Pictures showing too wide after Win7 Re-install

kwil · 24 Jan 2015

Hi...
I've just tried my first re-install of Win7.
All went well but when I downloaded a pic, it looks 'stretched', no matter from which site.
I'm running Win7 Home Premium, 64-bit, Intel i7. The graphics card is built-in to the chip

I have a full HD monitor and have the display at 1024 x 768.
I've tried changing this just to see what would happen. Well, picture still 'stretched'.

I'm now beginning to regret my first attempt at re-installing Win7. It's run perfectly since 2011! I just felt it couldn't do any harm to give it a fresh start.

I'm probably doing something dumb, or forgetting to tick some box, since clearly I'm not in the habit of re-installing Win7!
So can anyone suggest a remedy to make my pix look 'normal'???

Many thanks

dsperber · 25 Jan 2015

kwil said:

I have a full HD monitor and have the display at 1024 x 768.
I've tried changing this just to see what would happen. Well, picture still 'stretched'.

This is undoubtedly the cause of your "stretched" appearance. 1024x768 is the wrong desktop resolution for a rectangular "full HD" screen (which is most likely a 16x9 or 16x10 flatscreen), and will product the distortion you describe. No 16x9 screen doesn't also have a 16x9 "native" resolution like 1920x1080 for a "full HD" flatscreen, or maybe 1600x900, or 1366x768 (for lesser quality or smaller rectangular-shaped monitors). 1024x768 is a 4:3 resolution generally associated with the pixel presentation on the old 4:3 CRT's, and if specified on a rectangular screen will definitely present things with an incorrect "stretch/distortion" as you describe.

Since your machine has built-in Intel graphics, and if you've now done all of the Windows Updates to get your newly reinstalled Win7 current, I would have expected that the proper latest Intel graphics driver would also be already installed. So theoretically those drivers would have no problem supporting a "native" 16x9 resolution of 1920x1080. You shouldn't have selected 1024x768, if you've manually done that.

If you have a "full HD monitor", I assume you mean you have a rectangular-shaped flatscreen. Your SPECS show 1920x1080 screen resolution, but that may be for your old setup before this new fresh reinstall. Indeed, 1920x1080 is what is described as "full HD", in that it can present a native HDTV program of 1920x1080 size with no rescaling or other tampering.

However you need to set your desktop graphics resolution to match that of your monitor, assuming you're still using the same 16x9 flatscreen monitor.

Anyway, right-click on desktop, select "screen resolution". What is your current resolution as shown... 1920x1080, or truly 1024x768 as you said in your post?

And if it's currently 1024x768 as you say, if you click on the down-arrow of the "Resolution" dropdown list, does the dropdown menu which appears show that you can slide up your resolution to "1920x1080 (recommended)" as I'm hoping it does? If so, pull the slider up to that top value and push OK, and then confirm that you want to "keep this change".

Report back, and we can complete any additional display properties cleanup after that (e.g. larger text size from 100% to 125% if you feel things are just too tiny, etc.).

kwil · 28 Jan 2015

Hi dsperber

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.
The display currently is at 1024 x 768
In the Display box : Generic PnP Monitor on Standard VGA Graphics Adapter. clicking the dropdown arrow offers no other choice.

In the Resolutionbox, moving the slider gives only the following options: 1280 x 1024 > 1024 x 768 > 800 x 600
No option for 1920 x 1080!

I just don't understand why this has happened.

As I said, all was well before the re-install
Any additional suggestions would be gratefully received.

Regards

profdlp · 28 Jan 2015

You just need to reinstall your graphics driver.

Go here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24593&lang=eng

kwil · 28 Jan 2015

Hi fellas....again thanks for the info.
However, just updated Win7 again and...for some reason, I now have the correct screen resolution: 1920 x 1080!!

All's looking the way it should!!

Much appreciated!!

dsperber · 28 Jan 2015

kwil said:

In the Display box : Generic PnP Monitor on Standard VGA Graphics Adapter.

This is not the way an Intel HD Graphics adapter should look when the correct Intel driver is installed. When the proper driver is installed the display adapter name changes to something like "Intel HD Graphics Family".

And without the proper driver installed, it is the generic vanilla MS VGA graphics driver that is still being used. This driver has basic functionality, but doesn't take advantage of all the graphics hardware functionality and capability. And because of these limitations in the MS generic VGA driver, that's why the full 1920x1080 resolution is not available.

And since you're running with 1024x768 which is intended for a 4:3 screen and is NOT really the proper "(recommended)" resolution for your 16x9 screen, that's why things are not displaying with the proper aspect ratio but appear to be distorted and improperly stretched.

So, as was suggested by profdlp, if you would have manually installed the correct Intel driver for your Intel HD Graphics, everything would have been resolved. And as I puzzled, if you had gone through all of your Windows Updates previously the correct latest Intel driver should have automatically been downloaded and installed, and everything would have been resolved. So either way, the solution was to get the true correct Intel driver installed for the Intel HD Graphics.

Now, as to why your latest Windows Update finally got the correct Intel graphics driver while all of your prior Windows Updates did not... don't know.

But if you look in Device Manager now, I'm sure you'll see "Intel HD Graphics Family", confirming that the correct Intel driver is now finally installed. And that's why you now see 1920x1080 as the "(recommended)" native resolution, with proper aspect ratio now presenting for everything.

Glad you finally got this resolved.