DOS program only filling half the screen


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One of the people I help out has a problem with a DOS program she needs to do her job.

Its a few years old, with a Y2K update as the last patch (its says copyright 1999).

In setting up her new XP system, I just copied over the program directory (someone lost the setup disks), and ran the program.

It actually ran.

But under XP the program itself only fills half the screen! (It ran fine under 98SE)

I tried everything I could think of. I ran it in compatibility mode for Windows 98/Me. I had it run 630x480, 256 colors, etc. I even used the Microsoft Compatiblity Thiny. No good.

Please help.

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Other things I tried: I increased the number of lines in the window, and the size of the window.

These seem to go away in full screen mode.

So the problem presists.

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What do you mean by half the screen. As you can still see part of your desktop, or as in the screen is black outside of certain borders. If the former, provide more info. If the latter, it's a video card/monitor/resolution issue.

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Its the latter.

The program itself occupies only half the screen, the rest is black, in fullscreen mode.

I doubt its a driver problem. The machine is brand new! I'd think Dell would put the latest drivers on when doing auditing before shipping.

But I'll have to check. It has no Internet connection (The user doesn't need one), so that'll complicate things.

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Right click on the command line's titlebar, click properties. In the "Display Options" section, select Full Screen. That should fix it ;)

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As he has said, it's not THAT issue. The application WINDOW is taking up the full-screen, but the app itself isn't taking up the entire window.

Are you able to do us a screenie?

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It sounds like the DOS program is setting the screen resolution (which only effects the DOS box not windows resolution)

A lot of DOS programs did this. XP does not give full control to software like was done in the Windows 9X days.

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can you give us the name of that program? Are the screen resolutions different from 98/Me to XP? Meaning was she running 640x480 in 98/ME and running 800x600 or higher? Does the program itself have video settings?

Hey, at least the program is running.

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Heh, I didn't get to read his post above mine because I kept this window open a long while before he posted it :blush:

@Angel Blue01

Do you have any forced refresh rates set for certain resolution on your monitor? Different refresh rates for different resolutions tend to move the picture around quite a bit...Fullscreen command line does funky stuff, and I'm trying to figure out its resolution but screen captures don't work :huh: . I would think it's around 320x240...

Edited by ViciousX
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In 98 she ran it at 800x600.

In XP at 1024x768.

But remember, I checked the compatibility mode option for 640x480.

No difference.

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In full screen DOS mode, the video is probably switching to 640x480 resolution.

Maybe the problem is with your monitor. Have you tried using the controls on the monitor to stretch the image to fill the screen?

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Try switching the XP resolution back to 800x600 and see if that does anything...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I solved it!

What a strange solution...

I had to change the program to run in window mode. Then I changed the number of lines to 25. And then reset the program to run in full-screen mode.

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