Screen size

Archived from groups: comp.laptops,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Sounds like the screen wasn't set to max resolution and the option was
selected to not stretch the screen
"George Del Monte" <green.eggs@ham.net> wrote in message
news:H%Nhd.40$8G4.8@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
>A friend has a Dell Inspiron 8100. The other day, she asked me to see if I
> could do something about the desktop; it was, perhaps 4 inches smaller
> side-to-side and top-to-bottom and perfectly centered. The owners' manual
> was no help. Once before, the same thing happened and she paid a computer
> repair shop to "fix" the screen size. She could NOT remember what she did
> to
> cause the display area to shrink. Any help? No, it was NOT a minimized
> window - it was the desktop.
>
> Thanks.
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.laptops,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 15:48:55 GMT, "George Del Monte"
<green.eggs@ham.net> wrote:

>A friend has a Dell Inspiron 8100. The other day, she asked me to see if I
>could do something about the desktop; it was, perhaps 4 inches smaller
>side-to-side and top-to-bottom and perfectly centered. The owners' manual
>was no help. Once before, the same thing happened and she paid a computer
>repair shop to "fix" the screen size. She could NOT remember what she did to
>cause the display area to shrink. Any help? No, it was NOT a minimized
>window - it was the desktop.
>
>Thanks.
>
Another has provided the fix, here's the backround info.

A standard CRT 'paints' the pixels (dots) on the screen. When
resolutions change it can change the sizes of the individual pixels as
required.

A notebook has a LCD screen on which the pixels are fixed in size,
much like little individual light bulbs It will have a standard
resolution such as XGA (for example, and perhaps the most common)
which is 1024x768 pixels. With such a display, if one wanted to have
a 800x600 resolution it would be created in the 'middle 800x600'
pixels on the display and it would have a big black border of unused
and unlit pixels.

Precisely the same thing would occur on an 800x600 LCD if one
selected a 640x480 display.

Some notebooks will allow you to 'stretch' a lower display
resolution to fit the whole screen. In this case the pixels are
combined to create pseudo larger pixels. These modes work, but are
usually blocky or fuzzy and unsatisfactory. That is why it is in
general a bad idea to buy a very high resolution display while
planning to run it at a lower resolution if it is too hi-rez to
comfortably use.

Soames


"Never mind world peace, visualize using your turn signal"