I have installed linux on a removable hard drive. I am taking a course at a tech school on linux the teacher is only a few chapters ahead of us. But to the monitor isues on my home system
I have a nvidia geforse 2 gts card with 32m ram and a Nec Multisync XE17 Monitor supposedly with a H frequency 31-65 Khs and a V Frequency 55-120 Hz When the GUI loads Gnome I see
two full screens and part of another and they all overlap.
I have tried Puting this info with xf86config and xf86cfg
the first redhat load screen looks fine but has a really low color setting.

what resolution are you trying to use? and what does your XF86Config file contain? and what information does xdpyinfo provide about resolution and color depth?