've found online show that this problem in relation to playing a game. I've not done that, and nothing has made a resolution change. The computer is supposedly in 1280/800 resolution (the apparent preferred resolution).

When I take a screenshot, the screen looks normal.

I've also attached a picture (taken with my cellphone, so it is nice and dark, sorry) that shows what the screen really looks like.

My drivers are up to date. I don't know what else to check or where to look. I'm on a 2-year-old HP G62 notebook with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (SP1) running. My graphics card is the on-board, generic Intel HD graphics card.

Thanks,

Bob

*edit*

I've reinstalled my graphics drivers. I even reflashed my BIOS as some people have said this solved the problem for them. Neither thing fixed my problem. I also hooked up a second monitor to see if that would help, which, of course, it didn't.

Hello Bob, and welcome to Sevenforums!

For now, if it helps you any, you might try lowering the resolution just so you can see more. Now, there is a program called "revo uninstaller" that is free and removes more parts of a program than windows uninstaller does. If you download it here, you can use it to remove all parts of your graphics driver, and install the new one again, clean. Make sure you uninstall ALL parts of it, and any other graphics related software for your GPU. By the way, what is your computer called? Then, go into the control panel of your GPU (if you have it) and change the resolution from in there.

You might run this tool just to check some things: SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Flashing the BIOS is dangerous and should only be used as a last resort.

Are there any keys on your laptop that enable you to adjust the monitor screen? Usually you don't have to do this with digital monitors, and especially not with laptops... I doubt you even have such keys on a laptop.

Thanks for the reply Dusty. I think the problem has been solved. I did make sure that I was removing all traces of graphics drivers before installing a new one. I did attempt to make changes from the graphics card directly, but that didn't help either.

I am not sure what the problem actually was. I went to the HP website and loaded my computer into their product search and installed all new drivers for everything graphics related, as well as a second BIOS flash (the driver updates didn't solve anything). After reflashing, I went into BIOS and reset everything to factory defaults, which apparently solved the issue. I was definitely nervous about messing with BIOS, as that's about the only thing I've never actually done while fixing computer problems.

I certainly don't have any kind of buttons to adjust the screen. That would be amazing, but just too simple I guess.

Resetting the BIOS was going to be my next suggestion. Glad its working now, Bob. Take care