Resolution not the same as before

Question

I recently had to reformat my hard disk and reinstall Windows XP because of excessive spyware and viruses. However, now with everything cleaned up and reinstalled, my screen doesn't look the same way that it did when I bought my computer. For some reason fonts and windows appear about 15% bigger than they did before. I used to have icons stacked 8 rows high on my desktop and now there are only seven rows. The resolution of images on the Internet is now worse. I have a website on which I have two cars for sale with photos. My .gif and .jpg images I uploaded to my site were crystal clear when I viewed them before reinstalling Windows XP. Now, the .gif files aren't clear at all--they look more like watercolor pictures rather than crisp photographs and my .jpg files are sharper than the .gif files, but they still aren't as sharp as they used to be either. When I view web pages, such as eBay, it's as if the page is too large for my monitor and because of that not everything fits onto the screen the way it did before. I now have to scroll left and right to see a full web page that I used to be able to view all at once. And again, the images that were once crystal clear on eBay now appear with fuzzy edges. I tried going into the Windows control panel and resetting my screen resolution, but all that did was make everything too small and it did nothing to improve the sharpness of images viewed on the Internet. I played with different settings in control panel but I still couldn't achieve the same look of Windows that I had when I first got my computer from Dell. I also tried playing with the accessability options and that didn't fix the problem either. It's is if there is still some setting that needs to be reset and I don't know what it is or how to do it. What other ways are there to adjust my video display? How do I adjust my computer so that everything "fits" onto my monitor's screen the way it did when my computer was new? How do I get the Internet images clear again? I'm running Windows XP (with Service Pack 1) on a Dell Dimension 4300 desktop computer with a Pentium IV (1.59 GHz) and 384 MB of RAM. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

RobertJJJ · Answer

Yes, my chipset and video driver were reinstalled just after I reinstalled XP.  RJ

carz4ever · Answer

Did you reinstall your vid card drivers, and  you have to run at 16 bit or 32 bit color to have picture quality icons. Hope this helped. Tom

Kyle_m3r · Answer

I have the same problem.  Were you able to figure it out??

RobertJJJ · Answer

No, I haven't found a solution yet.  I've had a number of good bits of advice but so far nothing has worked to fix this.  I have this problem posted on a couple of other forums and I haven't had any luck solving it there either.

carz4ever · Answer

OK so you did the re install. now you have to check the resoulution, What is it set at ?

RobertJJJ · Answer

My resolution is currently set at 1152 x 864 pixels and 32 bit color.  If I set the resolution any higher the windows boxes & print get so small that I can't read it.  The current setting is hard enough to read as it is.  800 x 600 pixels is easier to read, but everything is about 10-15% larger than how my screen looked before reinstalling XP--at 800 x 600, web pages and other programs don't fit my monitor's screen without the need to scroll left & right.  Someone at a local computer store thought that perhaps the programs that were installed on my computer at the Dell factory are slightly different than the ones that are on the disks that came with my computer.  That might explain why I can't achieve the same resolution I had when my computer was new.  RJ

Kyle_m3r · Answer

What kind of video card do you have?  I have a nvidia gforce 4 and I have figured out what is going on.  Also try downloading dellmon.exe from dells website.  Let me know if that works.  If not I have some other things you might want to try.

RobertJJJ · Answer

Thank you for your reply.  It looks like my video card is a 32MB NVIDIA GeForce MX with TV Out (Dell).  I'll try the Dell website and let you know if that Dellmon.exe helps. RJ

RobertJJJ · Answer

I went to Dell's web site and the only dellmon.exe download they had was issued in 2000 and was only compatable with Windows 95, 98 and 2000.  I'm running a 2002 edition of Windows XP with Service pack 1.  I didn't try to download or install dellmon.exe for that reason and for fear of it messing up things more than they are.  Is there another download like that one that would work for XP?  RobertJJJ. Message Edited by RobertJJJ on 11-21-2004 12:05 AM

Kyle_m3r · Answer

I have XP and that is what I downloaded.  I went to there specs page and found it under the DL for my exact computer.  Something else you might want to check is the settings on your vid card properties.  That is something else that I changed and then it worked.  You might be able to do it that way w/o having to DL the dellmon.exe file.  Go to your desktop properties then settings and advanced, adapter, then list all modes.  That is how I get to it on mine.  I have a different card than you do but it is still an NVidea.  I will try to see if I still have that file or find out where I can get it and let you know.

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Resolution not the same as before

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