BleepingComputer.com: New Widescreen: Aspect Ratio Is Incorrect

Hi all,

I just upgraded to a 19" widescreen on a '03 Dell with XP Pro. They recommend 1440x900. I don't have that option on my contol panel. Everything looks stretched and not clear enough.

Is it just a driver issue? Something I can download?

Thanks!
Paul

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

This post has been edited by Animal: 14 December 2006 - 03:25 PM

Hi Paul, welcome to BC.
We need to know what graphics card\subsystem you're using (or even dell make and model). In the case of NVidia or ATI, you can often add a custom resolution setting via the advanced options menu, such as 1440X900.

HitSquad, on Dec 14 2006, 02:44 PM, said:

Hey-- thanks for the welcome!

This is all I can locate: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X -- is that what you're looking for?

I went to the ACER site and tried to download their driver for this monitor, and nothing happens. ???

WARNING: I'm pretty clueless about this issue!

Thanks,
Paul

Quote

That'll work for now.
Right click an empty area on your desktop and select "properties".
Click the "Settings" tab then click the "Advanced" button.
You should see a tab that says MX440, click it and a side menu will pop out.
Select "Screen Resolutions and Refresh Rates" from the menu then click the "Add" button.
In the "Width" box, type 1440. In the "Height" box, type 900.
Click the "Add" button again, then "ok" your way out back to the desktop.
1440x900 will now be an available option in your screen resolution settings.
Riight click your desktop again, select Properties>Settings tab. Move the slider to 1440x900, click apply, then click ok. If you don't see an "MX440" tab, you'll need to upgrade your drivers.
To do so, go here, select Graphics Driver>GeForce and TNT2>Your operating sytem then click the go button.
Download and save to your drive. Do not install them until you first uninstall the originals.

This post has been edited by HitSquad: 15 December 2006 - 05:02 AM

HS-- many thanks for your reply. I am at the office now, but once home this afternoon, I will follow your instructions and report back on the outcome.

Paul

HitSquad, on Dec 15 2006, 03:59 AM, said:

HS-- perfect instructions. It worked like a champ! Many thanks for your help. No one else was able to give me this information. It seems like it would be a fairly common issue too.

Thanks again,
Paul

You're welcome Paul.
Just a suggestion but if you have the nview desktop manager running at startup you might want to disable it.
It's not required and sometimes causes weird behavior and slowdowns with some systems. With XP, it will be listed in services as well as msconfig.

Hi,
at last I've found someone who is having the same problem is me! I'm sure there must be loads of us out there...
I've just bought a new laptop (Acer TravelMate 8215) widescreen, with high-resolution (1680 by 1050 ) and was appalled to find that the text is so tiny!
I've been fiddling with all the settings (listed below) , but haven't really solved it yet. There is nothing wrong with my eyesight, and I've shown the worst web pages to several people and they all agree the text just is not readable (well, not in a comfortable way)...
I used 'View' on Internet Explorer, and maximised the text size and I've also used the control panel 'display' and increased the text size to maximum, which again has not improved things. I decreased my resolution so that it is 1280x 1024, and it has enlarged some websites, but made some smaller -- and it it's now a bit blurry and (because of the widescreen) stretched out. I have also tried increasing the dots per inch... All to no avail! I even tried using the zoom function (whilst holding down control) but not every site will allow this to work. I managed to get everything in the correct aspect ratio at a much lower resolution, but then it's all too big.
I realised that what I really needed was to be able to set the resolution to a custom size, so that can choose exactly what size to have everything WHILST it maintains the ratio, so that it isn't distorted. I googled something along those lines and came up with this brilliant site. I read the instructions for this page and think this is exactly what I need, but I don't have the same graphics card, and got a bit stuck (computer skills are competent, but not advanced). I have an ATI mobility radeon X1600 upto 512 mb hypermemory graphics card. We went to the ATI catalyst control centre but didn't know what to do from there.
I'm assuming I'll be able to find a web site somewhere that lists the pixel sizes of various aspect ratios...?
I'm disabled, and use voice operated software, so I need to find a solution that doesn't mean I have to constantly be altering all these things on a day-to-day basis. I just want life to be as easy as it is at the moment on my old (non widescreen) laptop.
I have until Monday to decide whether to keep the laptop and want to try and fix this before then. Most new laptops these days have widescreen, and anything top spec has a very high resolution, so I can't be the only one in this predicament.
Any advice or help would really be very much appreciated -- and thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this post.
Forum fanatic

PaulInAustin, on Dec 14 2006, 05:40 PM, said:

Good to see you are OK now, Paul.

However, it is helpful, and sometimes required, to have the correct drivers for any devices one is using on a PC.

You should be able to download those drivers.

Once downloaded, you should be able to install them, which should give you the options that your monitor normally supports.

When you attempt the download, what exactly is happening? Maybe we can help you get this download, and then install it.

Hey Forum fanatic, to the board.

Looks like we have two similar problems going in this thread.


I'm curious, in "display properties", "settings", what are the lowest few settings (the ones toward the left or "less" side of the slider).

I should be noted that the "native resolution", in your case it appears to be 1680 by 1050, will be the sharpest, clearest setting. All others somewhat interpolate the pixels on the screen which, to a keen eye, may appear blurred or slightly "jaggy".

What version of Windows are you running? We may be able to suggest some settings which may help make the screen appear sharper at those lower resolution settings.

Hi, thanks for the welcome.

I'm running XP pro.

Available resolutions are:
800 by 600
1024 by 600
1024 by 768
1152 by 864
1280 by 1024
1400 by 1050
1680 by 1050 (native resolution WSXGA)

Surely what I want is a lower resolution but at the same aspect ratio (i.e. 16:10)
I found this on another web site:
WXGA: A resolution of 1280x800 resulting in an aspect ratio of 16:10. WXGA+: A resolution of 1440x900 resulting in an aspect ratio of 16:10. WSXGA: A resolution of 1680x1050 resulting in an aspect ratio of 16:10.

Is it possible to set a custom resolution? As I said, I use voice operated software, and I'm trying to find a resolution that is large enough for me to read, but not so big that not much will sit on the screen, and I have to spend energy/effort scrolling down and across. I think I want a resolution of 1280 by 800.
I hope you're not going to suggest I buy a laptop with that as the native resolution, as it's been very difficult to find anything to fit my requirements in the first place (Windows XP OS instead of Vista, matte screen, 2 to 4GB of RAM, 4MB L2 cashe, core 2 duo processor etc)
is it good for a computer to run at lower than its native resolution?
Many thanks for your advice so far, and I hope I have provided enough information...
Forum fanatic

You know, Forum fanatic, a lot of times when you buy a new computer, especially a notebook, even though it has never been used before, one of the first things one must do is update it.

Most people understand that they may have to connect to the Internet and download updates to the Operating System and some software packages, such as the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

However, after that system left the factory, the manufacturer, in this case Acer, may have updated various drivers on that system, too. So, if you haven't already, you should go to the Acer site to see if there are any newer drivers for your system, especially the video.

I believe you should be seeing some other resolutions, such as the 1440x900 one you mentioned, and maybe a newer driver will provide them.

Let us know, OK?