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General discussion

Fix aspect ratio for Dell Inspiron E1705 to Samsung 225BW

Nov 30, 2010 7:58AM PST

I have a Dell E1705 Inspiron Laptop which I would like to connect to a Samsung 225BW monitor.

Weirdly, when I used an older cable it just automagically synced up to a good-looking ratio. Unfortunately, the picture is all green when I use that cable now.

I bought a new monitor-to-computer cable but now I can't get a good picture because the aspect ratio of the monitor 1680x1050 does not match up with any of the available settings on my E1705 which is running Windows XP.

I am currently running the screen resolution at 1024x768 but the picture looks far too big and unclear.

Please help me.

Ideally, I guess, there would be some software fix which would automatically adjust the aspect ratio to fit my screen.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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If I were to make a bet.
Nov 30, 2010 8:10AM PST

You used a clone window rather than Extend Windows for that second display. As such the settings are limited to the primary display.

I also didn't read where you installed the 225BW monitor driver.
Bob

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not there yet
Dec 8, 2010 12:02AM PST

Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate it.

I downloaded the 225BW monitor driver but that did not seem to do anything.

You suggest I had a clone window for the monitor. Can you suggest how I might do that again or some other way to get this to work. It is very frustrating.

I don't need to have both the laptop screen and the monitor screen working. I would like to just hook the monitor up and type on the wireless keyboard, with the laptop closed if necessary. It still seems crazy to me that simply closing the screen with the old cable made it work perfectly, so I know in some sense the computer "can do it".

Thanks again.

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Can I be blunt?
Dec 8, 2010 1:25PM PST

Closing the lid is a great way to heat up a laptop and speed it along to an early death. Sorry if I am a little blunt on that.

Here's a picture on my extended desktop -> http://s175.photobucket.com/albums/w146/rproffitt2000/?action=view&current=desktop2.jpg

I can't tell which OS you have installed but the steps change with versions of windows. On google you can try:

How to extend a XP display?
How to extend a Vista display?

You get the idea.
Bob