text: i have an older dell computer, i just did a re-install and cannot adjust my screen resolution. any suggestions   oh wonderful dell computers and their "resource" cd.  i have run into many problems like this while doing re-installs for customers.  first make sure you have connection to the internet. it might be hard with your screen at 600 x 480 resolution. make sure service pack 2 is installed through windows update.   once that is complete, right click on my computer then click on properties.  your system properties window pops up. click on the hardware tab, then click on device manager.  here you will find all of your hardware on your computer.  find your display adapter and click on the + sign to expand it.  then right click on the display adapter and click update driver...  follow the wizard and let windows search online for the driver.  sometimes this takes a while, but eventually windows will find the correct driver and install it.  after a restart ??probably??, right click anywhere on the desktop to go to the display properties.  go change your settings from 600 x 480 to something higher to make the screen look better.  after that, you should go back to the device manager and make sure there are no yellow circles with exclamation marks on other devices.  if there are, right click on the device and update driver again like the display adapter.  then you should be all right.  the reason i say you should have service pack 2 installed is that in service pack 1, i don't think windows would look for the driver online or i didn't have any luck with it.  if you don't have connection to the internet, check your device manager to make sure your network adapter is installed.  i have run into situations when windows would not install the network adapter for older system.  then you have to do some research and find the right driver on the resource cd provided by dell.  once you find the right driver and install it, then you can get connected and start the process from the beginning.    tip:  once you get your system re-installed they way you like it, get a software program such as acronis true image and make an image of the hard drive to a set of cds/dvds or external hard drive.  when disaster occurs again, just re-image the drive back to your original state with your disks!  hope this helps!