blurry/bledding text display

after a session of fallout this fucking dell (inspiron 6400) pos keeps the 640x480 with 8-bit color when i exit.  i change back to 1280x768 and everything returns to normal, except that text displays that 'bleeding' effect, and i can't get it back to its former crispness

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8601/arghao1.png

there's only one hertz raate the monitor can display (60htz) so i can't do jack there.

any help?