Im new.. Need help with screen resolution Please

[cedunn21]

Im new and not really sure which forum to post this but I am new to Windows 7. I used an upgrade disc i bought last night to upgrade from windows vista. Im not great with computers so please dumb it down for me if possible...

I have an HP laptop (pavilion dv4) and i use an external monitor with my laptop. When i use my laptop screen the resolution works perfectly, but when I plug my HP external monitor in it screws the resolution up by stretching the screen and making text fuzzy on the monitor and on the laptop it makes the screen smaller with black lines at the right and left.

anyones help and input would be awesome!

Thanks
-Eric

 

[whs]

Did you adjust your screen resolution? Right click on the Desktop > screen resolution.

 

[cedunn21]

I have and it never formats right.. just makes it worse.

 

[whs]

My next step would be to update the drivers.

 

[madtownidiot]

The problem is that the default multiple monitor setting in windows 7 is mirrored desktops with a 1024 x 768 resolution and your external monitor probably can't display at the recommended resolution for your laptop LCD. You can fix it by either disabling the laptop display when an external monitor is connected or changing to an extended desktop where one screen has just the background while the other has your taskbar, start menu and all your desktop shortcuts. Then you can adjust the display resolution to the default for your laptop display (the only resolution which will display clearly), and set the external monitor to any resolution it will support. You didn't specify which model of DV4 you have (that infomation can be found on the bottom of your laptop) so I can't tell if you have a integrated graphics chipset or an ati/nvidia graphics card, but you should be able to change the settings from windows anyway, just by right clicking on on a blank spot on your desktop and selecting screen resolution. Then highlight the monitor in the dropdown menu you want to use as the extended display, find the option to "extend the desktop to this monitor" or something like that (sry.. not currently on a system with multiple displays, or I would be posting screenshots) then adjust the resolution of each monitor.

If you post the model number of your system (Pavilion DV4-xxxxx) I can tell you exactly what your settings should be