Blonde Guy

Recovering from an OS/2 Screen Resolution Disaster

Here at Blondeguy.com, I've had blonde moments in which I've set the screen resolution to some value the display won't support, and then rebooted. Now the computer is working fine, but it's displaying a very small band of very random colors on the screen. Here's one clever remedy.

The computer has started, and if your like me, you've booted to the desktop. You can't see anything, but the computer is working. If you knew the sequence of keys to reset the resolution and reboot, you could key them in. Therefore, I've made the list of the sequence of keys to reset the screen resolution available on this web page.

  1. control-escape brings up the window list
  2. home selects the desktop
  3. enter gives focus to the desktop
  4. space desects any object on the desktop
  5. shift F10 brings up the desktop context menu
  6. Y selects system setup (if you get a beep here, go back to the start)
  7. S selects the screen applet
  8. enter starts the screen applet
  9. tab (twice) Only if using Panorama. Select the screen resolution
  10. up arrow decreases resolution (lots of up arrows for minimum resolution)
  11. alt F4 closes screen applet
  12. alt F4 closes system setup
  13. shift F10 brings up the desktop context menu
  14. D selects shutdown
  15. enter confirms shutdown

After that, the machine should boot at a useable screen resolution.

Last Modified: 31 May 2009
Graphics by Colorful Language
Copyright 2009 by Blonde Guy