Full screen applications don't use full screen!

Hey guys,

I wonder if someone can help me, I'm really getting stressed because this problem is really bugging me.

Any application like a game or a presentation wont use the entire monitor! It centers itself into a square and leaves a huge gap on each side.

I cant take a screenshot so I will try to draw an example.
http://www.vistax64.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=13297&stc=1&d=1244292237
Imagine the white is the application and the picture is my entire monitor.

Can someone help me please? I dont know what else to do. I've updated the drivers and nothing seems to work!

It's a HP Compaq 6710b, I haven't changed any display hardware. I've changed the RAM that's it.

Any help appreciated.
Thank You

im assuming you have a widescreen monitor, i have this feature on mine, il take a few screenshots with my phone to show what it does. this picture is the scaling options for flat panel monitors:

now, with this enabled, at your monitors default resolution, will appear like this:

now with it set at a resolution that isnt your monitors default will appear like this:

to stop this from happening, simply find out what your default resolution is for your monitor, and set the application resolution to this.

if you cannot find anywhere to set the default resolution, you can have full screen by reading through the manual for the monitor, there will be an option to remove the aspect ratio scaling on the monitor somewhere if you cant set it on windows.

The resolution you want to set up the screen is 1280×800 for your notebook.

I would check the resolution. I have noticed that I can set my game resolution to lower than the monitor resolution. Some games spread the window out and only show the game, some show the game window as a smaller square on the monitor when the resolutions aren't the same.

For some reason I cannot change the resolution on the Default Moniter.

There is another option in the drop down box but I don't think that works even when I click on it.

monitor 1 is the active monitor.

I still can't seem to fix this, any help would really be appreciated...

Try reinstalling the video driver and then run WINSAT.

dinesh said:

Try reinstalling the video driver and then run WINSAT.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately it didn't work. Yesterday I reinstalled vista (for a separate reason) however this problem is still very much alive.

I'm using a HP Compaq - 6710b

have you installed your latest driver?, your driver is on this page here > HP Compaq 6710b Notebook PC*-* Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center. download, install and see if that fixes the problem.

MrNeeds said:

have you installed your latest driver?, your driver is on this page here > HP Compaq 6710b Notebook PC*-* Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center. download, install and see if that fixes the problem.

Click to expand...

Yeah I installed them, I tried to do it again there to make sure and I got an error saying it didnt meet the requirements :S

My laptop is more advanced than the standard 6710b, its been upgraded so I dont get that unless the min requirement is to not have the driver :S

Fmjc001 said:

MrNeeds said:

have you installed your latest driver?, your driver is on this page here > HP Compaq 6710b Notebook PC*-* Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center. download, install and see if that fixes the problem.

Click to expand...

Yeah I installed them, I tried to do it again there to make sure and I got an error saying it didnt meet the requirements :S

My laptop is more advanced than the standard 6710b, its been upgraded so I dont get that unless the min requirement is to not have the driver :S

Click to expand...

have you installed the graphics on windows update and see if microsoft have any for you?

MrNeeds said:

Fmjc001 said:

MrNeeds said:

have you installed your latest driver?, your driver is on this page here > HP Compaq 6710b Notebook PC*-* Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center. download, install and see if that fixes the problem.

Click to expand...

Yeah I installed them, I tried to do it again there to make sure and I got an error saying it didnt meet the requirements :S

My laptop is more advanced than the standard 6710b, its been upgraded so I dont get that unless the min requirement is to not have the driver :S

Click to expand...

have you installed the graphics on windows update and see if microsoft have any for you?

Click to expand...

Yeah, got all updates and SP2...

its definately a driver issue, but i just cant quite put my finger on it. anybody else got any suggestions, something ive missed :S
btw: 1000 post

MrNeeds said:

its definately a driver issue, but i just cant quite put my finger on it. anybody else got any suggestions, something ive missed :S
btw: 1000 post

Click to expand...

Hmm, i'll try uninstalling all the display drivers and reinstalling them.(Again)

Btw - Congratz on 1000th post!

Okay, So I managed to get it to use the full screen by lowering the resolution. However now everything else is blurry ...

Can anyone see a solution to allow full screen on the highest res?

Thanks