Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Streched screen and unable to change resolution

Sep 15, 2016 4:40AM PDT

Hey there everyone!

I don't know how it happened but when I turned my laptop on again the screen was all stretched. It's not a matter of zooming in and out, and I also can't seem to change my resolution settings to what I want. Can someone please help me out with this problem?

Anna

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Clarification Request
No make, model, Windows version ?
Sep 15, 2016 10:13AM PDT

As such, use system restore and failing that a factory reset. Missing details means lightweight answers.

- Collapse -
details
Sep 16, 2016 8:00AM PDT

Oh my bad! It's an Acer Aspire 5742G w Windows 10

- Collapse -
You said you can't change the resolution of....
Sep 16, 2016 9:28AM PDT

the display, what do you mean by that? What resoluion does it have when it's stretched?

- Collapse -
When I go to settings
Sep 16, 2016 10:33AM PDT

the only other option is 800x600, and it's currently 1024x768, but on other fora people said to manually change the resolution to ur needs, but I'm not able to do that. I also can't change the brightness of my screen anymore, I don't know of that has any correlation but yeah

- Collapse -
Re: resolution
Sep 16, 2016 10:55AM PDT

And what is the native resolution of the laptop?

- Collapse -
I see the NATIVE resolution is 1366x768
Sep 16, 2016 11:43AM PDT

If you change it to other, well, it's going to look wonky. That's not a bug.

- Collapse -
Oh yeah no that's true
Sep 16, 2016 1:13PM PDT

but I didn't change it to 1024x768 myself, it was just like that all of a sudden, and there's no option to change it back to 1366x768, so I'm really confused as to what caused this

- Collapse -
This is where System Restore to when it worked
Sep 16, 2016 1:20PM PDT

Is best. I can't guess what caused it but SR is your cheap exit.

- Collapse -
As Robert pointed out,
Sep 16, 2016 1:30PM PDT

if the aspect ratio is not the same, the display will not be right. Have you gone into "advance display sittings" and see maybe there are other than just 800x600? Good luck.

- Collapse -
Answer
Restart
Sep 16, 2016 12:21PM PDT

Restart the machine and enter the BIOS. If that is stretched, then it is a hardware fault. If BIOS looks okay, the drivers may have gotten overwritten by an up date for WINX. Try a restore back to the last point available and see if that cures things.

- Collapse -
Thank you for trying to help me!
Sep 16, 2016 1:23PM PDT

but sadly I'm not completely sure what you mean by all of this or how to execute it all

- Collapse -
I wonder.
Sep 16, 2016 1:32PM PDT

Are you opting for Microsoft driver updates? Don't.

- Collapse -
Answer
is win10 the original OS?
Sep 16, 2016 12:50PM PDT

if win 10 was an upgrade, you need to go to acers website and see if there is an updated graphic driver for your specific laptop.

- Collapse -
Thank you!
Sep 16, 2016 1:27PM PDT

it was an update yeah, I'll try to do that first

- Collapse -
just checked
Sep 16, 2016 2:02PM PDT

I went ahead and checked for updated drivers. I am afraid you could be out of luck. they do not have win10 drivers for that model. Normally I would never had recommended upgrading to win10 unless you checked to see if it would be supported by the manufacturer. In this case it is not.

- Collapse -
Answer
Give this a try and see if it will work or not.
Sep 16, 2016 5:54PM PDT
- Collapse -
Answer
Update
Sep 17, 2016 3:26AM PDT

Okay so I just turned my laptop on again (which I had done a couple of times before) and it's back to normal even tho I haven't done anything yet? It feels like it's just been a glitch or something. I'm glad but now i'm still a lil wary about it happening again, but I'll take everything you guys said into account and hopefully it won't be a problem anymore then. Thank you all so much for trying to help me, I'm very grateful!