Please save me from throwing my computer against a wall.

Forgive me, I know this kind of thing has probably been covered on here a million times but I ran a search and couldn't find anything that helped.

Yesterday I purchased an AOC 22" monitor to use as an external display for my HP mini 110-3100 netbook via a vga connection. Unfortunately, and even after downloading the required drivers, I can only choose between two resolution settings - 1024x600 and 800x600 - neither one of which come close to using the full potential of the Mini's intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150 graphics card and both of which cause the display on the monitor to look all grainy and webpages to not display properly. If I try to use the 1024x600 the display is so wide it doesn't even fit on the screen. The 800x600 fits, but looks like shit.

The netbook is running Windows 7 Starter, could that be the problem? If it's not is there some way to create a custom resolution, one that would work better with the AOC?

I'm all out of ideas and about at my wit's end with this thing so I would greatly appreciate any help that could be offered, even if it's been offered before ad naseum.

Thanks guys.

Dan

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

To be fair, a netbook is good for surfing and e-mailing, but it does have limitations.

Windows 7 Starter- what are the limitations? - Microsoft Answers

If you want to use it as a netbook you should be fine, but if you want to use it as a notebook, I'd recommend an upgrade to Windows Home Premium.

Windows Anytime Upgrade - Buy and download today or have it delivered from Microsoft Store UK

Thanks for the quick response. The page you linked to says that multi-monitor support is not included in Windows 7 Starter. . . . I guess that's my answer then. The external monitor does work it just doesn't work like it's supposed to but I guess it will if I upgrade my OS.

Windows 7 Basic doesn't exist anymore or is it the same thing as W7 Starter? I'd like to avoid spending the money on Home Premium if I can.

You can disregard that last post. After looking around a bit I guess Basic and Starter are the same thing.

One last question. Will the 1gb of RAM in my netbook be enough to run Home Premium without much difficulty or will I need to buy another gig? I only use that computer for word processing and web surfing so I don't need much performance, just enough to run a web browser and word processor simultaneously.

Microsoft recommend 1GB, but you might want to read this article, whose author claims to have run Windows 7 on as little as 160MB of RAM!!

How much RAM does Windows 7 really need? - techPowerUp! Forums

I would think the RAM you've already got will be fine for your needs.

Wow. I guess my netbook's measly 1gb is relatively herculean compared to what is actually needed.

Thanks so much for your help. I appreciate it.

You're very welcome, pleased to have been of help.

Before you pay again for 7, why not give Linux a shot? Seeing as you will be wiping it anyway.