Display size problems

[Serge]

I have a new Dell box running WinXP connected to a digital
monitor. When I run a game, like Starcraft, the monitor
gives me a message 'new mode' and then starcraft appears in
a rather small window, that is skewed to the right.
However, when I am running WinXP, or any non-game
applications (e.g. word, excel, explorer) the display is
properly oriented on the screen and of a normal size.

How can I get games to run using the whole screen?

Thanks,
Serge

 

[David Hollway [MVP]]

I have a new Dell box running WinXP connected to a digital
monitor. When I run a game, like Starcraft, the monitor
gives me a message 'new mode' and then starcraft appears in
a rather small window, that is skewed to the right.
However, when I am running WinXP, or any non-game
applications (e.g. word, excel, explorer) the display is
properly oriented on the screen and of a normal size.

How can I get games to run using the whole screen?

Serge,

From what you say, it sounds like your TFT monitor is not stretching lower
resolutions to fit the display panel.
LCD monitors have a "native resolution" - usually 1024x768 for 15" panels,
1280x1024 for larger sizes - and when lower resolutions are displayed, the
monitor can either display them at 1 pixel = 1 display dot scaling, or it
can stretch them to fit the native resolution.
To turn on display stretching, either look in your monitor's onscreen
controls, or, if it's a DVI connection from the PC and you have a recent
Nvidia or ATI card, look in the Windows XP display properties, under
Settings -> Advanced. For example, with my ATI Radeon 9700 card, I go to
Display Properties -> Settings -> Advanced, click on the "ATI Displays" tab,
then click on the monitor (identified as "FPD"), and then I find an option
"Scale image to panel size". It's been a while since I used an Nvidia card
but I imagine they have something similar.

An alternative approach, of course, would be to alter the game's in-game
settings so that it uses a higher resolution. This might not be possible for
all games though without unacceptably decreasing performance.

I hope this helps?