I don't know what kind of monitor you have, but it sound like the others are unsupported? Or maybe the refresh rate is too high/low? Another possibility is widescreen monitors, in which case it might be drawing half the next line at the end of the current one.
The only thing I can think of is to check and see what it's being detected AS, and if switching to a console (ctrl-alt-1) makes a command line at all visible. From the command line there are probably some things others could suggest you try, like looking at your /etc/X/xfree86.conf file