Narrow screen on Acer Aspire 3690

[blnickel]

My laptop started giving me problems a while back in which I would start it up and the screen would show my display compressed approximately 3/4 the size of the actual screen. This used to only happen periodically as sometimes upon restarting it would be 100% fine. Recently the display has remained compressed and I don't know how or if I can fix it. However when I attach to an external monitor the display works just fine. Please help.

I checked the video cables and they seem to be seated tightly from what I can see. I took it to a repair shop the other day as well and the tech said he had never seen this before. Although he didn't look into it much.

Here is a pic. Thanks.

Brett

 

[picbits]

When this happens, what does the resolution of the laptop report back to you when you do a right click on the desktop and go to properties ?

Maybe try downloading Knoppix or Ubuntu and use it from the CD for a few hours to see if the problem occurs with that ?

 

[blnickel]

It says 1024x768, although it appears to be at 1920x1440 since that is how I have always had it. The other thing is that my default monitor will not come up when I go into my Display Properties. Only a Digital Flat Panel comes up with the max resolution of 1024x768. It used to come up as my default monitor and I would choose 1920x1440. If I choose to go to the default monitor and increase the resolution, nothing happens. I have reformatted my hard drive a few times back to factory settings for other issues(viruses and what not), would a driver update resolve this or do you think this is a hardware problem? I will try the software you mentioned. Thanks.

 

[picbits]

Sorry for running off after posting the above - had to cook dinner.

If you use something like Ubuntu or Knoppix then this will *possibly* rule out a driver / software problem as its a totally different operating system (Linux).

If all is well on the laptop with the above then you can start investigating the hardware drivers etc.

The good thing about running Knoppix or Ubuntu via a CD or USB key is that it wont touch your data / harddrive so nothing gets changed.

 

[blnickel]

I didn't mention it before but the screen is 3/4 compressed from the moment the computer starts up and then remains that way as long as there is something on the screen. It is also stretched along the bottom a 1/2" or so. (Not sure if you saw that from the pic.) I tried Ubuntu and it displays the same way.

 

[picbits]

Strange but it seems you're not alone with the problem

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Look familiar ?

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[iainbain]

Hi guys,

Not sure if this helps but I had the same problem this morning and have resolved it...I think it may happen when you install some new software or when you unzip software??? see below:

The problem happened when I installed SPSS (v.15) from university onto my ACER Aspire 3690 last night. After I unzipped it and installed it etc I turned computer off to go to bed, turned it on in this morning and had the same issues you guys have described above (see pic)

All I did was un-install SPSS and all patches, re-started my laptop and now it is ok!

The SPSS file size was approx 1GB so I am not sure if this is to do with the lack of computer memory I have which is the following:

ACER (C) Total size 32.5GB, Free space 2.85GB
DATA (D) Total size 32.2GB, Free space 26.7GB

Anyway I'm no computer expert but thought I'd sign up and post this for you guys to try.

Cheers,

Iain