Screen size on a Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop.

**techs** · July 30th, 2004, 10:42 AM

The default resolution for the Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop is 1600x1200. In the past on laptops if I wanted to change it to say, 1024x768 it resized and still fits the screen. Now it shrinks the screen. If I go fn+f7 (which is the Font key) it resizes it full. But on reboot it goes back to partial size. I can't find a bios setting or setting anywhere in Windows XP to keep it. It has an Nvdia GE-force 4 440 Go but its listed as a Dell8200 in Device manager. I downloaded the latest Dell driver.
any ideas?

**Ya_know** · July 30th, 2004, 10:56 AM

Refresh rate on an LCD is particular for the screen, perhaps that's what needs to be adjusted?

**techs** · July 30th, 2004, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by Ya_know

Refresh rate on an LCD is particular for the screen, perhaps that's what needs to be adjusted?

The video adapter shows various modes all with 60 hz from 1600x1200 down to 800x600. Only the 1600x1200 displays at full screen.
The Monitor shows as Plug and Play. I could go into the Driver properties and change the driver to Laptop display 1024x780 but I don't think that can be the way it was designed t be changed. Plus I worry I might not get a boot after that.
But you have given me an idea. I am going to see if there is a disk for the laptop display driver.

**PuterGeekGirl** · July 30th, 2004, 01:51 PM

I had a similar experience with a Dell laptop, don't remember the model....but if I recall correctly (this was at least 2 years ago) I called Dell and they told me there was nothing I could do, that it needed to run in native mode....I thought that was a real helpful fix (NOT)...Would be interested to know if you actually get anywhere with this.

**Radical Dreamer** · July 30th, 2004, 10:51 PM

Is this a UXGA screen? If so then that is the native res and you should have no problems, if not then you may run into some issues. I have the same lappie but with the Radeon 9000 instead of the GF

**techs** · July 31st, 2004, 10:45 AM

Still have not figured it out. However, I notice that as the desktop comes up it is full screen then shrinks.
1600 by 1200 is really unusable on a 15 inch lcd. I could try increasing the dpi to 120 or more but the customer says it used to be able to be run at 1024x768.

**NooNoo** · July 31st, 2004, 10:55 AM

Change the monitor/lcd driver.

**techs** · August 1st, 2004, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Change the monitor/lcd driver.

That worked.
I didn't see that due to the dual screen capability of the laptop there were two separate monitors listed (had to scroll). So I changed the one that said Default to Plug and Play and that worked.
Thanks

**nicole2320** · September 9th, 2004, 09:53 PM

i am having the same problem, when i close or boot up my latitude, the size of the monitor is small. It already says primary monitor and extend to monitor size. When i change the display size it extend to the monitor size. I have updated the drivers and still have the problem any ideas?

**NooNoo** · September 10th, 2004, 04:52 AM

Welcome to Windrivers nicole

As discussed with techs, you need to change the monitor driver, if you pm him, he may remember what driver he installed that made it work.