You should have a 1680x1050 setting unless the video card does not support anything over 1600 wide (it should).

Your LCD is widescreen. The max vertical resolution is 1050 so 1200 is impossible.

Did you install the software that came with the monitor?

yes i did. i was not too happy about it tho. the monitor was never taken out of the box til i got it home. he had the pc hooked up to a monitor, not this size, in his store when i played around with the pc the day i got it. at home i put the cd in the drive and just keep going thru the process.

1200 impossible? that's what it is set to!

i'm confused so if possible keep it simple. i'm wondering if i should use the adjustment buttons on the front of the monitor? i have not touched them as i don't know what will happen or how to get out of it. should i reload the cd? do i uninstall the monitor if i reload the cd?

thanks

tom

Have you checked to see what your computer is showing as the monitor and video card. When I set up my new Vista Home Premium comp with my old monitor, I had to do the following:

Rt. click on your desktop. Click on Personalize. Scroll down a little....
Click on Display Settings...then Advanced....You will see a page with tabs at the top. First click on Adapter Type (this is your video card)..then properties..then the driver tab at the top..then Update Driver. Vista will find the best driver for your video card and install it or it will tell you yours is the best. Then do the same thing again, but when you get to the page with the tabs, now chose Monitor, then properties, then the driver tab and the Update Driver.

After updating both drivers, restart the computer or it will restart itself and you will have the correct drivers for your monitor and video card. (The place you bought it should have told you this as their monitor info is probably still in your compter and messing it up.)

When you are all done updating everything you can go back to the Monitor tab above and be sure it's set to the resolution you mention above.

thanks mes444 i'll try this. i suspected that the monitor they were using might be the problem but i thought that the cd load for the monitor would have corrected it so i discounted it. let me try your suggestion.

tom

mes444,

no change.

i looked for the best video card driver on my c drive or should i have gone to the internet? and it said the driver software is up to date.

i did the monitor next looking on the view sonic cd (on d drive) and it said that the best driver is installed for the device.

i did restart the pc but it is the same. i went to the settings and the same resolution settings are there as before. they are -

1768 x 992
1600 x 1200
1600 x 1024
1600 x 900
1360 x 768
1280 x 1024
1280 x 960
1280 x 800
anything lower is not good to use as the image is too large and i can't see much of the total screen.
. so from 1600x 1200 thru 1280 x 960 they all look pretty much the same as to colors and font clarity tho the image on the screen is displayed larger or smaller as i'm sure you know. i thought that 1360 x 768 was the best but they all look the same really.

what's up, no 1680 X 1050. should i look on the net for the drivers vs my c or d drives?

tom

I'd figure out the make and model of the video card and go nose around their website for drivers and footnotes. Maybe send them an email telling your tell of whoa.

Ideally that monitor was designed to run 1680 X 1050 and that will be your best picture. Maybe the monitor maker has a toll free support line ?

Usually the monitor adjustment buttons mostly are to fit the picture to fill the screen, some other settings for skew/brightness/contrast.

It appears that your video card and monitor do not match. The message telling you to use 1680 x 1050 is probably the "native" resolution of the monitor, the resolution by which each pixel exactly matches a pixel stream of 1680 x 1050. This will give the sharpest image and permits the use of full screen. When there is not an exact match, the video card is supposed to interpolate and make choices of which pixels to light up. However, if your video card was made for an older picture tube monitor, this was not a consideration, and may not work as well as you would like with a LCD monitor.

Look at your monitor literature to see if you can find the various pixel counts that it supports. Hopefully, one of these may also match one from your video card.
From the list you supplied - (I assume this was for the video card)- Two ratios may suffice. Try the 1600 x 1200 or the 1280 x 800. I recommend the 1600 x 1200. You'll probably still get the notification, but you can ignore it and delete it.

