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WTF? Windows update/resolution problems

  • Nov. 17th, 2010 at 9:57 PM
Brooding
stormfeather
So I finally let Windows update itself and restart... and now it decided to screw with my screen resolution yet again. And the worst part? Now I can't get it back how I want it! The only screen resolution setting that I can find allows me to set it to is: 1024 x 768, 1280 x 720, or 800 x 600.

That's it. Those three choices. Nothing else. I'm pretty sure I had it at 1152 x 864 before, and I want that BACK, because this is just too big and awkward. But I cannot figure out how! And I'm using Windows Home 7 Premium.

Argh, anyone have any suggestions? (Other than kill Windows programmers and updaters, which probably wouldn't go over well and would get me arrested and all.)

Edit: Nevermind! I'm an idiot. I'd reinstalled my monitor driver, but didn't think about the video card driver until after I posted this. Re-downloaded that from the ATI website, and voila, suddenly I have lots more resolution options (including 1152x864, my precccccious.)

I considered deleting the post, but hey, if I'm going to be an idiot all over the web, I should play fair and not try to edit it out of existence. :p
  • Currently Feeling:: pissed off pissed off

Comments

( 16 Notes — Write a Footnote )
theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 03:27 am (UTC)
I was going to say: The first suggestion I have is "check that your monitor is installed with the right drivers" and the second is "check that your video card has the right drivers".

But 1152x864? What's your physical size on that? Holy CRAP that's teeny.
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theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 03:32 am (UTC)
Also: Windows Update should be abandoned for Microsoft Update, which is Windows Update And Also Office And Hardware Stuff.

And you should let it update everything it wants to update, each and every time it wants to update anything, ever, unless you have crazy hardware requirements. And you mostly don't because this is a desktop computer.
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jsbowden
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:01 am (UTC)
She's on Windows 7. Windows Update is MS Update (you just have to check the box to let it do the other stuff too in Options). It tends to be a release or two behind the official WHQL driver on either Nvidia or ATI's respective websites. I've never had it mess up resolution options like that on me though.
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theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:26 am (UTC)
Win Update is *not* MS Update until you check the little boxen that say "apply updates for non-windows products". And then, as you say, it shouldn't be a problem. Updates should be applied, regardless. "High" priority MS updates that cause problems are something that should be worked around and corrected, not ignored.

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stormfeather
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:25 am (UTC)
It's not that teeny! At least, it doesn't look that teeny to me! (Don't diss my settings, damnit!)

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theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:27 am (UTC)
It seems teeny to my scary technocentric self. But, seriously, what's your *hardware* for that?
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stormfeather
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:32 am (UTC)
Monitors are measured diagonally across the screen, right? Hrm, 19 inches. (One of the cases where size matters...)
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theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:41 am (UTC)
Monitors are measured diagonally. yes. But more commonly they're measured by "dicksize" and that's measured by what the marketing specs say.

How's this: Make and model of your monitor? Because your preferred resolution is, uh, tiny. For 1998 technology.
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stormfeather
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:47 am (UTC)
It is this monitor, how's that?
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jsbowden
Nov. 18th, 2010 05:04 am (UTC)
You really should be running it in it's native resolution. If it's hard to read, up the system font default.
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stormfeather
Nov. 18th, 2010 05:06 am (UTC)
Okay, I'll bite... why? Why not use what's easier to see and feels more normal?

(And sheesh, if he things the one I'm *using* is tiny...)
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jsbowden
Nov. 18th, 2010 05:20 am (UTC)
Tiny meaning you have don't have much desktop area. Use the native resolution because you're running a 4:3 resolution on a 16:10 aspect ratio monitor, and because LCDs look like shit when you scale them like that. All your geometry is also off (your circles are oval and your squares are non-square rectangles), which distorts what your looking at because the aspect ratio is wrong.
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stormfeather
Nov. 18th, 2010 04:04 pm (UTC)
Tiny should mean "OMG it looks tiny," tiny shouldn't mean "it's huge!" :p

Anyhow, I switched it to the native resolution, but it looks... weird. Like it's smooshed. I don't know if I got used to the "wrong" aspect ratio and just have to adjust, or if there's something else weird going on. But yeah, it looks odd!
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theweaselking
Nov. 18th, 2010 03:00 pm (UTC)
It's not that your screen size is physically tiny, it's that your resolution is tiny - and since it's not running at the native resolution of the LCD, it's also going to be fuzzy and distorted.

You should probably have it set to 1440x900. That SHOULD look more "normal".
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jsbowden
Nov. 18th, 2010 05:46 pm (UTC)
I don't think 36 more pixels vertical is going to affect font size all that much, but the fuzziness and the distortion, it hurts us...
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drothgery
Nov. 18th, 2010 11:58 pm (UTC)
Back in the day when a non-crazy monitor was a 19" 4:3 CRT, that's the resolution I normally used. Though these days it's either 1366 x 768 on the work laptop (cheap 15.6" thingee), 1680x1050 on my LCD, or 1440 x 900 when my home laptop is unplugged.
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