Maybe some Dopers can point me in the right direction. My display goes crazy now and then when I use certain applications. Suddenly everything gets huge as though I switched to a very low resolution, and it looks somewhat transparent, too. (Here is a photo I took of the monitor while it did this.) However, it still acts as though I’ve got it at the normal resolution; clicking the mouse will activate what is in the cursor’s position under normal circumstances rather than what is currently being displayed in that location. Here’s an example: note the location of the cursor (circled) and see that the File menu is open with “Open File” highlighted. The cursor is where File>Open File would be if the display were normal.
This has happened sometimes when opening Google Earth, when closing AOL, and when I try to play some video files (usually .avi files I think).
This is with Windows XP Home, and my video card is an NVIDIA GeForce 6800.
I’ve seen that behavior before with my 6800, on only ONE monitor of a 2-monitor setup. Rebooting fixes it for a while? I fixed it by updating to the latest nVidia driver from www.nvidia.com (which is many versions ahead of the one that Windows Update will offer you – don’t let it downgrade you when you’re done!)
The latest version is 78.01, released about a week ago, but the one before that works, too.
Hm, if even the mouse location is wrong because of the magnification, it’s probably something Windows isn’t aware of - i.e. not really a software problem.
Possibilities:
a) A malfunction in the driver is somehow activating some sort of an nvidia “zoom mode” (NVIDIA tends to add a lot of weird nView features to their hardware/software). Try to update the driver from nvidia.com(not the card manufacturer, those tend to be worse)
b) A malfunction in the graphics card is somehow activating some sort of an nvidia “zoom mode”. Try another video card and see if the problem persists.
c) A malfunction in the monitor is activating a monitor zoom mode (Unlikely, since this would cause the mouse pointer to the in the right position relative to the pop-up menu, if I understand you correctly). Try with a different monitor.
Hope this helps.
