multiple monitors showing after xp reinstall?

[paydaymom]

Ok, I have reinstalled XP on my Dad's Dell Inspirion laptop and when you start it the icons are really small and you can barely read the start menu. So I went to the desktop, properties to change the resolution. It shows multiple monitors (3 the first time and two after I restarted it from removing them) and there is only one. I have tried going to the device manager and removing the extra monitors that all show up as the same kind. Then when I go back to the setting it still shows there. Really I just want it to be readable and the resolution is incredibly high like 1400 x something. I tried to adjust it smaller and it leaves the black box around the screen. Any suggestions on how to correct this?
Thanks

[pam123]

Was this something you did from the restore partition or did you re-format and reinstall using a separate XP disk ?
Why did you need to re-install XP ?
Laptops do support an external monitor but you don't mention if you've enabled that or even if you've got all the necessary drivers?

If you'll tell us the model number and give us the specs we can check for manual for his laptop.

LCDs have one native resolution, 1440 x 900 in this case, and that's pretty much it.
If your father needs help reading text then enable large fonts in XP.

[paydaymom]

I did a reinstall from the CD I tried to do from the computer but it would not work. I did a complete reinstall b/c the computer would come up and give an error and never completely load. I do not recall being asked about an external monitor for me to choose that. It is an Inspiron 8200. The screen does not look right at all and I opened our other inspiron to see what the settings were on it and try to set them the same but it is like no matter what changes you make the start menu and desktop items stay the same. Like I went to the start menu properties and choose large icons but it looks the same as when small ones are choose. I know they can be a little bigger b/c they were before and our other computer is I just do not know what to do or what I have done. Thanks

[pam123]

OK, you don't have any drivers installed and you may have a possible hardware problem.

First, XP doesn't know what lcd screen you have : Q: How can I tell which LCD display I have?

The Inspiron 8200 has three possible LCD displays: SXGA+, UXGA, or UltraSharp UXGA. You should be able to find it on your system invoice. The UltraSharp will be listed as a "ASV UXGA" or "US UXGA". The Premier Support site (if you are in the US) will list also list the components in your system -- http://premiersupport.dell.com/

http://www.geocities.com/thebithead/...#LCD%20Display

So dig out the specs for the laptop and check.

You don't have the drivers and Dell released that laptop with both Radeon and nVidia cards so go into Device Manager and see what graphics card your father's laptop uses.

Get the manual here : http://support.dell.com/support/syst...0/en/index.htm

Get the drivers from here : http://support.dell.com/support/inde...n&s=gen&~ck=mn

http://support.dell.com/support/down...&catid=&impid=
(This may time out, if so go back to the support page and start again.)

[paydaymom]

thanks for all the info!!

[thefultonhow]

This is actually a couple of different things.

To change the resolution without a black box around the outside of the screen, go into the BIOS (F2 at the Dell screen on startup) and enable screen expansion.

As for the multiple monitors, I'm guessing the card in the 8200 supports the internal LCD, an external display via VGA, and a TV via S-Video. That accounts for all three displays. However, if you're not using the VGA or S-Video, just disable "Extend my desktop onto this monitor" in the display properties for each of those two options.

XP should have drivers built-in for that model once you upgrade to SP2, since it's an older one. No need to install the nVidia or ATI drivers. And if the native resolution is 1400x1050, it's an SXGA+ screen.

[pam123]

If she's used the widows update then yes XP SP2 would have installed the most recent video driver :

• After you install Windows XP SP2, you use the Update Driver option to update the driver for this device. • The Microsoft version of the driver is more recent than the OEM version of the driver.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890601

But if she didn't then it's the only video driver installed is the generic one.

The display port :

The next port is a TV-output port. Powered by the internal video chip, be it the GeForce2 Go, GeForce4 440 Go or Mobility Radeon 9000, the TV-out pot can display either S-video or composite output.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=1733&p=3

So that's the multiple monitors.

I'm continuing to have trouble with the Dell support site, can anyone else download the manual for this laptop ?

[thefultonhow]

If the generic video driver is installed, it's highly doubtful that multiple monitors would show up.

[pam123]

I don't know until we get a reply what video card that laptop has but if it's an nVidia Geforce 4 mobile card the last driver update from Dell is 2005.
With the "strange" resolution (earlier link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890601 ) the disk can have SP2 on it, you're right about that, but she'll need the driver update.

Can you get the manual for that laptop to download ?

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by pam123 I don't know until we get a reply what video card that laptop has but if it's an nVidia Geforce 4 mobile card the last driver update from Dell is 2005. With the "strange" resolution (earlier link : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890601 ) the disk can have SP2 on it, you're right about that, but she'll need the driver update.

There is nothing strange about 1400x1050. My laptop's screen has that as a native resolution. If you're referring to the black border, that's due to screen expansion being turned off -- when you reduce the resolution to, say, 1024x768 when screen expansion is turned off, the video card only uses 1024 pixels horizontally and 768 vertically on the actual screen, rather than using 1400x1050 and interpolating.

Originally Posted by pam123 Can you get the manual for that laptop to download ?

Why do we need the manual again? This seems like a pretty simple problem -- the solution is to turn on screen expansion and ignore the other monitors in Display Properties -- that can be solved without the manual.

[pam123]

Why would re-installing XP require redoing the laptop's bios ?

[thefultonhow]

I'm not saying to re-do the BIOS -- I'm saying to turn on screen expansion. It's one setting. If it's already on, there may be something in the driver, but we'll take it from there.

[paydaymom]

OK, I have done so many updates my head is spinning. SP2 is installed and the Nvidia geforce 4 440 driver is also updated.

I went into bios and can not find an option for screen expansion. I think that this would solve the problems but it is not in bios. ETA: It shows on the dell support that should be an option on page 4 but it is not there!

Thanks for all the links...it took forever to update from the Dell site b/c it kept messing up.

[pam123]

Can you post a screen shot of the Bios pg. where screen expansion should be ?

[paydaymom]

how do you do that? I tried print screen but could not get that to work.

[glc]

Take a picture of it with a digital or phone cam.

[pam123]

I should have been clearer.
You can use a digital camera but if you'd just copy what's on the page for us we'd have a better idea.
Like you we're having difficulties with the Del site.

[paydaymom]

ok, that makes sense...I was thinking I was even dumber than I am...

[paydaymom]

I do not know why this worked but I uninstalled my display driver and when it rebooted it was fine and I could change the resolution.

[pam123]

I don't know either but it's interesting.
What (which) display driver did you install ?

[thefultonhow]

Screen expansion is occasionally an option in the driver control panel too. It's possible you could reinstall the driver and look for that option, and then make sure it's set to expand and not use a 1:1 pixel ratio.