XPS display resolution

Question

I have an Inspiron XPS with 15.4 widescreen and Mobility Radeon 9700. When I run programs that should display fullscreen, they only display a small (about 3' by 4') box in the center of the screen and the rest of the screen is blank. How can I fix this?

Elektrizitat · Answer

I feel pretty dumb posting this, but I'm having the same problem. My XPS didn't used to have the black border when I would set it to a non-maximum resolution. Now it has the black border when I set it to a resolution other than 1920 * 1200. I just wanted to chime in here in the hope that someone would pipe up with what I'm sure is the obvious answer! Thanks!

Vexeus · Answer

I am also having the same problem.  This happens if I change the resolution for anything (regular display resolution, video games like Everquest, winamp visualization resolution, etc).  I imagine they will fix it in the next driver version (which I hope is coming soon *cross fingers*).  This only occurs when the resolution is not the native screen resolution. Message Edited by Vexeus on 06-09-2004 02:05 PM

Elektrizitat · Answer

Ok, well I stumbled on this after updating to a newer "hacked" version of Catalyst drivers. I'm assuming this is available through the driver version Dell provides:

1. Right click on the desktop
2. Select Properties
3. Click Settings
4. Click Advanced
5. Click the Displays pane
6. Click the Panel button
7. Make sure the "Expand to full panel size" radio button is selected

Now, I only found this after I went to http://www.station-drivers.com/page/atidriv%20mobility.htm and downloaded the 4.4 Catalyst driver but like I said above - I'm assuming this would be available in Dell's driver as well. Post your results please - I'd like to know!

Vexeus · Answer

I realize Dell would not support this but... do those drivers work on the XPS? Btw, I checked and it shows that radio button is checked.

sufferingcorpse · Answer

You're correct in the fact that Dell doesn't support them.

Yes, I am running the latest Omega drivers (2.5.4.4) as I wanted to play the newest Thief game, and low and behold Dell's drivers are too old for this game (game has issues with the older catalyst drivers according to the readme). Anyways, if you can get past the part about having the first few reboots having to close out of Windows (and unchecking the boxes that say "show on every startup" you'll do fine with them). the drivers will work fine. (Don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking Dell or anything. I've programmed for a few too many years so I know what it's like, fine tuning a program and making sure that when it goes out the door, no one (will hopefully) call about bugs in it). I'm all for "let them take their time and do it right the first time."

I'm noticing games are starting to be specific with certain directX versions, and driver versions on video card systems so my guess is Dell will start rolling out newer drivers faster than once every 4 months (or at least that's the rate so far).

I only am using the drivers cus i feel ripped off if i am not able to use a new game the very day i take it out of the box. I much prefer the manufacturers drivers as they will be fine tuned for my system exactly. If you do choose to install these drivers, please follow the instructions. Basically they'll have you remove the old set of drivers (reboot) and install the new set. Typical, as you don't want an older version merged into a newer version of drivers possibly causing conflicts... etc.

Elektrizitat · Answer

Have you applied a system BIOS update?  If so - or even if not - check your BIOS.  One of the BIOS options is to allow for scaling of non-maximum resolution images to fullscreen.  If this is not enabled then that radio button won't do anything.

sakor1 · Answer

The WUXGA + ATI combo will not scale some resolutions unfortunately, it is a hardware conflict with no solution at present. But most resolutios should scale OK. stu

lanwarrior · Answer

sufferingcorpses, Did you try to use the newest Dell's ATI Radeon 9700 driver v.8.16m?

sufferingcorpse · Answer

The video bios? v8.16....etc  Yeah, i did that in april.  Bios flashes are a 1 time thing.

Vexeus · Answer

I'm relying heavily on an updated driver to fix this problem. I am not a fan of using drivers not specifically made for my system, so I'm refusing to use non-Dell drivers (stubborn, I know).

As a side note...
I am also having problems with Everquest when I use the /quit command and when I change from windowed to fullscreen mode. I'm fairly sure its the only problem that I'm having that really bothers me, but its the only game I currently play.

Using /quit causes me to bluescreen with something along the lines of a "paged fault in a non-paged area" for ati2dvag.dll causing the computer to need to be shut down.

Switching from fullscreen to windowed mode causes no problems, but trying to do the reverse causes the same error as the above /quit command.

New drivers are always good .

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XPS display resolution

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