I noticed when I started this PC up today that the text looked as if it was 'scaled' - so I go to the display properties menu, and the resolution that it was set at just yesterday (1680x1050) is not even selectable. The highest setting I see available now is 1600x1064 (at which it's currently set at.) The thing is, I haven't changed a damn thing, nor have I installed any new shit lately, so why the fuck isn't it letting me get the full resolution out of my monitor? I tried updating drivers for the monitor, display adapter (video card), and nothing. Anyone got any ideas?
You ran an application that is still resident in memory and incapable of running at that higher resolution mode. Solution run said application in a different mode (right click on the exicutable that starts the app) After a reboot did the problem persist? Does the problem follow to a different profile? Sounds to me like a driver issue. You like to play games using simulator software right? A lot of which are running in 16 bit right? When did you first notice the problem and what was the last thing you did? Have you checked your audit logs? .... Ah for you it's likely right click "My Computer" and then choose "Manage". If the problem is just on the lomo profile then it is isolated to a setting there and not the driver. If the problem shows itself on different profiles then it's local to the system "local profile" check the driver.
XP SP2, no games ever played on this PC, NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 (AGP 8X) 64 meg, has always done fine running dual-monitor (1024x768 analog on 15" LCD, 1680x1050 digital on 20" LCD) - never had a problem. I use this PC for Internet, email, and burning only. Haven't a clue why this shit started. Joe - I don't know who you're thinking about, but I never play PC games. I also never ran any application that required a higher resolution than I was using (hell, never used any app that even asked me what my res. was)... Tried the driver update, did the reboot, and as of the third time, I posted this problem to the masses here. But thanks anyway... Anyone else got an idea?
Sometimes monitor resolutions 'pop' that is revert back to their industry default resolutions, double check on the monitor that the V/H size and position are in the correct setting for that monitor. Also when something happens to some of the circuitry and as monitors get old, some have been known (from personal experience) to physically lose the ability to show such and such resolution, from over use and other stuff. I would also look into the graphics card too, as it seems a bit of an old model. as 64mb is really not adequate for such high resolutions, especially dual monitor, I could litterally have died, or burnt out a capacitor needed. The 64mb will be handling a lot of throughput for that resolution, seeing as a bitmap (how windows stores each of the screens) in that res comes out at 5mb, times this by 2 and thats 10mb just for the frames being displayed right that minute, thats not including the backbuffer which will have frames of what you are doing next, ie moving the mouse down the screen, needs many frames. IF I was you I'd get a slightly better card to help handle that res/ double monitor, or drop a monitor, or drop res.
Get Driver Sweeper. Uninstall and sweep all Video drivers. Reinstall and the problem should correct itself?
Sorry, I was working on passing out when I posted my last reply, and when I woke up today I was stuck looking at 640 x 480 stretched out to 20 inches... I guess the last thing I did last night was uninstall my video card and re-loaded the ViewSonic CD (either neglecting to change the video settings afterwards, or doing it wrong)... Was able to fix it today (sober), so we're back to normal now. I know I'm really pushing that video card, but it's a AGP 8X, and I don't want to buy a new video card until I build a system with a PCI express slot. Eventually, most of the hardware in that tower will be donated to the future 'emulation PC' in the living room, so I'll upgrade the video card then... Thanks for all the replies...
