I'm going to try a few of these things. Back in a few. Let's see who hits the jackpot....

I'm going to try a few of these things. Back in a few. Let's see who hits the jackpot....

Okay. Here's what I tried.
1. The screen resolution 1028 X748 is where it's at. The icons on the desktop look fine. This is how it was to begin with. Lowering the resolution made the desktop bigger and all screwed up. Changed it back.
2. DPI in display settings was set to normal, so did not change.
3. PC is running REALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY slow. The hard drive is nearly full for one thing and she needs more RAM, but it is running slower than usual. Running a virus scan now.
4. Unable to get the system restore to go back to prior months. Think it is related to how SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW it is running right now.
5. When I went to the troubleshooting guide in display menu, the letters are oversized there, too. So it's not just online it seems.
WHAT ELSE to try? I do plan to replace her PC, I am rebuilding my old one which was much more powerful, but it is not ready yet.

start

control panel

display

apperance

font size normal

adj4u..I'll try that..but i don't recall seeing a choice for font size...hmmmm.....need to check that out

lower left hand side of box

Checking now. The stupid thing is taking forever to do anything....

It says Font size normal...but it is definitely anything BUT......... Looks normal in control panel and stuff, and on desktop icons...but certain areas like troubleshooting screen is extra large, and most web pages when on line......

AAArgh!

open my computer

right click on primary drive (usually c)

click properties

click tools

click check now in error checking

check auto fix check scan and recover

will get message can not do - do you want to next start up

click yes

this will take some time

when finished for the night

shut down and restart

it will run and hopefully fix it

Thanks adj4u. I'll have to try it tomorrow. I tried to stop the virus scan that was in progress, and the program would NOT close! Had to shut down anyway. Everything is just freezing up and taking 4-5 minutes for everything to load or for a link to open! I did send an error report when that screen came up, and come to discover the computer needs XP Service pack 2 installed. Apparently it is service pack 1. I don't know if that has anything to do with the other problems...like the REALLY slow speed, but will try updating it tomorrow or next day and will try your suggestion.

let it do it while yer sleeping

why sit around while it does it

and yes s p II is a thing ya need

update the driver of your video card, it may need a new or updated driver, sometimes a virus can mess up the drivers. gl

Thanks Brian, I'll check that out too. I wouldn't be a bit surtprised if she picked up a virus. I ran the virus program, but had to stop it in the middle due to the slow speed everything was running while I was messing with this other stuff. Last time I scanned the computer took at least an hour!

And adj4u, I'll try your idea tomorrow evening..... just don't think I can stand touching that thing again tonight.

If you are using the fire fox browser, then you can press down and hold the control key then press the " - " to shrink the letters or the " + " to enlarge the letters.

It sounds to me that you have several issues. It may be a good idea to back up all your data files (make sure you back up your e-mail and bookmarks as well) to an external hard drive, install more RAM, and reformat your hard drive, reinstall your operating system (and updates) and software, and restore the data files you need (and archive the ones you don't). If you don't feel confident you can do this yourself, it may be worth the extra few dollars to take your computer to a repair shop and have them do it. The benefits of performing these tasks will be a cleaner hard drive, a refreshed operating system, more free space, more memory, and the possibility of removing any viruses, spyware, and adware that may be adversely affecting system performance.

Just a couple of things if you do this: triple-check your data backup, be sure you have all software installation discs with serial numbers and activation codes, and check your data back up again (I really cannot emphasize this enough — your data backup is crucial if you want to retain your files, e-mail, bookmarks, etc.). I would also suggest getting an external hard drive if you do not have one already for regular backup and archival of files.

Good luck.

i didn't even read all the replies but try this one... open IE, hold the CTRL button, and use the scroll wheel on the mouse...

neat trick huh?