MS-DOS game display problems running under WinXp

[Guest]

I'm having some display problems running old DOS based games and some
DOS based emulators (such as Nesticle) under Windows XP.
The first problem is that games such as Albion install and run
perfectly except for the fact that about 15% of the right side game area is
cut off. It is running in fullscreen, at 800x600 resolution, the game window
is centered on the screen surrounded by black. The cursor is able to move
off of the right side of the viewable area and still interacts properly with
the game. I have tried ALL possible combinations of the "Compatibility Mode"
and "Display Setting" DOS properties. I have also tried starting the .exe
from inside a dos prompt with the same results.
The second problem with other DOS games (i.e. Nesticle) is that the
program goes to fullscreen with the small centered game area being rendered
1.5x. The game area shows up properly along with a mirror image of the left
half of the game. Again, all possible combinations of the "Compatibility
Mode" and "Display Settings" DOS properties have been tested.
The weird thing is that both games run fine when run using the DOSbox
emulator, or older versions of Windows. I have tried XP with and without
SP2. Just wondering if anyone knows any fixes to these problems, or if they
are experiencing this with other hardware.

My laptop stats:
Dell Inspirion 8500 Laptop P4 2.4ghz 512mb DDR
NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 Go 64mb DDR
15.4" display running at 1680x1050 32bit @ 60hz

-- THANKS!

_,.~*^*~.,_,.~*^*~.,_,.~*^*~.,__,.~*^*~.,_,.~*^*~.,_,.~*^*~.,_

 

[RobertVA]

Can you use the controls on the front of your monitor to determine the
vertical refresh rate? If the rate is different when the programs are
run in Windows XP's compatibility modes you may need to adjust the image
size and alignment on your monitor and/or Windows XP advanced display
settings. For some video accelerator drivers and monitors the settings
for one refresh rate are independent of the settings for other rates.
Many video accelerators produce different vertical refresh rates at
different resolutions.

 

[Guest]

I understand exactly what you are speaking of. However I am using a laptop
(System Stats are below) and there are no independent sizing or positioning
controls. I have tried using an external monitor and attempted to adjust the
sizing, positioning, pincushion, moire, and convergence but to no avail.

 

[RobertVA]

Unless you can solve the problem with a different display driver you
might have to stick with the DOSbox emulator. Flat panels and the built
in displays on notebooks are known for being particular about screen
resolution, often produceing displays with black margins or blurry
images when they try to remap fractional pixels to a whole hardware
pixel. Apparently DOSbox is handling your programs' video output efforts
better than Dell's drivers.

 

[Bernd M?ller]

Unless you can solve the problem with a different display driver you
might have to stick with the DOSbox emulator. Flat panels and the built
in displays on notebooks are known for being particular about screen
resolution, often produceing displays with black margins or blurry
images when they try to remap fractional pixels to a whole hardware
pixel. Apparently DOSbox is handling your programs' video output efforts
better than Dell's drivers.

Dosbox is good!

www.alexander-schmidt.de