...Fix the desktop size?

[Mephistophelily]

I'm not sure what exactly happened, though have a belief that my little guy's slap-happy fingers had something to do with this...

My laptop has suddenly decided that the desktop view should only take up the space of a small box in the center of the screen, and with very poor resolution. Someone mentioned that it may be something to do with the BIOS... but didn't offer any more help than that. I don't know what BIOS means, nor where to find it.

Any help (in layman's terms) would be greatly appreciated.

 

[silverwhisper]

sounds to me like your desktop resolution's been rejiggered. this can happen in any number of ways--i'm assuming you're a windows user?

assuming you use windows...

whatever the case: all you need to do to fix this is right click on your desktop. this should bring up a menu, the last entry of which should be "properties". click on that.

from there, click on the properties tab, should be the last one on the list.

there's a section to the middle left labeled "screen resolution" with a bar that allows you to slide the setting to the right. as you do so, the resolution level will change (go slowly).

every now & then, you'll see the resolution shows (just beneath) a different resolution level. check out each different resolution level until you find the one that works best for you.

let me know if that doesn't address this issue for you, or if you aren't using windows, because the method of addressing this becomes entirely different.

ed

 

[Mephistophelily]

Yes, its Windows... ME, actually, though is being updated to XP- well, right now, if it behaves itself.

It's not the screen resolution itself that's having issues; its the desktop viewing area. Resolution is only part of the problem. I've tried playing around in settings and everything, but it doesn't seem to do a damned thing.


This is what I mean.

It's supposed to look like this...

But I have this.

...But not at this great a res. (This is a manip on my base comp, laptop is still a bitch.)

 

[HowMayIPleaseU]

It could be your monitor, not your software. On the front you should have some various buttons including one with a name like menu. Press that and one of the choices will be for horizontal size and another will be vertical size. You can adjust them from there.

 

[Mephistophelily]

On a laptop?

 

[Weird Harold]

It could be your monitor, not your software. On the front you should have some various buttons including one with a name like menu. Press that and one of the choices will be for horizontal size and another will be vertical size. You can adjust them from there.

On a laptop?

There wouldn't necessarily be (physical) monitor control buttons on a laptop, but there are likely controls for horizontal and vertical size somewhere -- probably in the device manager (under Control Panel ->System) under the monitor or video driver listngs.

Those settings might be in the SETUP program (commonly miscalled the BIOS): check your computer's documentation for how to get into SETUP (hitting DEL or ESC during boot are common methods) and find the monitor controls.


However, the Display Properties/Screen Resolution setting could be the problem. I have one program that messes up the desktop in a somewhat similar manner that requires changing the resolution to anything else and back to my normal 800x600 "True Color" setting.

 

[dave's thing]

go to desktop properties...
and make sure the desktop picture is set to stretch.....
then go to advance and play with the resolution settings.
ME upgrades to XP are known to reset themselves

 

[Ahren1]

ME? Well there's your problem... Reformatting it should fix your issues. ME is just a horrible, buggy OS and you're best getting rid of it. Start backing up stuff you need now, and reformat. That's my main suggestion.

Anyways, having your desktop picture set to stretch won't make a difference with this issue, since it's literally your whole desktop and not just the background. If playing with the resolution doesn't fix anything, then navigate to the device manager, figure out what sort of video device you use and see if you can update the drivers. Or possibly uninstall the video device and see if it reinstalls itself on reboot.

 

[cherokee_dove]

Go to start, control panel, display properties.

Double left click on it, then go to Desktop tab. To the right it says position. Make sure that says stretch. Click apply.

Then go to Settings tab. On bottom left it should say "Screen Resolution". Make sure that is slid clear to the right, at your highest pixel amount. Should say something like "1024 by 768 pixels".

Then on same page, click advanced. It will say Display. Then say DPI setting. Make sure that is set at normal size (96 DPI).

Then restart your computer.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mephistophelily]

The upgrade fixed the screen problem for awhile.
Then we tried to get the wireless card to start working again.

Now it doesn't do ANYTHING.
Compaq screen comes up, then goes completely black and refuses to go any further.
*twitch*

I swear I'm going to throw this damn thing.

