Repeatedly press F8 while the system is booting.. The very first stuff you see on screen will either be your motherboard splash screen or some text. When you get to the menu where you can make a selection, choose VGA mode NOT Safe Mode. That will boot your computer at 640x480, but it will boot with full driver support, just as if things were normal. Change the resolution to what you want after that.
Remember if you change it to something that goes 'out of range' DO NOT touch anything for 15 seconds. It will revert back to what it was after that time and you can try again.
Unrelated.. Go to school at UMR? or different Miner?