computer help

[amanda]

Hey techies,

I have a brand new Dell laptop now at work - lucky as my old one just happened to start kicking the bucket this morning.

Anyway - everything is too small! Here is what I've tried so far:

1. Display properties => Appearance => Font size = Extra large
Now that only seems to make the fonts on the icons larger - but nothing else!

2. Display properties => Settings => Screen resolution
I tried reducing the resolution, however then everything looks really grainy - it's larger - but difficult to read because everything isn't smooth

3. Internet explorer - even when I put the font size to Extra Large, letters are less than 2mm in size.

Help! Or do I need to buy a magnifying glass :?

[McMw]

I went to settings...changed the resolution to 800x600 and everything went BIG!!!

[McMw]

Try this...
Under the Settings Tab - click on the Advanced Button...

Will get you to another PopUp Screen...
Under General, DPI Setting.
Would probably be on 96DPI - select 120DPI...that might help...

[amanda]

With the lower res (800x600) and even when I up the DPI to 120 - everything looks blurry - nothing is smooth :(

[AndyP]

Put your glasses on. ;)

[amanda]

Put your glasses on. ;)
Very funny Andy :smt038

Anything constructive?

[Fishman Dan]

Amanda - what laptop is it? Model number needed (Latitude/Inspiron etc).

Laptops work at a default resolution to make the image look crisp - i.e. 1024x768. If you go back to 800x600 (making everything larger), the laptop emulates it, and everything looks a bit blurry. There are BIOS settings (not explaining ;)) to make it work at 800x600 clearer, but that then puts a big black border around the screen, and the picture is still small.

Depending on the model, the default resolution might be as much as 1600 x 1200.

So if it's larger icons you want, then you'll have to make-do with 1024 x 768 or smaller - 1280 x 1024 etc. Mind you, these days most things (web sites etc) are designed for 1024 x 768 and better.

[amanda]

Fishy - Dell Latitude D600.

It seems like the optimum res is 1400x1050 - if I try and change it any smaller it warns that thing will be bigger, but very fuzzy :?

Brad's a techie - but he's been busy at work today - hopefully he can figure something out tomorrow.

[markTHEblake]

Mandy, sounds like you already know enough to have done everything that anybody else is going to suggest, and its still not working. Time to calll the Tech support guys.


There is a setting somewhere that makes fonts and the edges of graphics more distinct only on LCD screens. for the life of me i have forgotten what its called or where to find the setting. Maybe that could help, but seems unlikely.

[amanda]

Thanks Blakey. I have called Tech Support (straight away) and they didn't know how to fix it :?

Oh well - more trial & error over the public holiday!

[markTHEblake]

Looks to me you need to be spending some time on the holiday setting your 2005 goals.

[Fishman Dan]

Fishy - Dell Latitude D600

From memory it's 1024 x 768.

1280 x 1024 should also work, everything else may look distorted and/or not appear.

In the Appearance tab of the Display properties you can set the Font sizes etc for the Desktop etc, and make them more readable.

If it's a case that the driver itself has gone nana's, it can easily be removed, reboot the PC and it will re-install itself, but to be honest it doesn't sound like a driver issue ;)

[Ducky]

I suggest taking a screenshot (using the Print Screen key) and uploading it. If the problem is evident in the screenshot then it could be assumed that it is a driver problem, where as if it's not evident it is more than likely a problem with the monitor/display configuration. If you need help hosting the image, let me know.

Kind regards,

Ben (Ducky).

[AndyP]

Put your glasses on. ;)
Very funny Andy :smt038

Anything constructive?
Sorry, I know nothing about fixing computers.
My PC is in the shop right now getting fixed. :(

[Bruce]

What you describe sounds like a common complaint of "just make it big again".

Others have noted the difference between native and emulated resolutions.

I think you probably need to do 2 things. One is to set your display to the native settings, which depending on your model is either 1024x768 or 1400x1050. You will know you have it right as it will be "clear". Then you can try the DPI settings change.

The thing is though. Even after doing this. Things will still be smaller than they used to be on your old laptop. The technology has improved a lot since the old one was made. Some of us actually like this and no monitor has ever really satisfied our need for more pixels. Once you've tried to run a 1000 line project plan on a crappy 800x600 display you will refuse to work at less than 1200x1024.

I also remember the time we rolled out a couple of thousand new desktops many years ago, but the default resolution was 800x600 instead of the old crappy 640x480. For us techos this was heaven, but we still got more than 200 calls asking us to "make it big again".

[Fishman Dan]

I also remember the time we rolled out a couple of thousand new desktops many years ago, but the default resolution was 800x600 instead of the old crappy 640x480. For us techos this was heaven, but we still got more than 200 calls asking us to "make it big again".

Wot he said.. in a round-a-bout kinda way.

Thing here is that Desktops would happily snap back to the preceeding res without that 'fuzzy' look. Laptop screens themselves operate at a lowest preferred resolution, which as you said before is 1024 x 768.

The image/icons/text appears smaller (because you are getting 30% more pixels crammed into the screen... yaddah yaddah yaddah...). You can still change the envionment however to appear larger.