Need some advice on a computer issue

[HickJ]

I currently own a Gateway e4100 desktop tower which has displayed some strange behavior lately. My desktop taskbar usually displays straight across the screen. At the bottom of the screen, like usual. But lately, it's displaying slanted. Like it's pulling out and away from the screen. My desktop icons look the same way, and so do my browser windows in Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. I've tried two monitors, flatscreen and crt. The issue persists. Switched out hard drives, the issue persists. So is this graphics card related or graphics driver related? Which means is this my Windows 7 graphics driver, or my computer towers graphic card? Acting up?

 

[CrispyEggos]

Any way you can post a picture/screen shot of what is happening here? It could either be the card or the driver to be quite honest. I'd want to see the actual problem itself if you can post it.

 

[HickJ]

Here's a screenshot. Notice the slant at the bottom. On Windows 7 in XP Mode. Happens on Windows 7 in regular mode as well.

So the backstory on this computer is I bought it from an e-bay seller and it lasted about 8 months before this started happened. The slant thing. Then I ordered another tower from the same seller, thinking maybe what happened with the last one was a freak thing. So I hooked up the new tower, and the same issue was there. So I got a refund from the seller for tower #2 today. I think this seller is selling towers with failing graphics or video cards. Because switching monitors, hard drives, should've fixed the issue if it were on my end.

 

[Jatelo2]

The slant might be due to tweaking, if you wanted to modify the appearance of your window XP.....Alternatively it might be just the monitor configurations which you can do using the buttons on the monitor and resize the desktop accordingly. In short, always start with simple troubleshooting before you check on the graphic card or the hard drive....

 

[HickJ]

I didn't tweak anything. I use a CRT monitor and FLAT SCREEN monitor. One for work, the other to watch movies. On BOTH MONITORS, this problem persists. It's not the settings. I haven't touched my crt monitor settings in a long time. Once I get them set, they're set and I don't touch them. Especially because my CRT is one of those models with the turn-button in the middle? So settings like color or contrast have no specific number. Just a bar that increases or decreases a notch with each turn. Very confusing. Can't write down or memorize any specs.

So when I get things set how I want them I leave them! I never investigated simple trouble shooting since I know I never touched anything. And I even did Windows system restore all the way back to March 17th. About 2 weeks and 3 days before this problem first started. And the problem persisted. Switched out drives, problem persisted. I don't change anything on the monitors except color settings for my FLAT SCREEN because it shows my desktop too bright. But when I change those settings. I use my intel graphics controller which I can access from my desktop through graphics properties. And I just change contrast and brightness. Nothing else. So it's obviously a graphics card or video card issue.