Moniter question for computer folks.

[Ron]

My monitor bit the dust last night.

My new monitor is 22" wide.

The Aspect ratio is off when viewing pages and even photos.

Is there some setting to preserve the aspect ratio? For my life I must be dense, I cannot find this setting it anywhere.

[PTK]

Is it a LCD? What was your last monitor? What was the desktop size set at on that monitor? What graphics card are you using? :)

[Waitone]

Assuming no graphics card, right click on your desktop--left click on properties--left click on settings tab.  Drag the slide to what looks ok.

[lee n. field]

Is there some setting to preserve the aspect ratio?

You probably don't want to "preserve the aspect ratio" if you're changing to a wide format monitor.

RTFM for the correct preferred resolution, and set your display properties to that.

[Cromlech]

Yup, change the resolution to the native one for the LCD.

A 22 inch display will most likely be 1680x1050, although you might find one or two in 1440x900 or even 1920x1200.

[Ron]

Yea, first thing I did was right click properties and mess around with the settings.

I'm running XP Pro, all I can choose is  1600 x 1200 or 1280 x 1024.

[41magsnub]

What graphics card do you have?  It might not be able to drive the resolution the monitor wants.

[Cromlech]

Hmm. If it weren't for you mentioning that the aspect ratio is off, then I would have assumed that it was a fullscreen (4:3 or 5:4) monitor then, going by those two available resolutions. Do you have any indication on the box or paperwork what the native settings are?

[Ron]

Hmm. If it weren't for you mentioning that the aspect ratio is off, then I would have assumed that it was a fullscreen (4:3 or 5:4) monitor then, going by those two available resolutions. Do you have any indication on the box or paperwork what the native settings are?

1680 x 1050

[Cromlech]

41magsnub may have hit the nail on the head. Is the graphics card discrete (removable unit in a PCI/AGP/PCI-Express slot) or integrated (built into the motherboard) like an Intel GPU?

[Ron]

41magsnub may have hit the nail on the head. Is the graphics card discrete (removable unit in a PCI/AGP/PCI-Express slot) or integrated (built into the motherboard) like an Intel GPU?

I'll open the case tomorrow and look to see if it is built in or a separate card. My company just arrived.

Thanks guys!

[41magsnub]

I'll open the case tomorrow and look to see if it is built in or a separate card. My company just arrived.

Thanks guys!

The bigger question besides whether it is embedded or not is what it is.  If you can look in the device manager let us know what model it is.

[Ron]

All I can come up with is this, is this the card?

SiS 661FX

[41magsnub]

Okay, after a little research I think you have the SIS mirage graphics card which is built into the motherboard of your PC based on the chipset you described.  The max resolution on that card is 1600x1200. 


http://www.sis.com/products/sis661fx.htm

I read this again and the page I found refers to the mobile version of the chipset.  Do you have a laptop or a desktop?  This page for the desktop says it can handle some pretty high resolutons:  http://www.sis.com/products/sis661fx_features.htm

If this is the case you might just need some updates.  Check this page:  http://www.sis.com/support/support_faqs_4.htm#73

[Ron]

Okay, after a little research I think you have the SIS mirage graphics card which is built into the motherboard of your PC based on the chipset you described.  The max resolution on that card is 1600x1200. 


http://www.sis.com/products/sis661fx.htm

I read this again and the page I found refers to the mobile version of the chipset.  Do you have a laptop or a desktop?  This page for the desktop says it can handle some pretty high resolutons:  http://www.sis.com/products/sis661fx_features.htm

If this is the case you might just need some updates.  Check this page:  http://www.sis.com/support/support_faqs_4.htm#73

It is a desktop PC

I'm going to pop the case open and double check that it is an onboard set up.

[Ben]

This page suggests that a BIOS update is needed for widescreen, but that it will disable DVI:

http://www.wimsbios.com/files/vgabiospatched/bios.jsp

[Perd Hapley]

What's with all the freakishly huge monitors these days? 

And when are prices on 17" monitors going to come down to something reasonable?  Like, say, forty bucks?

[Ron]

Well....I updated the driver and that got me half way there. Once I chose 1680x1050 my screen was grainy and the page didn't fit on the massive screen.

I also was getting an error when everything loaded up...there was supposed to be a utility installed that wouldn't load up.

What did help me out though was it installed a "check for new drivers" tab I noticed when I was looking in properties/settings/advanced.

Once I hit that it loaded up the proper drivers, configuration and everything works.

Thanks a bunch to all you folks for the tech support. I'm not totally illiterate when it comes to this stuff, I just know enough to get in trouble, lol.

As far as the huge screen fistful, photo editing should be nicer for me on the bigger screen for one thing. This is my first widescreen so I'll see how I like it.

Thanks again everyone!

[Ron]

You probably don't want to "preserve the aspect ratio" if you're changing to a wide format monitor.

RTFM for the correct preferred resolution, and set your display properties to that.

When I would view photos they were stretched, pretty irritating. Even watching my big screen TV I don't care for the stretch to fit option. I prefer to view everything properly. This monitor as mentioned will be nice for photo editing. Also I can watch stuff in widescreen without it being tiny.

[lee n. field]

And when are prices on 17" monitors going to come down to something reasonable?  Like, say, forty bucks?

17" tube monitors can be had for next to nothing, at fine garage sales everywhere.

[jackdanson]

17" tube monitors can be had for next to nothing, at fine garage sales everywhere.

I was trying to get $5 a pop for two 17 inch tube monitors at my last garage sale.  With an hour left I put "free" just because I wanted to get rid of them.... still didn't get any takers.

[Perd Hapley]

I was, um, talking about the LCD kind.  I see so many 19 and 22 and 87 inch monitors out there at what used to be 17" prices, I'm wondering when the 17's are going to come down some.

'Course, the old-fashioned tube screens have never come down in price either.    

[Ben]

I'm wondering when the 17's are going to come down some.

You'll simply see them disappear before retailers sell them at $40, especially anything not widescreen. Try and find a $40 15" LCD. Pretty much the only ones for sale new are expensive special application monitors -- touchscreen, ruggedized, etc.

Anyways, you need a big widescreen monitor to properly view that Serenity in Space image you posted here a while back that I'm now using as my background. It looks all squished and midget-y in 4:3.