# New laptop won't show full screen on old projector



## saffy6 (Jan 21, 2010)

*New widescreen laptop won't show full screen on old projector*

Hi, I have a 10yr old old Toshiba projector which worked prefectly with my 3yr old HP laptop and still does with other laptops. I've just bought a new HP 17" Probook 4710s with widescreen and now I can't view the entire page on the projector. If I scroll to the right or left I can view the missing bits but I cannot view the entire screen at once. My laptop runs XP and natural screen resolution is 1600x900. I've tried changing it to different settings but this doesn't work. I got the local IT guy to help and he managed to get the full screen showing on the projector by upping the resolution but this meant that you couldn't read the writing (it was too small) and parts of the scrolbars disappeared. Please help as I need to use this projector to demo my software and train.

I'm suspicious that my new laptop is just not compatible with the old projector.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

You will need to setup the projector as a "2nd monitor" and configure it with the supported resolution. You can't simply mirror your desktop onto the projector as your laptop is widescreen and the projector is not.


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## saffy6 (Jan 21, 2010)

Thanks - I tried that and also tried different resolutions on the laptop and thought that it wasn't working because when I get a good picture on the projector I then don't get a good picture on the laptop. Yesterday I had a cable-guy here fixing our hub and he said that my problem is that I was doing all the right things but my expectation was wrong. He said to change the resolution to 1024x768 on my laptop to match that on the projector but don't expect my laptop to look perfect. Hey presto! It works and I can still read the laptop but it is a little fuzzy.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

The laptop screen is "fuzzy" because it isn't running at the screens native resolution. That was the point of setting up two displays with separate resolutions. But if you are trying to clone the laptop screen to the projector, your only option is to set it up as you have it and just deal with it.


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