Sometimes If my flat screen just gets tilted a bit the screen will look different?

or

Do you have adjustments on the monitor itself? usually in the front.

mine has one for an auto refresh - and it will reset any minor changes.

or if none of those work-

as you did - go back to the properties/ appearance {if win XP} click on advanced button and you can double check to see if the menu bar fonts are set for black{ there's a drop down menu or you can just use the mouse to click on any area in the little window that you want to check the settings on}

hope something here helps- let me know if you need more info/help.