[Spline]

Hello,

I have an old HP laptop (ze4560us) running XP. The video recently died on it to where you still could see the screen but it was a smaller square about 4" X 5". If you tried to change the resolution, the computer would get a BSOD with an error referring to the video card. The bios also had the same screen (4" X 5") so I figured the video card was toast. Tried to load XP from scratch to no avail.

Why am I writing here then? Well on a lark, I decided to install Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) thinking that even if the screen was small, I could at least use the hard disk space for music or something. To my pleasant surprize, after Ubuntu finished loading, I had a FULL screen again

I am at a complete loss as to how this is possible when even the bios cannot display a full screen. Does anyone have any ideas? All I can think is that Ubuntu does not require all the hardware acceleration and somehow is able to use software to make the card function. Yet safe mode in XP cannot.

Just thought I'd share this little curiousity and see if anyone out there had any idea how this was possible.

thanks,
Spline

[prunejuice]

That's interesting. I'd love to see a screenshot.

[InterKnight]

Yes, that is quite interesting. Wonder what happened there. In any case, I'm glad that Ubuntu was able to solve whatever the problem was.

Just curious...are you dual booting XP and Ubuntu? Would be really interesting if you did and if XP had the small screen and Ubuntu the full screen.

Anyhow, take care, and enjoy the Ubuntu experience. If you are using v7.10 ("Gutsy Gibbon"), v8.04 LTS ("Hardy Heron") will be released in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to it!! ) Accessibility for disabled users gets better and better with each and every release, and it's all free!

[Spline]

Not dual booting but am thinking of doing it just to see what happens. When I loaded XP, it was the small screen. Would be kinda funny to see that. If I do, will send shots of it.

Spline

[Spline]

Oh yeah, also when the GRUB is loading, the screen is small as well. It doesn't go full till the sign in.

[Arcadion]

I have a pretty fair idea of what is going on there.

The laptop isn't set to "stretch" the display, its native resolution is probably something like 1024x768 but the BIOS screen is only 640x400, and in Windows you're stuck at 640x480 because the video drivers are corrupt, so it'll look similar to the BIOS screen. If you enabled stretching (it's probably an option in the BIOS) it will make the display fill the screen even if it's at a low resolution. If you reinstalled the video drivers in Windows it probably would have fixed it. XP is sometimes able to run at full resolution even if the video drivers aren't installed, but I think it requires the video to have VESA2.0 support. Most XP-era and newer computers have this, but I've found some HPs with Intel chipsets don't.

[Spline]

I didn't see a stretching option in the bios but I will look again. Since it was working in the bios before, I figured the card was the culprit. I'll check it out and let ya know.

thanks,
Spline