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Video Games won't display full screen

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by jasonbis 1 view

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I have a new laptop 2.8 Ghz pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 9700 Radeon. I have been playing video games just fine until last night. All of a sudden I opened one of my games and it only displays about 1/4 of the screen. I reinstalled the game and several others. I also reinstalled the video card and have the latest drivers. It wont display any game full screen. My resolution for the desktop is 1680x1050 and displays the desktop fine. I have run this resolution during all my games just fine and have even lowered it to see if that would fix it bit doesn't. There must be a setting somewhere or a keyboard shortcut to make it go full screen. Please help.

9 replies

by thechas

As far as a setting, or shortcut key, we need to know the make and model of the laptop.

Start by running dxdiag from the run box on the start menu.

This will check DirectX modes and operation.
Any errors found by dxdiag will be very helpful in finding a solution.

Beyond dxdiag, perhaps the screen resolution is now locked. Many games only support 1 or 2 resolution settings.
(640 * 480 would be about 1/4 of your desktop)

Chas

by thechas

I've been through both the ATI 9700 and Inspirion 9100 manuals and did not find any shortcut keys that relate to your problem.

Looks like Oz's search through the forums may have the correct answer for you.

Chas

by jasonbis

I found the answer while I was on hold with Dell. While they were giving me the run around I was on the internet and found someone who told me about the ATI hotkey poller service which starts up automatically. I changed it to manual and my games go full screen. I don't get it but I can live with it. Thanks for your help though.

by jasonbis

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 and I ran dxdiags. I didn't get any errors and everything passed. But like I said before the games I play are Contract Jack and No one Lives Forever 2. They both support resolutions way over 640x480 and I was playing them fine for two weeks. It just happened 2 nights ago and here is the exact situation. I was playing contract jack and I needed to move the laptop to another room. So I unplugged it and closed the lid. I moved it to another room, plugged it back in, opened the lid and when I got back in the game it was small which makes me think I hit a certain key combination to make it do that. First I checked contract jack settings but then I went into other games and they were all like that so it has to be more windows related.

by oz_media

Check your Advanced graphics properties and ensure it that Full Screen No Border is checked. Otherwise it sees 1024 X 768 (for eg) as being full screen when it actually takes up just a small center window, it's kinda like 'stretching' your desktop wallpaper.

by oz_media

Seeing as you have a high resolution setting, I will definitely recommend checkign th Full Screen No Border option, this fixed the exact same issue for my laptop (different card though so I can't give you the path).

by oz_media

Another tip from the Dell forums is 'Full Screen No Border' is toggled with Fn+F7 Keys.

Here some mroe stuf it that doesn't work.

http://tinyurl.com/252ph

Have fun,
OM

by jasonbis

I found the answer while I was on hold with Dell. While they were giving me the run around I was on the internet and found someone who told me about the ATI hotkey poller service which starts up automatically. I changed it to manual and my games go full screen. I don't get it but I can live with it. Thanks for your help though.

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