Question : Problem: Changing Aspect Ratio

My wife bought me an Acer 2002W LCD monitor for Christmas and just getting around to installing it. No problem with installation, looks nice, but now everything is stretched to fit the width. I have a Dell Optiplex GX1, factory video adapter, Windows 2000 Pro. I have changed the desktop resolution, depending on the ratio it either is no change, or worse stretching. I have tried the window maximized and not maximized. Everything still looks like a funhouse mirror. The monitor came with no software or drivers. Would it help to go to Acer and download a driver?

Answer : Problem: Changing Aspect Ratio

The native resolution of the Acer AL2002W is 1680 x 1050 -- this is the resolution you want to run it at, anything else can look fuzzy, streched or out of proportion.  You can try downloading a driver from Acer to see if that adds a 1680 x 1050 option to your desktop resolutions.

I would also make sure you have the newest driver for your integrated graphics chip from Dell.

If neither of those work it is possible that the older graphics driver on the GX1 may not support the 1680 x 1050 widescreen resolution.  In that case you would need to upgrade to a discrete graphics card that is able to output that resolution (the bonus here would be you coud then maybe use a DVI cable for a slightly cleaner picture)