Blacked out portion of laptop screen

[Praxis44]

Hi: I have a three year old Acer laptop with XP. For the lasy few months a two inch strip on the right side of the screen is blacked out and that portion of the display cannot be viewed. However command functions in that area remain active - but hidden. For example, if you accurately guess where "x", close screen, is located and click the screen will close.   I don't know whether this is a setting problem or a hardware problem with the display screen. What to do?   Thanks   

[Calum]

Welcome to the forums.
Unfortunately, it sounds to me like the laptop screen is failing, and that can be expensive to fix as you'd need a new screen.
Try an external monitor though, if you have a spare, and see if that has any issues.

[Geek-9pm]

Try an external monitor though, if you have a spare,
and see if that has any issues.

Right!
What is the laptop worth?
A new monitor may cost as much as a used laptop.

[computeruler]

Yup its phailing. Sell it on ebay for parts and then buy a new laptop because I doubt that it would be worth it to fix