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setting up a 20" widescreen LCD

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by mominmillbrook

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I received a 20" Samsung 206BW widescreen monitor and am trying to set it up so that things aren't so stretched. I am running Windows XP Pro with a 3D Labs Oxygen VX1 video card. The optimal resolution listed in the manual is 1680 x 1050. The highest resolution in the display settings is 1280 x 1024. This setting hasn't fixed my stretched issue, and in addition makes the text too small for comfort. The samsung manual offers no solutions. I would appreciate suggestions on what settings I can change, keep in mind I'm not a techie, so things need to be in fairly plain english.

7 replies

by thechas

I'll try and make this easy.

You do not have the driver for the monitor fully installed. Windows is still using settings for a standard width monitor and not a wide screen.

Did a CD come with the monitor?
If so, did you install the driver for the monitor?

If you did not get a CD, go to the Samsung support page and download the driver.

http://tinyurl.com/2m7par

Then, follow the instructions in the Using the software section of the user guide and install the driver.

Windows should recognize the correct monitor and allow you to select a proper resolution.

If it does not do this automatically, you need to open display properties.
You can either click on the display properties icon on the Control Panel, or right click on a blank area of the desktop (no Icons) and select properties.

Click on the settings tab.
Then, the advanced button.
Select the monitor tab.
Now change the monitor to your model of Samsung monitors.

This is all detailed pretty well in the "Using the Software" section of the Samsung user guide.

Chas

by mominmillbrook

You're right, all those instructions are pretty well detailed in the user guide.

I had already checked this, and the driver is already installed, and the display properties dialog box show the monitor and the video card listed. At this point I'm wondering if the video card is too old, or incompatible?

by thechas

Let us know what video card you have.

It may be as simple as updating the driver for the video card.

If your computer has on-board or integrated video, you may need to enter BIOS setup and increase the amount of memory available for the display adapter.

Chas

by mjd420nova

My unit came with drivers for HD and described the mode as 1440 by 900. This keeps the widescreen aspect ratio and eliminates the streching of the video content. It wasn't in the regular listing of the control panel. Look in the display function of the control panel and the settings tab. Or do a right click anywhere on the background or wallpaper of the desktop and select properties to get to the display/settings menu. The display itself should have a menu button on it to setup the monitor functions too. Scroll thru the different controls there too and select the Proper display of 1440 by 900 to get the right aspect ratio. Sometimes the monitor has to be set first before the full range of pixel by pixel functions will appear in the tab for selection Sometimes it's not automatic and once the monitor is set it may need to handshake with the video BIOS on boot up to allow full range and windows to make the options available.

by mominmillbrook

After some serious digging, I finally found a listing of different modes, buried in the settings for the video card. It doesn't list anything bigger than 1280 x 1024. I'm left with my original thought that the video card is too old/incompatible with the new monitor. I appreciate your help though, it made me look for something that I didn't know was there... always a learning experience!

by mominmillbrook

I am running a 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1 video card. The current driver is 4.10.01 .2105-2.16.0849. I followed the link provided to the 3Dlabs website, but there was no drivers section.

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