Hi, Been having some strange problems with my laptop screen. I've been using my laptop as a media player alot recently. I'll plug the laptop into the TV and set it up as a second monitor so I can have things playing on the TV while I work on my laptop.

A few days ago I came to use my computer only to find that something very strange had happened to the laptops digital display..the contents of the screen had been squashed into one smallish vertical column.

The only way I can read my screen properly is if I set my second monitor as my primary display.

I've tried updating the graphics drivers to no prevail. I'm fairly certain the problem is a software based one, but failing that then it looks like I may need to take a trip to the service centre.

Opinions and reccomendations will be valued highly.

My graphics card is a Nvidia Geforce4 420 GO

Do the POST screens at startup also look squashed? If so, it isn't a software problem. If not, then it probably is.

dump the video drivers out of device manager, and reboot.
should clear up

If there's nothing wrong with the display on the secondary display, there's probably nothing wrong with your video hardware or your drivers for it.
It sounds like the LCD display is not getting enough high voltage. You may need to replace the voltage inverter that supplies the high voltage to your backlight in the LCD display.
For some info about replacing a voltage inverter, see response 5 in this:
http://www.computing.net/hardware/w...
Or, less likely, if this is a much used laptop, you may have developed problems in the wiring that connects the base of the laptop to the LCD display in the lid, often where it passes through the hinge, and you may need to replace that.