Pixelated Images

Does anyone have any idea of why certain images would look kind of "choppy" on my laptop? This doesn't occur with my desktops, just with my new laptop. For instance, up in the left corner of this page, the NotebookReview.com icon looks sloppy, like I can see blurry ridges in it. The advertisement banner looks this way as well. Nothing else on this page appears this way though. Hopefully somebody has an idea of what I'm talking about.

Maybe this is normal, I don't know, it's my first laptop, or perhaps it has something to do with the widescreen.

 

Wow, I just noticed this, my avatar...

<------ over there

... looks this way too. On my desktop computer the lines are very clean and smooth, on my laptop they are... ugly.

 

This all has to do with the current setting you have your display on. What LCD did your laptop come with? There will be a number set next to the 'name of your LCD' such as WXGA 1200 x 800. < That number set there, the resolution given, is known as your 'native resolution'. Your settings MUST be on THAT resolution in order to have most efficient viewing. Any other resolution OTHER than that will produce the choppiness you are describing. Go into your Desktop> Properties> Display and make sure you have it on your Native Resolution. Play around with it if you have to. You must have it set on something different other than that (maybe when you wanted the icons to be larger or smaller you switched it in the past).

Remember you native resolution is your most efficient / best resolution. That is what your LCD is set to produce the sharpest.

Goodluck.

 

Hmmm...

Well I did change an option somewhere to make my desktop icons and font smaller, I didn't change the screen resolution though.

Would the DPI setting have anything to do with it?

 

I remember what I did now...

I changed the settings under Appearance, Advanced, and under item I selected Icon. Right now my icons are set to size 32 with font size 8. Would this be the problem?

 

Yes that could very well be it. Change back to default settings (the setting that were originally on the computer) and see what happens.

 

Well, I don't remember what the originals were. My native resolution is 1680x1050. If someone with the same resolution who hasn't changed these could tell me what the original values were I'd appreciate it.

 

Go to your Desktop > Right Click > Properties > Settings Tab > There is a little dial labelled "Screen Resolution" - Adjust that dial left or right until you reach 1680 by 1050 pixels. The resolution is directly below the dial, you will see it change itself. Once you have found that resolution click Apply than OK and check out the images on the internet ect.

 

I have my resolution set to that, that's not the problem. I'm talking about when I changed the settings under the Appearance tab, then Advanced, and under item I selected Icon. I changed my icon size to 32 and font size to 8. Would this be the problem? That's the only thing I've changed; I haven't touched my resolution and have it currently set to my native resolution.

 

I think Momo means that if you re-apply it, it might reset the things you changed to defaults.

 

you need to play with the font and title bar size. step by step. it's a tedious process.

 

The wrong font and title bar size could make this image appear rough around the edges???

<----

 

Perhaps. Play around with it, try to set it back to what the original settings (font/icon size ect) were. You should be able to locate the setting which will give you the sharpest display that you seek.

 

No luck...

I'm going to reformat anyway, maybe that will fix things.

 

It did.

I think it MIGHT have had something to do with this message I got when I reformatted.

"Congratulations! You have a high-resolution monitor. Some text may be too small to read, would you like to turn on Large Text?"

I said no.

My images are fine now. I don't know if that was the difference for sure or not.

 

Ahh, that must have been it. I've never had a message like that when reformatting but by saying 'yes' (previous time) you must have changed the setting to something irreversible. (Although i've never heard of it, interesting).

 

It was weird, I didn't have anything like that come up when I first booted up my computer when I got it from Dell, it was only after the reformat.

 

Strange, but you recall changing SOMETHING in the past right? Somehow, some irreversible change, weird. Anywho, which Dell do you have?

 

Go to "Display Properties" then click the "Settings" tab then the "Advanced" button.
Click the "General" Tab. If you change the DPI setting to anything but "Normal Size (96 DPI)" you will get distorted images. I noticed my images were horrible this morning and was determined to fix it. Setting it back to "Normal Size (96 DPI) fixes the "ugly images" problem.

 

Yup ^ Simple as that at times as well (I believe that was covered in this thread, or a diff. one)

 

The only thing I did was change the Icon size and text size for my icons.

Whatever the problem was, it's fixed now.

BTW, my DPI is set to 120 and everything's okay, so I don't know what you're saying about the 96 DPI.

 

Hmm, probably depends on screen size which DPI is best suitable. If it works, don't touch it. That's what I always say ;\

 

After my incident with changing something as trivial as icon size, I'm not touching ANYTHING

 

Hahaha good to hear. Enjoy your machine. By the way, which Dell is it?

 

Inspiron 6000. The 9300 was just too big for me so I got a high-end version of this.

 

Nice. You have the 6000d with dedicated graphics? (A high end version of 6000).

 

No, because I won't be playing many games on my laptop. I maxxed out almost all my other options though. 2 gigs of RAM, processor, dvd burner, etc.

Got it with a 30% off coupon.

 

Oh, nice. 2GB RAM must keep the machine running nice.

 

Yeah, it runs pretty fast. I haven't really used it hard yet; I've been busy reformatting and optimizing. The thing I'll use it for that will test it the most is some heavy flash and video editing. I'm going to wait to put my review of this system on here until I can see how it runs with my editing programs.

 

Cool, good luck with that. Oh, just wondering, as i've seen the 'we will pay for your review' on this website, are you going to actually be paid for your review? And if you don't mind me asking, roughly how much est?

Once I get a laptop, I will most likely do a review (to help out future laptop buying individuals, as myself, as I know the process of selecting the best notebook for oneself can be a time-consuming and at times, frustrating experience). But I would be especially motivated if the incentive of $ was also in the equation.