Screen stretched and blurry

[Illutopple]

I have an HP G61 Notebook with a 15.6" inch screen. I only have two options for the resolution: 1024 x 768 (recommended) & 800 x 600. I was told I have the wrong resolution settings for my screen size and that I should set it to my native settings, but I can't because LIKE I SAID, I only have two options. My stretched screen problem started yesterday morning when i put my laptop aside and came back to it a minute later to find that two black bars randomly appeared on the sides of my screen, so no one touched anything. I refreshed and now I've got this ugly stretched screen. I tried installing the latest Fall Creators update that apparently has a new driver, hoping this would fix the issue, but it didn't do squat. 

I have a Microsoft Basic Display Driver, according to my adapter properties. I already checked for driver updates and I'm all up to date. I wanted to uninstall the driver to see if this fixes the issue, so I came here and entered in my info to see if I could download a new driver. The only update available is from 2009! 

I've also went to the "list all modes" option and that didn't help either. What on earth do I do now??

[Illutopple]

ADD ON: The Fn+space thing doesn't work.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

HP does not support any PC made before August of 2013 for W10.  So, that is why there are no W10 drivers listed on the support page.

Also if it was working fine on previous versions of W10, I have been noticing as the new W10 updates are rolled, out, older PC's are dropping out of the race to keep up with the latest updates, due to driver issues.

The only suggestion I can offer (other than going back to W7, or an older version of W10), would be to try manually installing the W7 graphics driver from your notebook's support page as follows.

Download and install this free file utility.  The 2nd file at the top of the page is for 64 bit.

http://www.7-zip.org/

Download and save, but do not run the W7 graphics driver from your notebook's support page.

This package provides the AMD Graphics Driver for the supported notebook/laptop models and operating systems.

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp45001-45500/sp45261.exe

After you save the graphics driver, right click on it and select 7-Zip from the list of options on the menu.

Have 7-Zip Extract to: and let it extract the file into its folder name (sp45261).

Once that is done, go to the device manager, click to expand the graphics adapters device manager category.

Click on the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update Driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, and browse to the driver folder that 7-zip created.

Make sure the Include subfolders box is checked, and see if the driver installs that way.

Then restart the PC.

[Illutopple]

Thanks. I guess it's that's business for you. I'll try going back to an older version of Windows 10. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[Jusscohun]

Hello  Paul_Tikkanen, 

I have a very similar situation with my HP G61: I was watching a youtube video the other day, and all of the sudden my screen went black. After a restart, my screen is all stretched and blurry as well. I followed your instructions step by step for the fix, however when I got to the step of manually installing the driver, the dialog box tells me that "Windows determined that you already have the best driver installed". Any ideas? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

If your notebook has the same HD 4200 graphics adapter, then there is nothing else you can do.

This person stated they had a fix, but I think he was just plain lucky.  It didn't work for anyone else that tried it.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Video-Display-and-Touch/Resolution-Fix-To-everyone-that-had-is...

I recommend you reinstall the last version of W10 that worked for you.

[Jusscohun]

I checked out that thread you posted and I must have been one of the lucky ones because I rolled back the driver on my graphics adapter, and my screen resolution is back to normal again!!

Thank you so much for your help!! 🙂

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That is great news the fix worked out for you.