BAD Problem- PLEASE help

[Qion]

Problems like this don't usually happen to me.... I feel like an idiot. On one of my eMacs, I was screwing around with what resolutions it could really display. I was using an app called "SwitchresX" that worked through AppEnhancer to force the computer to pump out a custom resolution. Well, once it hacked in a res to be default, I picked it, and my monitor went black. When I restarted, it displayed the spinning round thing fine to signify starting up, but as soon as the login window was loading, the display went black again because of that stupid hack. I don't know what to do about this, because the computer works perfect except for the black screen. I have another eMac, and they both Macs have Airport X in them.(I tried a VNC program, but obviously I couldn't get a server running from the blank-screen mac der....) How do I resolve this problem?

Thanks in advance, and if I wasn't detailed enough just say so.

[riccbhard]

This should work:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

It resets the display resolution, refresh rate, etc...

You will probably have to set the clock again.

This explains what's stored in PRAM:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86194

[Qion]

Nope, that didn't work. Like I said, this is a software-based hack, and is part of my user profile and system preference pane. Resetting the PRAM just reset to the default res on startup, but as soon as it got to loading the login screen, the hack switched the res back to the unsupported black screen.

[riccbhard]

Im not sure what to do.
You could try contacting the company that makes the hack.
I'm sure one of our experts will come along and help.

[adambyte]

Start up your screwed-up Mac in FireWire Target Disk mode by holding down the "T" key at startup. Then, plug it in to another mac. On the working Mac, the screwed up Mac will appear as an external hard drive. Remove offending file. Worth a shot.

[Darkshadow]

Try moving /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist somewhere other than /Library/Preferences (or delete it).

You can do this by booting into single user mode, then type mount -uw / at the prompt. Then either use mv or rm to move or delete the plist file (whichever you prefer).

If it works to the login window, but then goes black when you login, also go back through and delete /Users/USER_NAME/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.UUID.plist (UUID there refers to a bunch of numbers that uniquely identify your machine) - I don't think you will need to, but you may. If this does happen, it's probably best to delete the first file again as well, just to be sure.

[Qion]

Mucho gusto darkshadow! I used the Airport cards to erase the files I needed, and my Mac is just how it's supposed to be! Huzzah!

(Now I can watch that House of Flying Daggers DVD)

[Qion]

Oh, and a sidenote, I managed to get my eMac to display 1600 x 1200 and still work fine. It was when I tried higher than that it went black.