For best results, you may need a new video (adapter) card that supports your monitor.

you said a local show built the pc and it is a vista pc so it sounds like it should be a fairly new pc, if so I would contact the shop and let them know about this problem and have them troubleshoot it especially if you also got the monitor from them. He should have set up that pc with that monitor to see that everything functioned as it should and was at it's optimum performance level.

it is new. i got it about 9 days ago. it was built by a local shop not show. typo??

i got it all from them.

i agree they should have but they did not!

this is bugging me. i bought a $350 monitor (less 10% off for getting the entire sytem from them) when i could have gotten a 19" wide view sonic (same mfg as the 22") for $225 with the 10% discount. i have nothing to compare this to so i don't know if what i see is good or bad.

tom

So Tom, if the store where you had the computer built is not too far away why not phone them and explain the issues. Then ask for a convenient time to return with both the monitor and the tower so he can set it up for you while you wait.

This allows the owner to do what he needs to do and gives you an opportunity to assess his after sales treatment of customers. I suspect he will be happy to do the adjustments for you.

i have called and he was rather short about the res issue. i asked how to load nero and he just said accept all. see i blew the motherboard by accident, took the pc back, he thought it was the hd gone bad. i plugged a usb cable into a port for hd tv but NO ONE told me at the shop what that was and it looked just like the usb ports! so he took out the hd put in a new hd and then figured out it was the mb cuz it still wouldn't boot. no charge he was good about it. so.....

i dread bringing the pc and monitor back there. it's a pain to diconnect and drag it down there. that's why i hoped to resolve this here or on phone with him. i do have to call and discuss with him just to insure my monitor is showing me the best quality (sharp clear colors) picture that it should. like i said i dread disconnecting all this going down (not far just 7 miles) and bringing it back and setting it up again. i have other stuff to do but IF i have to then i'll have no choice but to do that.

thanks,

tom

He'll sell you and install a video card that matches your monitor resolution if your not happy with the pic.

Your monitor and video card probably both support 1280 x 800 - you need to look in the user manual to verify.

You video card has a setting 1600 x 1024 ... if I did my math right that ratio wise is closest to the 1680 x 1050. I'd try that setting but I probalby would justify the expense in my mind to do it right and go buy and install myself a new graphics card that does do the 1280x1050, preferably digital if that monitor has both analog/digital inputs.
The digital graphics card is supposed to be the best it gets if you have a digital input, and they are way less money than what I would spend on an analog video card.

ok i now THINK i have some real answers to this.

i brought in the 22" wide monitor and exchanged it for a 19" wide samsung. my res s/b 1440 x 900 BUT guess what? again i can not find it!!! i tried to get it off the samsung site and even called them. they told me i needed to get the correct video card drivers.

ok so i called the shop.... again... and told them what's happening.

i have the correct video drivers there's no doubt about that. see, when they built this pc instead of it being a 32 bit vista os it's 64 bit and that in conjunction with the amd processor makes this a very very fast pc. this is good. BUT the 64 bit is the problem! apparently vista is typically 32 bit. this is why the 22" wide view sonic also had driver issues - i need drivers for vista 64 bit not 32 bit. they told me they'd find the correct driver and burn a cd for me.

they were very nice and had no issue exchanging the monitor. i like the service and would recommend them to anyone so there's no problems.

mike, the owner, told me i might be better off with a square rather than a wide monitor but at this point i really don't want to tell him i want a 19" square vs the 19" wide they just gave me 2 hours ago.

also... i think i made a mistake getting vista, i thought i made a wise choice but now i wonder. i heard that ms was dropping support for xp in 6/2009 so i figured why buy a pc with an os that will not be supported in 13 months. so i opted for vista even tho i used xp pro in work for years and know it fairly well. honestly, if i could turn the clock back 2 weeks, i'd go with xp not vista, probably would have only needed 1 gb ram not 2 gb and xp was a less expensive os. but i am not going to ask him to take vista off and put xp on unless there's a major problem that arises with vista. it's a pain for him and he may not do that for free (!!), i'll lose all my docs and pictures and address book i've set up on this pc. i just don't want to go theu that and he'll think i am a kook, which i really don't think i am but i am learning as i go and now think xp would have been the better choice.

but this pc is nice and dsl is really fast (768 kbps) and i am a happy camper. this monitor even at 1600 x 900 vs the 1440 x 900 looks better, 22" was too big. hopefully they'll get the right driver and this will be 1440 x 900.

thanks to all who helped me!

tom