Display scaling issue (not just in Windows)

Hey,

I recently bought a Sony VAIO All-in-One Desktop/HDTV (this is NOT the computer that I put in for my system specs on this site). It has a 24" display that runs at 1920x1200 natively.

Whenever it displays the Windows 7 loading screen or the BIOS (both around 800x600), the actual display's resolution does not change from 1200p. Same problem occurs if I lower Windows' display resolution The result is that rather than stretching the picture to fit the screen, the picture is instead displayed in a small area in the middle of the screen, with a black letterbox on all sides.

Every other computer I've ever worked with will stretch lower resolutions to fit the display. How do I get this computer to do that instead of just making the on-screen picture smaller?

Thanks for any help you can offer,
- Phil

P.S. I posted this in the "Chillout Room" because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Windows 7. If there's a better place to put it, please let me know.

smarteyeball said:

Look for a Aspect ratio/1:1/Fill setting in either your cards control panel or on the TV itself. It sounds like it's defaulting to 1:1 ratio which will give you borders etc.

The Intel GMA control panel has a place to choose aspect ratio settings, but the only one listed is the one I'm already on: "Center". I checked all over the unit itself, but I couldn't find any buttons, switches, or even OSD menu options relating to aspect ratio. I can't figure out why the Intel control panel isn't giving me any other options ... even if it did, would this fix the incorrect display outside of Windows?

Well, I've pored over the physical buttons on the display, the OSD menu, and the remote, and I can't find anything that looks even remotely like an option to change aspect ratio. I guess the next step is to contact Sony support and ask them where they hid this setting.

Orbital Shark, where you have that button that says "TV Settings" I have "Power Settings". I think this computer recognizes itself as a laptop display, so that could be why.

Well, I contacted Sony Support and they were no help at all. They just couldn't figure out what it was that I wanted to do. I finally gave up on that, and so I'm going to stay open to more suggestions from you guys, if anyone has any. I'm also going to try taking pictures of what this display is doing, compared to what I want it to do, just so I can confirm with you that I'm using the right terminology to describe all of this.

Orbital Shark said:

This may be your best bet

Intel increases driver support for Windows 7

Actually, that has been there for a while. That is what I installed on this computer during my attempts to solve the problem. Unfortunately, no go.