Widescreen Gaming Forum

after installing windows 7, it decides to be gay and gives me black bars on the side when playing at a 4:3 aspect ratio resolution. I have a 26" and i need that resolution to be "stretched out to full screen.

i tried nvidia control panel, but it decides to be gay and detect my lcd as a crt(so i wont have the flat panel scaling option)

Are there any programs/hacks to force aspect ratios?

I'd love to help you, but using expressions like "to be gay" is just a total turn off.

Maybe you've seen your box hump someone elses, but I haven't so until then, find something else to say please.

We don't appreciate the language, and you should do some searching before assigning blame.

If the control panel is detecting your LCD as a CRT, you're most likely using the VGA cable and the scaling is due to your monitor (I'm guessing it's a TV) and not Windows 7 nor Nvidia.

sorry for the language

and im pretty sure its either windows 7 or nvidia, because it worked in windows vista.

Are you running a VGA or DVI cable?
What monitor do you have?
What graphics card do you have?
Have you installed drivers for both the monitor and card?

monitor: westinghouse 26"

http://www.westinghousedigital.com/details.aspx?itemnum=180


gtx 260


i have drivers for my gfx card. i dont think there are drivers for my monitor.

weird thing is that everyone worked out fine with optimal aspect ratio option in vista. doesnt work in 7 now.

(Mod edit: While this is saying how to get a fixed aspect ratio rather than how to remove it, it might still be informative to some)

to make cs have those black bars on the side you have to sort of trick your monitor into using that 4:3 ratio that cs supports, you do this by going into your video card options (right click desktop and clicking on nvidia)and clicking on change resolution, then click on the customize button, then custom resolution button, in the window that pops up where it says horizontal pixels and vertical lines you must change it to your widescreen equivalent of your cs resolution in other words
640x480 -> 768x480
800x600 -> 960x600
1024x768 -> 1232x768
so you would but 960 in the horizontal pixels and 600 in the vertical lines if you used 800x600, also were it says refresh rate make sure its set at 75 hertz, then click the timing button, then click the drop down arrow next to standard: and set it to manual this is so none of the settings get changed below, then go back up to the top were it said horizontal pixels and vertical lines and fill it in with your cs resolution (800x600 in this case) after that click test and then ok now that custom resolution is added, lastly this part is very important, go back to your video card options and click the adjust desktop size and position button and make sure Use NVIDIA scaling with fixed-aspect ratio is selected. Also add -w 800 in your launch options so that it uses that resolution you've created. That should do it, it may seem like a lot but it goes by quick im so used to doing this since nvidia never fixed the bug of fixed aspect ratio not working for some people. Any trouble with it feel free to ask for help.

p.s. - I've got the latest nvidia drivers available and this fix works for it, I always update them and this fix always works with any version