Resolution problem

[modnar]

I just recently bought a new Acer monitor, the 22" AL2223W and I have a problem with it running in its native res.

I set it to 1680x1050 yet the the screen hangs over the edge on the right and when I move my cursor over it then pans the screen over. Also the Info section of the monitor menu says it is 1600x1200 when I clearly set it to 1680x1050. (the horizontal/vertical size/position menus are also greyed out and won't let me access them also).

I contacted Acer and they replied basically by saying install their drivers for it and I did and it didn't change a thing.

Any ideas or should I just return it to Best Buy where I bought it?

 

[jbrownos]

If I had to guess based on what you're saying, it really sound like a driver issue somewhere. If that's the case, exchanging it (especially for the same model) isn't going to be necessary or make any difference. It may have to do with your graphics card drivers themselves, and just as a start you might want to make sure you have the latest version. Also whether you use DVI or VGA can change the way some monitors will behave. If you can switch from one to the other it might fix it.

First of all, if the monitor has an auto-calibration feature, try using it. LCD screens are able to move/resize the image to display non-native resolutions and that might be causing problems.

You might try manually setting the resolution if your graphics drivers have a way to do it. You can do it under "Display" then "Custom Timings" in the Nvidia control panel, but I don't know about other graphics cards (I imagine if ATI has an equivalent if you do some searching). You might also want to check how windows lists the monitor and see if it names it specifically or just calls it something generic (ie "VGA Monitor"). That would tell if Windows is using drivers specifically for that monitor or not.

And are you using XP or Vista? Personally, I'm not that knowledgeable of any difference in the new Vista driver model right now as I haven't seen any reason to justify upgrading to it. But it could be useful to know for anyone else that comes along with advice.

Hope that helps or at least gives you some ideas.

 

[modnar]

Thanks for all the help. I think it's fixed now. I definitely did think it was a driver issue and I am using the latest Nvidia drivers for my 7800GTX.

Haven't seen an auto calibrate feature, there is an Auto button on the monitor but it brings up color/brightness profiles by feature (movie, graphics, text, etc).

I went into the Custom resolution option and set it to 1680x1050 and then applied that and then switched it to 1680x1050.

The info section of the monitor menu actually says 1680x1050 now (when before after I set it to 1680x1050 it would say 1600x1200) and now there is no more panning left to right.

I'm still on XP right now, the monitor (I assume for marketing purpose) says "Certified for Windows Vista" on it, so I'm not sure if that might have caused any problems or not.

So for the most part I would say it is fixed, hopefully I don't have problems later on. Once again thanks for the help.