Problem with new monitor

[Jim Oaks]

I gave my old Toshiba laptop to Vanessa but the monitor started going (only 1/2 screen showed up). I decided to by a computer monitor to hook up to it and use it like a desk top monitor.

I can't get it to look right. The view is wide and doesn't look like it's tall enough. The aspect ratio is off. Stuff looks like it needs resized. The settings in the laptop for screen resolution is either 800x600 or 1024x768. The new monitor (acer) appears to be 1366x768. This sucks. You would think the monitor would adjust and just display at 1024x768 instead of distorting. The monitor has buttons for a menu that pops up for adjustment. I took it off full screen to aspect, but it's still off some.

 

[Jaymz9350]

How old is the laptop? If it's to old it may not support the wide screen resolution of your new monitor.

And the monitor will look like crap unless it is run at it's native resolution no matter what you do.

 

[Jim Oaks]

Laptop is from 2005 running XP

 

[srteach]

check for updated drivers for the laptop. they may include other resolutions for secondary displays.

 

[shane96ranger]

If it's to old it may not support the wide screen resolution of your new monitor

This is most likely going to be the case. One of the unfortunate things about laptops is you are stuck with the video card. There is a slim chance that Toshiba offers a new driver for it like srteach says, but pretty unlikely because the OEM screen is not a widescreen. Looking at a widescreen monitor being driven off of a non-widescreen signal gives me a headache.

I just fixed a guy at work's Toshiba screen which was made in 2006. His screen was blacked out, caused by a bad LCD inverter ($5.50 part). I doubt that is your problem, it's more than likely a bad ribbon or bad screen. But my point is that you can find parts for them still on Ebay relatively cheap if you are interested in repairing it.

 

[cody93]

drivers or age dont realy affect it, its mainly a case of the pc knowing that the lcd screen will not handle the widescreen.

try changing the avilble display modes manually, goto the display settings, goto advanced, then goto the adapter tab, then select list all modes, look for the resolution your external monitor uses and thats it.

note: if your display settings are set for widescreen, the 4:3 laptop lcd wont work right, if at all.

btw, has anyone seem any non widescreen displays being sold nowdays, i realy dont like widescreens. my monitor is a 1993 IBM crt monitor and ive been offered new ones but turned them down.

 

[Jaymz9350]

drivers or age dont realy affect it, its mainly a case of the pc knowing that the lcd screen will not handle the widescreen.

try changing the avilble display modes manually, goto the display settings, goto advanced, then goto the adapter tab, then select list all modes, look for the resolution your external monitor uses and thats it.

note: if your display settings are set for widescreen, the 4:3 laptop lcd wont work right, if at all.

btw, has anyone seem any non widescreen displays being sold nowdays, i realy dont like widescreens. my monitor is a 1993 IBM crt monitor and ive been offered new ones but turned them down.

actually drivers (and age of them) will effect it. my mom had a desktop that wouldn't run a widescreen due to drivers. The integrated GPU's on motherboards don't get supported as long and if the driver doesn't support widescreen your out of luck.

And as to non widescreens, I have seen them available but they are way over priced as demand just isn't there any more.

 

[shane96ranger]

drivers or age dont realy affect it, its mainly a case of the pc knowing that the lcd screen will not handle the widescreen.

I beg to differ. If a video card can not display wide screen, it does not have the correct driver for it. Age has a lot to do with it too. Like you say, how many widescreens were there in 1993? If you had a video card made in 93, it wouldn't even turn on a newer widescreen.

Jim's original question was how to get the correct display mode. His laptop does not have widescreen drivers so it looks goofy. It turns the screen on, but everything (especially words) looks all skiwampus.

 

[Black2000Ranger]

Drop the colors down to 32 bit if it's at 64 and 16 if it's at 32 and you will get a wide array of possible resolutions. Your video card probably just can't handle the fury..

 

[ufgators68]

Or you could just replace the laptop monitor. It's rather inexpensive and only takes about 30 minutes to install.

 

[shane96ranger]

Or you could just replace the laptop monitor. It's rather inexpensive and only takes about 30 minutes to install.

This would be my suggestion as well. Usually you can find one for around the same price as a monitor.

The thing is, it's a laptop. It doesn't have a vast array of display modes like an aftermarket video card would. The original screen was not wide, so this makes it very unlikely that it would have any wide display modes. I've never seen one that does not have a wide display, but does have a card that will drive a wide display externally. I'm not saying they don't exist, but I've never seen one, and I work on these things all the time.

 

[shane96ranger]

Here's Toshiba's download/update page.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/support/jsp/home.jsp?nav=Download&sn=false

 

[cody93]

sometimes it dose work, if the GPU was used in a different model with widescreen, then theres a chance to force it into widescreen mode, the laptop will not like it as it know that the lcd can only do 4:3 modes so its left out in settings. ive even done it on old laptops, 2001 era, were ive hooked it up to a friends widescreen monitor by forcing it into that resolution, altho i didn't have oem drivers, just generic ones for that gpu. most newer ones will do widescreen, an old 1993 VLB card wont. i guess there are times when adding new drivers will add more video modes but i rarely see it happen