Windows 7 - Make Full screen actually look full screen

Hi guys, as most of you know, graphic cards are definitely my weakest point, so hopefully someone can help me.

Since upgrading my graphic drivers from 257.21 to 266.58 when I play a game (or other full screen application) I get a "letterbox" effect with about 3 inches being missing from the top and the bottom of the screen.

Im guessing that for some reason the graphics card is thinking my monitor is widescreen when it's not, but I'm damned if I can find a way to unset it in Nvidia Control Panel.

Any sugestions other than rolling back the driver?

We need just a little more information.. Is it just on one game or on all games?

If just one game, what game is it?

Thanks for the reply,

It seems to be on all games, I only play 3 games normally, Flight Simulator 9, The Sims 3 and Sid Meier's Pirates, and I have noticed the "Letterboxing" on all of them. I play all games on 1024*768 resolution, although my monitor is 1280*1024.

Have you tried pushing the games to play at 1280*1024

and are there any settings in the game to stretch...

TRY THIS IN THE SETTINGS
I DO APOLGIZE, I USE ATI SO I CAN'T GUIDE YOU TO THE CORRECT MENU BUT JUST LOCATE THE ADVANCE DISPLAY SETTINGS IN YOUR NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL

As far as I know, that can be set in drivers. At least in my NVIDIA drivers, under "Adjust desktop size and position" there is a choice:

"2. When using a resolution lower than my display's native resolution

* Use NVIDIA scaling
* Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio
* Use my display's built-in scaling
* Do not scale"

If this is set to "do not scale" or to "use my display's built in scaling" and your display, well, doesn't do it, then you get exactly what you describe.

As far as I know, this issue is in no way related to Shattered Horizon game code.

I found the option, but I only have the option to adjust the screen position, it says nothing about scaling. I think I'll try pushing it to 1280*1024 see how it goes, I know FS and Pirates should be fine with it, Sims might be an issue but I guess I can turn down the graphic settings a little.

I was thinking of trying turning my resolution down to 1024*768 before I start playing but I suspect that won't help as the monitor is still a 1280*1024, unless for some reason the driver isn't adjusting the resolution properly when going full screen

Thanks for your help

If the screen has a black border on only TWO sides, it is NOT a scaling issue.

Interesting, yes it is only on 2 sides, just the top and the bottom are effected. As I said, it looks like when you watch a widescreen video on a standard screen, you get the black bars at the bottom and the top.

Perhaps your monitor mfgr has a driver file for your monitor.

Looks like Acer only do a XP 32 bit driver for this monitor, hmm me thinks it might be time for an upgrade, I have had it nearly 7 years

That may explain the letterbox. No instruction available to the monitor to adjust the image. EXCEPT that it worked before. It is reasonable that you should expect your newest driver update to maintain this functionality.

I am confident, therefore, that we are missing a setting in your driver control panel OR the newest driver has a flaw.

I do not have an nVidia card at my disposal to to investigate the driver menus. I do recall how I had to wrestle with ATI's Catalyst on each update to deal with scaling/overscan. Oddly, Catalyst now automatically makes the adjustment for me. (I re-install OS's frequently)