i used my brothers recovery cd, we both have the same type of laptop but a different model. we both have M series gateway laptops with vista home premium installed. like i said my brother says he remembers his laptop being at a crappy resolution at first and a windows update fixed it, i am gonna install the chipset family driver thing to replace the vga one. i am asking this now cause installing 50 updates takes a while and i do need all the help i can get, if i cannot use my computer during the update process i can use my wii internet to check yahoo answers. just remember: i do not have the money or time to bring it to a professional. one more question, how can i chat with microsoft support for free? i have done it before. i tried searching for it but i stumbled upon a non free support thing on the microsoft site, 60 bucks... if it helps its the screen where you enter your personal info and it tells you what order line you are in. i am almost positive that it was not a scam web site.