New W7 user experiencing resolution problems

[Sy77]

Howdy y'all! My first post here. I wondered if anybody could help me out - today I finally dragged myself kicking and screaming into the 21st century by having Windows 7 installed (yes, another longtime stubborn XP user!) and I have to say it's a thing of beauty. Everything is running swimmingly except one thing - my screen resolution. My monitor is a 20" widescreen AOC N20W and the widescreen aspect worked great when running on XP. Now that it's on W7 my screen seems scrunched horizontally with 2 inch vertical black bars on either side of the screen when gaming (online golf) or just a very centralised screen when browsing normally with blank vertical edges.
Now, I wouldn't come and bug you fine geniuses without scouring the internet first - I have to admit I'm not very tech. I can't seem to find an answer for this. My graphics card is a GeForce 8600 GT and I've just updated the drivers for both the monitor and the graphics card with no change. My native resolution is 1680 x 1050 and doesn't go any higher. I've tried all the other resolutions but no change. I'm reading things about overscan/underscan and chipsets and aaaaarrrrggghhh! I totally suck at computers haha!
Has anybody else encountered this problem and come up with a remedy?

Any help in laymans' terms would be most awesome. Be excellent to each other x

 

[paulpicks21]

Hi Sy77, welcome to the forums.

I don't suppose your monitor has an button on it to auto fit the screen?


Paul

 

[Sy77]

Howdy Paul and thanks for the welcome

Yes the monitor does have an auto-fit thingy - but it just does its' shaky/wobbly/fitty thing (very tech, I know hehe) and just resumes its' size.
This is a really nice resolution as it is - it's very sharp and clear. It's just 'squished' inwards horizontally and if pages don't have the black bars then the sides are of the same colour scheme of the page, just redundant.
I've really tried looking into this and only got as far as the nvidia control panel and tried changing the scaling and fullscreen aspects with no joy.

 

[paulpicks21]

Have you tried resizing the desktop? (see pic)

And also, what is the resolution set to in windows? (Right click desktop/screen resolution)

 

[Sy77]

I would try, but my CC varies slightly. Whereas you have tabs for scaling and size, I only have tabs for scaling and position - and I've played around with both. Damn I want your control centre haha! One thing I have noticed - I don't know if this has any relevance - but my refresh rate is fixed at 60HZ in both the Nvidia CC and the Windows 7 display properties. There's a dropdown box but it still only shows 60HZ. I wanted to try at 75HZ but can't find the option to...

 

[Sy77]

Oh and the screen resolution is set to 1680 x 1050 in Windows - the same as Nvidia. Next to the resolution is (recommended). All the other resolutions are all blurry. There is no higher resolution than the recommended one available.

 

[paulpicks21]

I am running out of ideas.

You said " by having Windows 7 installed" in your first post, did you install it or did someone else? After installation were all the motherboard drivers loaded back onto the pc?

Quite often people coming from XP to Windows 7 have problems getting hold of the correct drivers for the motherboard.

I am not saying this is the problem, but it could be.

 

[Sy77]

Somebody else installed it for me. I've approached them about this and they have no idea.

 

[paulpicks21]

How about trying an older driver version for the graphics card before we start thinking about motherboard drivers?

These can be found on Nvidias website under "beta drivers and archive" I assume you are running 301.42 at the moment. Try some older ones such as 296.10 and see if that makes any difference.

Edit: this should take you straight to the download - http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/win7-winvista-64bit-296.10-whql-driver-uk.html

 

[Sy77]

I don't know how to do a screenshot but here are some specs if they help

System Manufacturer Foxconn
System Model C51XEM2AA
System Type X64 based PC
Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+, 2611MHZ,
2 core(s), 2 logical processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, Ltd 6.0 PG, 24/05/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.2
Hardware abstract layer Version = 6.1.7600.16385
Installed Physical Memory 4GB

 

[Sy77]

Oooops you posted as I was writing - I'm not sure what version I'm using but I'll look into it. Thankyou for your help for now. There's a good chance I'll be back - probably crying hehe

 

[Sy77]

Oh btw do I need to uninstall the current driver first or can I install the suggested driver straight over it?

 

[paulpicks21]

Oooops you posted as I was writing - I'm not sure what version I'm using but I'll look into it. Thankyou for your help for now. There's a good chance I'll be back - probably crying hehe

No worries, I just had a look for drivers for your Motherboard on the official website but sadly all the drivers are for XP not Windows 7. So I don't think we will get very far down that avenue.

 

[paulpicks21]

Oh btw do I need to uninstall the current driver first or can I install the suggested driver straight over it?

It shouldn't be too important, but just to be safe yes uninstall the old ones and then put the new ones on.

 

[Sy77]

Most awesome of you Paul - thanks for taking the time out

 

[Layback Bear]

Go to Nvidia Control Center and select Adjust Desktop size and position. While you are tinkering around in there wright down every change you make and the results so you have a reference. I also suggest creating a restore point before doing this. It may come in handy.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Go to Nvidia Control Center and select Adjust Desktop size and position. While you are tinkering around in there wright down every change you make and the results so you have a reference. I also suggest creating a restore point before doing this. It may come in handy.

Yup it's called Scalling

 

[Sy77]

Howdy Layback Bear! Yes I'd already tinkered around in that department with no result. Even in the scaling tab I'd opt for 'fullscreen' (the default is 'aspect ratio') and it didn't change anything. Pretty confusing... :/

 

[Sy77]

Howdy Solarstarshines! You posted as I was writing hehe!

 

[Solarstarshines]

Howdy Solarstarshines! You posted as I was writing hehe!

Howdy ! Welcome to 7 Forums

If you have tryed all those options did you try changing the port ?

I didn't read exactly how it is set up DVI HDMI try switching connection types and see if changing the connection ports give any results sometimes it works