Adjustment For A Dell M992 Monitor

Question

I just got a monitor that a friend gave me. It is a Dell M992. The problem is, The screen doesn't fit the screen (does that make sense? lol). You can see black on the sides, and some at the bottom. I tried messing around with my monitor options (to resize it), but I just can't get it right. I was wondering if there is anything online that which has the numbers set for my current solution (1280x1024). Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The screen doesn't fit the screen

Presumably you mean the image does not cover the entire display surface. Actually this is typical for CRT computer monitors: there is no overscan like on CRT televisions. There may be some on-screen size & geometry adjustments, but some unused screen area is better than overscan.

A resolution of 1280x1024 does not conform to a 4:3 aspect ratio. The proper resolutions for 4:3 would be either 1365x1024 or 1280x960. I've found that the VESA timings for resolutions higher than 1024x768 are conservative and have large front & back porches for horizontal synch. The default timings generated by the video adapter result in squarish images when using a CRT front projector at 1280x960. To stretch the image horizontally I've used the custom resolution feature in the NVIDIA Control Panel to reduce the porch times/sizes. The front porch can be reduced from 96 pixels to 48, and the total (horizontal) pixels from 1800 to 1640 (which affects the back porch).

Powerstrip is another utility that can adjust the timings. However caution must be exercised when using these programs, as GPU and display manufacturers warn that improper timings can damage the display unit.

Answer 2

With most CRT monitors, it is possible to adjust the display so it fully covers the screen. You will need to use the buttons on the monitor to adjust the horizontal & vertical size and position so the image fits the screen. For more instructions see the user manual:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/M992/En/controls.htm

BTW, 1024 x 1280 is the optimum resolution setting for your monitor, so you shouldn't need to change any setting on the PC.