BoxRec

After my 17" square screen monitor suddenly died on me this week, I was forced to go and buy a replacement. I was told squarescreen is being phased out and its now hard to buy one. Anyway I was well chuffed to find I could buy a 19" widescreen on special offer at Staples for £99.99 with built in speakers. I got it home and set it up only to find I had real problems. Circles were ovals, all my pictures were stretched and distorted and just about everything looked horrible. I went on the net to find out if others were having the same issues as me and they were. Finding an answer to it wasnt easy but I got there in the end with a compromise. As I have got older my eyesight is no longer as good as it was (I blame computers in particular for my failing eyesight) therefore I used the 800/600 setting which suited me fine. You have to go into Display/Settings and find a setting that normalises the images. I found the only one that does that on my computer is 1440/900 pixels which makes everything very much smaller. I now have to use extra large fonts whereas before I was OK with the normal size. Writing and reading email is difficult, I now have to resize my pictures, in fact everything is a problem. I suppose if your eyesight is good none of this will bother you but for me its no pleasure at all using my computer now. Maybe I need new glasses for reading, I dont have to wear glasses for anything else thankfully. Are you guys still using square screen? I went over to LCD 4 years ago and loved it and I wish my square screen monitor was still working. Has anyone else had problems with widescreen, I would love to know.

You could always just have bought another square 17" monitor. They're definitely not rare.

http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Monitors/subc ... D-Monitors - All the ones without widescreen in the title.

If you have the option, rather than 1440 x 900, try 1280 x 768.

Asterix wrote:You could always just have bought another square 17" monitor. They're definitely not rare.

http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Monitors/subc ... D-Monitors - All the ones without widescreen in the title.

If you have the option, rather than 1440 x 900, try 1280 x 768.

Thanks mate for your help but you know how it is if your monitor goes down you want one straight away. I was told square screen monitors were getting hard to get hold of but I wasnt told about the problems with widescreen so I thought, why not and had one. The card in my computer only allows for 1280/1024 which is no good, only 1440/900 works. I suppose I could get another card that may help. Thanks anyway. Waylon

So what's the lowest resolution you can use?

Asterix wrote:So what's the lowest resolution you can use?

800/600 1024/768 1152/864 1280/768 1280/960 1280/1024 1440/900, they are all the settings I can use.

Have you tried updating the drivers for your grfxs card and possible monitor compatability fixes ?

If you post your card details and monitor details I'll have a look for you later.

WildWaylon wrote:

Asterix wrote:So what's the lowest resolution you can use?

800/600 1024/768 1152/864 1280/768 1280/960 1280/1024 1440/900, they are all the settings I can use.

In bold.

Asterix wrote:

WildWaylon wrote:

Asterix wrote:So what's the lowest resolution you can use?

800/600 1024/768 1152/864 1280/768 1280/960 1280/1024 1440/900, they are all the settings I can use.

In bold.

Thanks a lot it does work. I must have missed it when I checked each setting. Yes everything looks a lot better now. Appreciate your time and advice.

Gareth wrote:Have you tried updating the drivers for your grfxs card and possible monitor compatability fixes ?

If you post your card details and monitor details I'll have a look for you later.

I think thanks to Asterix, the job is done but the monitor is a 19" Belnea widescreen. I cant tell you the card details because the computer was assembled by a small computer business rather than being a branded product so I dont have a spec sheet for it. Many thanks for your help anyway. Waylon

Glad to hear you got sortted.

WildWaylon wrote:Thanks a lot it does work. I must have missed it when I checked each setting. Yes everything looks a lot better now. Appreciate your time and advice.

You're welcome, Waylon. I'm glad it has worked out.