 

[Mephistophelily]

Well, CRAP.
After some web-searching, I found out that this is actually a quite common thing to happen with XP and some laptops... Unfortunately, I can't find any answers on how to FIX it.

It had been happy with XP for like an hour. Now its so mad at me it won't even come on. All I get is the Compaq greeting screen then a stuck black screen.

 

[rydia57]

From what I've read XP is picky about which hardware and software you have on your 'puter. I had a friend who upgraded to it and the monitor refused to work. You might check which graphics or video cards are preferred by Microsoft or XP, cos that could be the problem.

 

[cd1_christine]

Read the post, people!!

This isn't the desktop wallpaper that isn't stretched to fill the screen, otherwise there would be icons outside the wallpaper, which it's pretty clear that there isn't.

This is a 1024x768 display showing a 640x480 image with a 1:1 pixel ratio, rather than resizing the image.

Having said that, fixing the display resolution <I>might</I> fix it, but it could also be a driver problem, among other things.

 

[Mephistophelily]

The desktop's not the issue anymore.

That's no longer the problem.

I've officially pissed off the computer altogether with the upgrading to XP.

It won't do anything more than the Compaq red logo. I hit F10 a dozen times to get it to ask me if I wanted Windows to start another way. I tried every option there, and it still refuses to load Windows in any manner.

Like I said, I did some internet hunting on how to fix it, but most of that tells me to go into start menu and do stuff.
Well, I can't DO THAT because I can't get INTO WINDOWS.

I have a Cd with Win98 on it. Figured, well, at least its not WinME... Tried to get that to install. Won't even acknowledge CD's in the drive.

 

[SweetErika]

If you can't get it to work, your best bet is likely going to Linux. You should be able to run the system off of a linux live CD now, if you need to use the laptop.

You might try something like Ubuntu (it's a good version for Linux newbies and is very well supported), and if you like it from the live CD, you can get help installing the permanent version.

Hopefully you'll be able to salvage some or all of your work (docs, pics, etc.) from Windows, but if not, at least the laptop won't be a total loss.

 

[Weird Harold]

I have a Cd with Win98 on it. Figured, well, at least its not WinME... Tried to get that to install. Won't even acknowledge CD's in the drive.

You'll probably have to reboot and hit del repeatedly as soon as it starts to reboot to get into the BIOS SETUP program to reset the boot sequence to boot from the CD -- the ubuntu/linux disk Erika suggested should be bootable if you burn it to a CD. There may be a bootable floppy version as well.

Your best bet once you get a working OS running is to use the factory Restore Disk to return the laptop to the factory configuration -- which will destroy any data on the boot partition of the HD, so back up anything you want to save.

Micro$oft has put so much anti-piracy crap into XP and Vista that it's hard to keep from having problems even with a freshly purchased copy. You're probably better offf sticking with the orignial version of Win ME provided with the laptop or taking Erika's suggestion and converting it to LINUX.

 

[Mephistophelily]

ahh.
Thanks.

...and crap.

I ebay'ed it, and it came pre-loaded with ME. Didn't include any discs at all with it...
Here's hoping my hubby's buddy can find his discs.


I suppose this is its revenge for him attempting to screw with it to begin with. Why's he always have to break my stuff?

 

[Weird Harold]

I ebay'ed it, and it came pre-loaded with ME. Didn't include any discs at all with it...

Google up DELL support and see if they can/will provide a replacement restore disk for your computer -- you'll need the model and serial number of the computer and a coherent explanation of how you came to own it without any disks.

 

[coastal-boy]

if this is an upgrade from ME to XP, you should have haad to make disks to get back if this happened...don't tell me he didn't

 

[Mephistophelily]

Its all better now!


One Eyed Jack is my hero.

 

[One Eyed Jack]

Awww, thanks.

I had to make sure you would be able to write now that we got a thread, right?

Or maybe I should charge you two threads.....

 

[Mephistophelily]

Seems fair repayment...

 

[One Eyed Jack]

cheaper then my usual charge...a soul (not yours if you can get ahold of another) or naming your first born/next child after me....