Hi. Sometimes when I restart Mandrake 9.1, my monitor screen goes all weird. I have to adjust it by manual settings. Has anyone else had this problem?

if by manual settings you mean the physical buttons or knobs on the monitor itself, then yes i've had this problem, and the good news is you'll soon be getting a nice new monitor. ofcourse the bad news is you'll be buying a new monitor which is tough on the wallet. in my case, sometimes the montor would be way off to the left, sometimes it would go purpleish(if that's even a word), some times it would go pinkish(if that's even a word) w/green and brown lines. i kept it alive for a good six months by smacking the crap out of it once in a while, however, be warned this can also cause the death of it(as was my case, one smack too many). you may or may not have a monitor going bad, a better description, would help us pin down, whether your having a monitor issue, or an x issue. hope that gives you some ideas.
good luck.

The monitor is not an LCD monitor, can't remember the name of the old teli like monitors but it is one. This problem only happens when I restart the system. My box has never powerd off properly, if this has anything to do with it. Never fixed that problem either. But I tried banging the monitor and that has not helped. It does not change colour, but just shifts position and narrows in the middle of the screen. Ounce I re-adjust it, using the buttons on the monitor it works fine for the rest of the poweron.

that really sounds like the monitor is going bad, and not an x issue. in my locale it is less expensive to replace the monitor than to have it fixed, for what that's worth. banging the monitor is not a good idea, didn't mean to lead you in the wrong direction, i was joking abit, sorry for that. as for when to replace it, as long as you can adjust it, and use it properly, i'd wait until it completely dies. hope that helps.
good luck.

It seems to have been having less problems recently. I think I will replace with an LCD soon. I have a spare but, it is bad for the eyes as it uses (forgot the name), but basically on the spare, the electrons are fired all over the screen, rather than from top to bottom. Anyway, thanks for advice.

I have narrowed down the problem, when I have a failed x launch then on the restart the screen goes mad.

that sounds more like a problem w/x. how often does x fail? are you tring different configurations?

When I type ctrl alt 1,2,3, etc, then try startx. It fails and I restart, and monitor goes mad.

it's hard to say, from your earlier descriptions, i was certain it's a monitor/hardware issue, but, from this recent description it sounds like something is wrong w/your x configuration. i'll have to do some reading.