Intel graphics rotated through 90 degrees.

[Soapy Sam]

Here's a good one.

A work machine, running XP on a network, with internet access and someone's MSN Messenger set to kick in on startup.

First, the mouse stopped working. Followed by a second mouse.
At this point I got involved as the user came to scrounge my spare rodent.
Five minutes later, I got a call. They plugged the mouse in- it's an aging PS2 beast, so they rebooted.
Windows start up ran fine till the final hourglass before the GUI opens for use. At this point, the hourglass flips through 90 degrees and when Windows opens, everything, including the icons, is rotated 90 degrees.

I shut down everything in STARTUP and the registry RUN key using MSConfig. No change. The Intel Extreme Graphics panel displays a series of ??????????? marks and appears to be corrupted.

Any idea of how to fix?

Don't suggest turning the monitor on it's side, because that's what we HAVE done. It's a 19 inch CRT.

[Zep]

If the mouse and graphics interfaces are built into the mainboard then you've probably got a dead machine, I expect.

I would hazard a guess the BIOS has gone south (flat battery?), causing it to lose/corrupt the BIOS settings. You might care to see if a battery change and full BIOS reset helps. This is an extensive task involving taking the lid off and fiddling around with the interior of the PC, which takes time most of all. And you may not even get a working result...so is this worth it?

[Soapy Sam]

Is this worth it?-Zep.

Not for me it's not. The two loons responsible can explain to their boss who gets back on Tuesday.

The machine is working fine apart from the display and its tendency to kill mice- though I suspect that's due to physical abuse by a frustrated user.

I had not considered the CMOS cell. But I doubt it's the problem. It all looks too deliberate. I reckon they've acquired a nasty which has nailed the rotation settings in the graphic controller, then scrambled the controller interface so we can't reset it.

Could be worse. Its still viewable. You just have to lie on the floor!:D

[russell_morris]

Lots of graphics cards today come with a screen-flipping feature built in (my home and work machines both have this).

It may be that this has somehow been turned on - either by malfunction, or by a PEBKAC "accident".

The '?' character is displayed sometimes by Windows when it had no idea how to draw a certain character it has been asked to draw. If I remember correctly, drawing fonts vertically is not something pre-Windows 2000 versions did very well.

Is this a Windows 95/98/ME machine?

You could try fiddling with the video settings for a little bit to see if you can find out where the 'flip display by 90 degrees' setting is.

[a_unique_person]

My guess is a virus. MSN at work should always be a no-no. My kids have used it, and it always ends up with spyware and viruses screwing everything up.

Is there nothing on the properties page for the card?

[Soapy Sam]

aup- I don't think there is a card. Graphics are on the MOB.
I agree about MSN and not just at work. It's one of the first things I kill on any machine.

Russel It runs XP on a network. The users have no admin priveliges and can't uninstall or reinstall the Intel graphics controller.

We got the video settings reset by using a 48 hour old restore point, but the graphics contoller program interface is still a mass of ??? s. Could be a Russian version.

Anyway. I've decided to keep my paws off it. Not my problem.

[Zep]

Just a suggestion - reset BIOS to factory defaults, then "rediscover" everything, especially the HDD. Other than that, a firm paddling for the offending user.

PS. Blowing up mice is either the user(s) are ham-fisted louts who play hockey with it when not being watched, or there's something really wrong with that interface and/or power control on the MOB.

[Oleron]

Some Intel graphics drivers have this feature, which has probably been enabled by a shortcut key. Try this.

On the desktop, Right Click -> Properties -> Settings -> Advanced -> Intel Graphics (or something similar - depends on graphics drivers, probably the right-most tab) -> Graphics Properties -> Rotation - in there you can put it back to normal and disable the rotation -> Ok etc.

There used to be a virus years ago that did this but I find it unlikely that this old-timer would still be in circulation.

Alternative is to re-install the graphics driver.

[Soapy Sam]

Well, they seem content with the rollback. I'm leaving them to it.