Graphics Smaller after New Hard Drive Inst.

[Norman B]

My hard drive crashed on my Dell Studio 540 - Vista Home Premium. I had gotten some help on the Crash and Debugging forum, however it turned out to be a hardware issue. Dell installed a new hard drive the other day. Since that happened the video/graphics are all smaller on my 24" monitor. All of the text and icons in the tool bars, system tray, etc. are a lot smaller than they were with the old hard drive. I manage to enlarge the desktop icons. I also went to Display and changed the DPI from the standard 96 to the large 120. This made the text larger but still not as large as it used to be. I called Dell but they were not a lot of help.
I'm not great with computers but I know a little. I don't know if there is some type of setting I should change.
Thanks

 

[richc46]

Welcome
This is probably not the solution, because Dell would have picked up on it, but did you try to change the resolution
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/84291-screen-resolution.html

Also right click on desktop>personalize>display

 

[MrNeeds]

oh dear, what has happened here is your previous system before the new hard drive had the resolution set to a low resolution, now the drivers have been correctly installed, the resolution has now been set to the correct "native" resolution. with 24" i believe it's either 1920x1080 or 1920x1200.

To get bigger icons and everything, revert back any changes you have done and change the resolution to 1280x720 or lower, depending on how it looked before. hope this helps.

MrNeeds

 

[Patonb]

I'd redo the drivers t9o be safe, who knows how they swapped drives.

 

[Norman B]

My monitor is a wide screen and the graphics card is an ATI Radeon HD 3650. I don't know if that makes a difference.
Anyway, I went home at lunch and changed the resolution. It had been set at the maximum. I changed it to 1280 X 1024. It streched the screen a little but everything appears larger. It now looks more like the old screen.
When I frist bought the computer 2 years ago I think there was an issue with the size of the screen. I'm pretty sure that a Dell Tech remotely changed the resoluttion at that time, I just can't remember what he set it to. We might have changed the graphics card at that time too. I had bought one Dell computer but had several issues the first week. I returned it and then purchased this one. I just can't remember if this computer had a problem then.
Do I still need to update the drivers? If so how do I go about that.
Also, Richard, thanks for helping with the Boot problem. It turned out to be the bad hard drive.

 

[richc46]

This is how to update drivers
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/193584-device-manager-install-driver.html
or
Go to the website and download from there, which is the best way

 

[Norman B]

Thanks for all of the help. I went to Device Manager and found my graphics card. I did the update and it stated that I already had the most up-to-date driver.
However, by changing the screen resolution to 1280 x 1024, the graphics and text are now larger.
When the new hard drive was installed the reolution had been set at the highest, 1920 x 1080. I'm surprized that the Dell Techs did not try to change the resolution when I called with the problem. They logged onto my computer and I could see everything that they were doing. All they tried was changing the DPI.
Thanks for your help.

 

[richc46]

Actually, I am surprised too. If you look at my post, I even mentioned that it may not work, since I thought that Dell would have made an obvious suggestion like that.

 

[Norman B]

As with any place you deal with, it all depends on who you get. They probably have a couple of hundred techs. Some know more than others and some try harder than others. I guess you have to call back a few times until get the person who can help. It's just like these informational forums. Some people have more expertise than other. I was fortunate to find this forum. The help I've received this past week has been great. Thanks.

 

[richc46]

We are all volunteers, helping because we enjoy helping others especially with computers. It is due to kind comments like yours that makes it all worthwhile.

 

[MrNeeds]

Couldn't agree more Rich, that's why I'm still here and not much at 7 forums

 

[Patonb]

Wooooooooh cowboy.... Your problem is alot diffverent than I though.

Go back to 1920, then just make the icons bigger by holding control and scrolling the scroll wheel.

The dell guys didnt change the res, as thats how its suppose to be.

 

[Norman B]

Patonb, thanks for the suggestion, however the problem wasn't just the icons. I knew I could make the icons larger. The problem was that everyhting on the screen was too small. All of the text, the bar across the bottom of the screen, etc. The suggestion to changed the resolution worked great. Everything is now fine.
When I first got this computer and 24" monitor 2 years ago the text and graphics were small. At that time I called Dell and that tech changed the graphics for me. I just couldn't remember how he did it.
I really appreciate everyone's help on this forum. Hopefully I won't need it in the future.
Thanks