Problem with monitor / resolution settings

I had to revive an older Compaq Presario PC133A-ABA SR1124NX NA430 desktop, XP Pro, SP3, 2.08gHZ, 704 M of RAM, 111 G hard drive and a Samsung flat screen.

I do not remember if it used to be this way or not, but most things displayed are too wide. I can see it in people’s faces and various other images. The problem seems to be worse within the browser (Firefox V. 27.0.1)

Also, most things, including text, were a bit fuzzy around the edges. I did fool around with the resolution and a few other settings and got most of the fuzziness out. An odd thing: The slider bar for resolution adjusting would only go extreme left, extreme right, or right in the middle. As I remember on other PCs, it had at least 5 positions.

As far as I can tell there is no way to fix the image width problem with the monitor controls (the centering is okay). So I updated the monitor driver and now the problem is worse than it was, and to make matters even worse I cannot roll back to the previous driver; I guess it automatically deleted it.

And now the resolution slider has only TWO positions, extreme left or extreme right, and neither setting is any good. The text is no better than with the old driver, and some things on Firefox now go off-screen (horizontal scroll bar now appears). It never did that before.

Help? I may keep XP and only use it offline after April, not sure about any of this yet.

 

What is the model number of the Samsung flat screen?

 

Hi: It says "SyncMaster 906BW "

 

Download the driver from this Samsung page and then follow the instructions under "Installing the Monitor Driver (Manual) > Windows XP" on this page.

If it's still displaying fuzzy text, try this Samsung page: How To Resolve For Fuzzy Or Blurry Text On Your Monitor

 

Thanks for your help, but I'm not there yet.

The only downloadable thing I see there is an .exe file, about halfway down the page on the right. When I went to install it via Control Panel/Display/etc. it won't let me because, I'm assuming, it doesn't recognize an .exe as a driver file.

Do I have the right file? I'm not sure, so I didn't double-click the exe file so I don't know what it actually is.

 

Double-click it and see what happens. I don't have a Samsung screen around here or I'd try it for you.

 

Okay, it led to a zip file that had drivers for analog and digital monitors. Mine is digital so I chose that. It said it installed okay, I rebooted but nothing has really changed.

The resolution slider is the same as I described in my OP: only two positions, extreme left or extreme right.

 

And you followed the instructions I linked to above?

If so, have you tried the Fuzzy Text imstructions?

 

I didn't get the chance. When I selected the digital version of the driver, it apparently installed by itself, because the next screen said that it was installed correctly.

Here is what it shows. Note the date -- do you have a way of checking to see if that corresponds to the correct driver? (apparently we can't post images here, but the link works)



FWIW, the "Driver Details" box doesn't tell us anything except: "Driver files: C:\windows\system32\spool\drivers\color\SM931BW.icm"

Heh, when I go to that page, none of the images show up. I refreshed several times, but no-go.

 

Try the instructions on page two.

 

Okay, none of that helped any.

I guess the biggest concern I have now is the too-wide image on the Firefox browser that happened after I updated the driver per my OP. The horizontal scroll bar now appears when it never did before, although images were distorted sideways even before updating, as I noted.

If I could get the resolution adjustment slider to what I believe is its default setting -- five positions, instead of the two I have now -- maybe I could shrink the screen back.

 

The native resolution for the Samsung SyncMaster 906BW is 1440 x 900. If you set it to anything else, it will either display something like "out of range" or an image that looks squashed or stretched.

It's been so long since I used XP I don't really remember exactly but, it was something like right-click any blank space on the Desktop and select Properties and the Settings tab. If 1440 x 900 isn't available there, try digging round under the Advanced button, something like show All settings?

 

Oh I know exactly where it is -- I've been monkeying with it for some weeks now.

The problem is I only can get 800 x 600 on the extreme left or 1024 x 868 on the extreme right, which is the best of two lousy options. There should be five separate positions as I recall.

 

My XP Pro with an Acer LCD screen works in conjunction with the Graphics card. Did you update your Graphics drivers. Neil.

 

The horizontal increase happened after I updated the monitor driver.

However, I did just update the graphics driver but it didn't change anything.

 

How many available options depends on the video card, monitor capabilities and the driver you're using.

Since 800x600 and 1024x768 are standard Windows resolutions, I would suspect the Samsung SyncMaster 906BW driver either isn't working, it's incompatible, or it hasn't been installed correctly.

 

Well I'm not going to screw around with this old thing anymore. It is a spare PC for my business (mostly for CNC machining) that I was trying to get set up so I could just slide it over in case my main one died -- as happened a few years ago.

I'll probably wipe out everything and install W7.

RETIRED LEARNER: Ha, by updating my graphics card, as I mentioned, it didn't help my screen problem but it DID resolve another problem I had. This thing used to take a good 5 minutes to shut off (very annoying) but updating that driver fixed it. It shuts off normally now!

At any rate, thanks to all for the help and tips.

 

Just a thought - did you install the Monitor Driver over the old ones?
Or did you uninstall the drivers first?
It pays to uninstall old drivers before installing new (Graphics in particular). ATI strongly advised this procedure. Neil.