Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hello boys, all of you are accordingly saying that having fullscreen while mantaining 4:3 aspect ratio is possible with NVidia.
Well, i have a widescreen laptop with nvidia geforce fx 5200 go, can you please tell me how to do it?
Because, the best i can have is the 4 black bands, not just 2.

I have a Compaq R3000z notebook w/ 15.4" widescreen LCD. It uses the Geforce4 440 chipset. I found a "Fixed Aspect Ratio Scaling" option which looks like it should add black bars to the sides of non-widescreen resolutions. When I enable it however, I get a scrambled picture when I run a game using 640 x 480, 800 x 600, etc.

I called HP Tech Support and inquired about this problem. They say that the notebook isn't at fault, it's the software I'm trying to run. They say that "Fixed Aspect Ratio" option is more for multimedia programs and movies rather than games. The scrambled picture I'm getting is normal they say. If I want to run at the smaller resolutions I'm going to have to either go w/ the small window or stretched picture. Doesn't sound right, but if this is happening to everybody else, I won't complain.

Could anybody else please try this option on their notebooks w/ the Geforce4 and try running a game at non-widescreen resolutions (I was running Doom 3 at 640 x 480)? I may take some pictures later w/ my digital camera to illustrate the problem.

Pictures would be interesting.

Since I don't have a GF440 chip, I can't be of help, sorry. Are there any options in the BIOS that have anything to do with graphics? (I know my HP has hardly any BIOS options... but an IBM T22 has so many it's incredible!

Other than that, driver version? What does it do 'stretch to fit screen'? And with other settings? What panel res/manufacturer is it?

I know, lots of questions. :)

Ok, I took a bunch of pics. My BIOS didn't have any graphics options. All it showed was how much memory my video has (64MB). I don't know the make of the LCD, how do I find that out? I took the screens from an angle to avoid the glare from the flash.

So the driver version is 47.12? (I'm not certain how nVidia counts it's dll versions...)

About all I can suggest is try the latest drivers.

Does it still mess the screen up if you set it to 800x600 and 'fixed aspect scale'?

I'm currently running the latest drivers available from HP/Compaq... nVidia's latest unified drivers don't support their mobile solutions... I found the latest unified drivers that were modified to support the mobile cards, but those gave me the same results. This happens at any resolution. I've tried 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. I've tried 3 games: Diablo II, FarCry and Doom 3.

Try the Omega Drivers. If they do the same, all I can really suggest is getting in contact with HP and asking them what they can/will do about it...

Sorry I can't be more help.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the Omega drivers, but I got the same results. I've actually already called HP, but they told me that Fixed Aspect Ratio Scaling option is more for multimedia programs, not games. Somehow I doubt this. I want to call them again, but I want to get confirmation from another mobile GeForce4 owner whether this option works or not for them. I guess I just need to hope somebody w/ one eventually reads this thread.

Well, if it's for 'multimedia' programs, try one - then call again. ;) Although I wonder what that HP techs definition of 'multimedia' is, 'cause I can't think of anything more 'multimedia' than a game. I mean, graphics, sound... what more is there on a PC without getting a force feedback mouse/joystick? :D

Well, I called them again. Told them this problem was happening in plain Windows as well. Didn't think of trying that before. They kept on saying that I shouldn't be running my notebook at lower than 1280 x 800 when I told them to try setting their notebook to a lower res w/ the Fixed Aspect Ratio Scaling on. Apparently it worked for them. They said the image was fuzzy, but readable. For me, it's not readable at all.

They told me to use the recovery CD that came w/ my notebook to restore the notebook to its original configuration and update the display driver from there. The woman on the phone said "I'm sure you won't have this problem afterwards." Somehow, I doubt that. They said if it continues to happen then I can have it sent to their service center. I was on the phone w/ them for over an hour.