Problem - Display is "cut off" for most games

someone else · Post by **someone else** » 02 May 2008, 13:44

Hi, I tried searching but couldn't find any help for this problem. I just got a widescreen LCD and most games I try to play are "cut off" so i only see the bottom right quarter of the game screen, in the top left corner of the monitor. It's weird because some games work, but most don't. (for example half life 2 doesn't work but episode 2 does work - wtf).

Another weird thing is that when the computer boots and the videocard does the self-test in crappy dos text it's properly positioned, then when it shows the bios logo it's cut off and the windows XP load screen is also cut off, but the desktop works fine. And then most games are cut off.

I updated my video card drivers, and direct x and nothing changed. I can't find any monitor drivers, but I may be doing it wrong. also in the direct x diagnostic thing direct draw 3d for DX7 and DX8 are cut off but DX9 works fine.

I have a Geforce 6600 and the monitor is a crappy BASE LCD with 1600x900 resolution. Does anyone know what the problem could be, any help would be much appreciated.

Post by **skipclarke** » 02 May 2008, 16:52

Can you post a screenshot or digital camera pic.

someone else · Post by **someone else** » 02 May 2008, 22:07

OK, I tried taking screenshots but they all look fine on the desktop. so i used MSPaint to show what I see in-game.

This is torus trooper, it only runs at 640:480 and this is what the screenshot looks like:

This is what i actually see when i run the game:

The BIOS splash screen and the XP load screen are also cut off like this so i assume it's specific to the 640 by 480 resolution.

This is the HL2 screenshot: (at 1280x1024, my resolution before i switched monitors)

This is what I actually see at 1280x1024:

The weird thing is another game (operation flashpoint) runs fine at 1280x1024.

After a lot of random clicking i managed to drag the HL2 options menu to the corner of the screen, and set it to the right aspect ratio, but it's still screwed up:

I don't have a digital camera so the MSPaint mockups are about the best i can do, if anyone wants more pics I will put them up.

Sweetz · Post by **Sweetz** » 02 May 2008, 23:20

My first thought was video card scaling gone bad, but then I noticed you said your BIOS and XP load screen do this - which occur before the video drivers are loaded.

Taking that into account, it's probably your display. How are you connected, DVI or VGA?

Off centered screens like that can be a result of displays handling analog inputs (VGA) improperly - especially for non native resolutions. If you are indeed using VGA, switching to DVI may fix the problem.

If you must use VGA, most displays will have an "auto-adjust" option in their menu that will recenter/resize the picture. I suggest you try that.

someone else · Post by **someone else** » 03 May 2008, 00:33

Thank you stevedroid, I can't use any alternate inputs but i found the auto-adjust thing and that fixes everything. legend!

Sweetz · Post by **Sweetz** » 03 May 2008, 02:43

Thank you stevedroid, I can't use any alternate inputs but i found the auto-adjust thing and that fixes everything. legend!

Cool, I thought it might be a VGA thing. Is it your display or your video card that lacks DVI?

It's a shame because (and people will argue with me on this, but in my experience) DVI yields noticably better quality than VGA.

Using DVI will also give you access to aspect scaling in your video card drivers (assuming you have an nVidia or ATI video card), which can really make the life of a widescreen user easier.

steve0 · Post by **steve0** » 06 May 2008, 10:29

digital camera pics are great! I like it!

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