Resolution Issues

DataDave said:

Hi There

Over the weekend I bought a Lenovo U41 14" 256 SSD, 8GB RAM Laptop from John Lewis. I used to have a 3 15" HP Compaq.
The lenovo came with Windows 8.1 and I upgraded to Windows 10. Its wonderfully fast and light weight. The problem I have is the resolution. It is set to 1920 x something and I feel this is too small for some applications I am using. I changed to display settings in the new Windows10 display screen to 1024 x something, and I have black bars down the side. I must admit I havent switched it on since to see if they have dissapeared as I am at work. Please can you tell me how to get a full screen with a smaller resolution that 1920 x ?.

Other than that issue, I am very happy with it. But I am slight frustrated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Dave, welcome to the Ten Forums.

Your laptop's display has an aspect ratio 16:9 and a native resolution of 1920*1080(¹), you have selected a 4:3 ratio resolution 1024 * 768 which automatically leaves black bars on the sides.

The solution, the way to use the full display is simple, you need to use one of the for your laptop available 16:9 resolutions:

• 1280*720
• 1366*768
• 1600*900
• 1920*1080

(¹)You can calculate it by yourself:
1920/16=120
120*9=1080
Ergo, the aspect ratio is 16:9

spapakons said:

To fill the screen on a standard monitor, you have to set the resolution to the maximum it can handle (native). If the picture is offset, then you solve that by pressing the Auto button (or select auto from the menu of the monitor).

To fill the screen on a TV you may have to press the picture size button a couple of times (after setting the resolution to native).

Totally irrelevant, nothing to do with the OP's issue.

Kari

You were talking about standard monitor and TV, when OP asked about laptop display, which by the way has no "Auto" button. In addition you said the that "to fill the screen on a standard monitor, you have to set the resolution to the maximum it can handle (native)", which is not true. You can use any resolution, also smaller than the native, as long as the aspect ratio is the same.

The OP's issue has nothing whatsoever to do with the physical monitor's settings, it was and is a plain and simple aspect ratio issue. You do not get a full display on 16:9 display with a 4:3 resolution, at least without totally skewed and wrongly scaled image.

Kari