LCD Monitor Stretching? (Flat Panel Scaling)

This topic discusses Flat Panel Scaling, and how to disable it.

[B]The Problem[/B]:
If your input file requires that a smaller resolution other than the native resolution that your monitor supports is to be used, you may notice that upon running your experiment, your screen has severely stretched itself. For example, let's say my monitor runs at a native resolution of 1680 x 1050. If my experiment requires that the resolution changes to 1024 x 768, my monitor will (as its default setting) stretch the contents of the screen to fill every pixel of my monitor. This may cause more harm than it is doing good for your experiment; however the individuals who designed the way your monitor works most likely assumed that you would prefer to have your monitor work this way. This helps us to identify the problem:

[I]"How do I disable flat panel scaling on my system so that the contents of my screen do not stretch to that of my monitor upon lowering my resolution?"[/I]

Now that we know the problem, let's discuss how it can be fixed.
[B]

Known Solution(s)[/B]:
The solution requires only that we find a way to disable the monitor's scaling mechanisms so that the contents of the screen simply set itself in the middle of the monitor at a 1x1 pixel ratio. This can usually be completed from the graphics hardware driver menus that your graphics device supports. If you do not have the latest drivers for your graphics device, you should install them now. A list of possible places to look for flat panel scaling options is noted as follows:[LIST][*]Graphics device driver controls.[*]Controls from on the monitor itself or within a set of drivers that the monitor supports.[*] Your laptop's control panel or BIOS.[/LIST]On my machine, the solution was quite easy, as I have an Nvidia card which uses an Nvidia control panel whenever I need to make graphical changes. If your machine uses an Nvidia card, you may find the following steps helpful:

1. Go to your Nvidia control panel.
This can be done from either right clicking on your desktop, or by going through to your monitor's display settings tab from the control panel and then selecting 'Advanced Settings' - from here navigate to the tab (the one with your graphics card's name on it) that will allow for you to launch the Nvidia control panel and do so.

2. Find the menu on the left side of the Nvidia control panel window and navigate to Display -> Change flat panel scaling.

3. From here select the display that you want to change, and move to prompt 2. In prompt 2 select 'Do not scale'. From here press Apply and exit out of the control panel. That's all there is to it.

[IMG]http://www.empirisoft.com/Download/FlatPanelScaling1.png[/IMG]



Please feel free to post any advice, help, or steps to go through (that aren't listed here) so that others can avoid this problem with ease.