Desktop Too Large for Screen

[Nige]

I have just purchased a second hand T20 Thinkpad with
Windows XP upgraded from Windows 98 I believe. The Desktop
is too large for the screen and the task bar is not
visible. The start button is burried somewhere off screen
in botton left corner. Also the sceen is very shimmery.
Have played around with the display settings and installed
the latest display driver from the IBM website, all to no
avail.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Nige

 

[Tony Talmage]

What exactly are you referring to when you mention "playing around with the
display settings"? If you haven't tried already, try lowering the screen
resolution to something small, like 640x480 or 800x600 and see if everything
fits on the screen. If so, then the previous resolution (most likely
1024x768 or higher) was simply too large to fit on the screen. I'm not sure
if this problem is still an issue with modern laptops, and I'm not sure how
old the one you have is, but that's what your problem sounds like to me.
HTH.

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600

 

[Squire]

Uhhhhh, Tony,
If you go to a lower resolution, it usually takes up `more' screen space doesn't it ?

 

[Tony Talmage]

More screen space, yes, but fewer pixels. If a monitor's native resolution
is lower than what the OP is trying to use, it would explain what he's
seeing. All LCD screens can actually display only a single given resolution
referred to as the native resolution. This is the physical number of
horizontal and vertical pixels that make up the LCD matrix of the display.
Setting a computer display to a resolution different than this resolution
will either cause the monitor to use a reduced visible area of the screen
(using a resolution higher than native) or it will have to do interpolation
(lower than native resolution). This interpolation attempts to blend
multiple pixels together to produce a similar image to what you would see if
the monitor were to display it at the given resolution but it can result in
fuzzy images.

My 15" flat-panel LCD on my home machine can display 640x480, 800x600, and
1024x768, as 1024x768 is its native resolution, but serious problems are
encountered when I try 1152x864 or 1280x1024.

--
Tony Talmage
Web Developer
Graphic Education Corporation
URL: http://www.graphiced.com
Phone: (888) 354-6600


Uhhhhh, Tony,
If you go to a lower resolution, it usually takes up `more' screen space
doesn't it ?

 

[Nige]

The lowest resolution I can select is 800 x 600 which
gives a very pixelated immage and leaves a black border
around the left side and top of the screen and still no
task bar. The screen is still shimering in a kind of
horizontal bar. This only seems to be happening on the
coloured graphics i.e. desktop picture. On dialogue boxes
there is no shimering in the grey backgrounds.

Appreciate your thoughts

Nige

-----Original Message-----
What exactly are you referring to when you

mention "playing around with the

 

[CS]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 07:33:35 -0700, "Nige"

Nige:

The native resolution for your Thinkpad T20 is 1024x768. So the first
thing to do is set in the correct resolution. Then from the display
properties, make sure that "cleartype" is turned off. Having
cleartype on tends to give a shimmering effect to the display.

Also, the Thinkpad should have an adjustable display setting applied
from an Fn key. Not all do, yours may or may not have it. You
probably need to check the manual if you have one. The IBM support
web site is generally very helpful and that's where you should go for
technical information and possibly to download a manual if one is
needed.