Out of Range Monitor Problem

On occasion in the last several months I will be working on the computer and suddenly the monitor goes black with an orange 'Out of Range' message. If I was listening to music, the music will still be playing, however I am unable to do anything other than restart the computer. When I attempt to restart the computer in some cases the 'Out of Range' message continues to appear. After restarting several times the computer usually will start normally. This hasn't happened recently, but I'm wondering if this is related to a problem with my video card.

"Out of range" is displayed when your screen-resolution or refresh rate is set to a level which your monitor doesnt support. For example, if you try to set it to 1600x1200 but you monitor doesnt support it, (however you graphics card does that is why you could set it) so you would get a blank screen with that message.

You should consult the manuals of both your video card and monitor, choose the highest resolution that both support and use it. Use optimal refresh rate

I know you already know how to set it - right-click on desktop, select Properties, select Settings tab and choose the resolution. If you click Adavanced and then Monitor you can aslso set refresh rate as well.

Thanks Romeo29. Is there anything else that would cause this issue (virus or something). I checked the manual and everything on the monitor is set appropriately. Like I said earlier, I haven't had this issue recently, so maybe the settings were messed up before.

Have you made any recent changes to the computer?

No recent changes to the computer. As I said earlier, this hasn't been an issue recently, but it did occur several times in a one month span awhile back. I'm dealing with some other issues with the computer (cannot boot in 'safe mode', computer defaults to 'classic' theme instead of 'xp' theme on restarts, etc) that I thought may have been related.