I just got a 19" widescreen monitor, after my 4:3 crapped out on me. How do I change my settings so everything’s not automatically stretched out? I don’t mind it so much on the text filled windows - the default type here is a little bigger now, which is nice. But it’s making my pictures a mess, and my husband’s comic books are almost unreadable.
It’s a Westinghouse “Plug and Play” monitor, so there’s no software. My computer is supposed to make everything work right automatically.
I’m running Windows XP with, I think, NVIDIA video card. I’ve been poking around a bit in the “Display” part of the control panel, but so far nothing obvious seems applicable.
Right click anywhere on the desktop, select “properties”, go to “settings”, then slide the slider to the right thereby increasing the resolution. You’ll need to experiment a little but LCD monitors have an optimum resolution and anything other than that can look odd (not to mention out of proportion). Check the manual that came with the monitor (or the box) and see if it lists a resolution and then use that.
The monitor should have shipped with a CD containing an information file (something.inf) that tells Windows its capabilities.
Unless it’s pretty old hardware, Windows won’t automatically know its capabilities - the .inf file just lays out the resolutions and color depths the monitor can do.
Failing that, set your display resolution to the monitor’s native resolution. Failing that, try updating the video card driver, and try a change from the DVI (white plugs) to the VGA cable (blue plugs). Or from VGA to DVI.
Failing that, have a look at a thread detailing what I went through a few weeks ago to make a widescreen monitor work right.
They can be irritating to set up initially, but once you get it sorted out, they’re wonderful.
The furthest right it will go is 1280 by 1024 pixels, which is the wrong proportion for my screen. The box says my monitor is 1440 X 900 - is there anyway to adjust those numbers by hand, or do I have to use the preselected ratio? They all seem to be for 4:3 monitors. Do I need to update my video driver? (It’s quite old, I expect: GeForce4 MX 400)
gotpasswords, nope, no CD. In fact their paperwork crows that there’s no CD and no need for one, as the monitor is “Plug and Play”. And, indeed, once I restarted it, my computer did recognize that a new monitor had been installed. It just didn’t change the…forgive my ignorance, but I only know TV terms…aspect ratio of images displayed. Everything from my desktop background to icons to Firefox windows is stretched wide, just like a “Fullscreen” DVD played on the wrong setting of a widescreen television.
The driver update just finished loading, so I’ll see what that offers.
You have to use the resolutions that they list on the slider. It looks like you’re going to have to try a new driver (this is the latest GeForce4 MX driver). If the new driver doesn’t work you might need a new graphics card.