Charles,
When you say "disappear", I assume that you're talking about the position
of the graphics screen shifting a bit when in higher resolution modes, and
this shift is causing some of the graphics area to become obscured. This is
caused by the board/monitor combination and is independent of any drivers
being used. You might want to have your friend check out the vmode utility
to see if he can configure the board for his monitor or adjust and save his
high resolution mode/monitor position. If not, about the only other thing
to do is adjust the monitor's vertical position each time. It's not elegant
but it will work.
Brad Ek [Panacea Inc.]