Upgrading Monitor

I have a 5-year old Dell desktop that keeps chugging along - running windows XP Home SP3.

I'd like to get a larger monitor. The monitor I have now is 17 inch "square" analog flat screen. If I upgrade to a 19 inch "widescreen", would that be a problem? I ask because a friend of mine did something similar and had two vertical black bars appearing on each side of the monitor - making his widescreen look like a square.

Thanks,
Len

 

It shouldn't be a problem i had an old desktop with a radeon 9000 gfx card from 2002 running on a new dell 22" widescreen. Your friend might not have the correct driver installed for his monitor which can result in an incorrect display.
Be aware that running a higher resolution screen requires the gfx card to work harder so performance may suffer if its not up to the task.

 

Farmerlee -

Thank you for your advice - especially about my old and feeble graphics card.

Len

 

Maybe this link may be of some use to you(UK link)

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/

 

I would be a problem if you don't have a video card that can support widescreen.

 

If you can run a widescreen I definitely recommend it. I went from a Dell 1907FP 19" to an Acer AL2216W 22" wide screen a couple of weeks ago. Then I got to thinking since my ATI has two DVI outputs why not use both monitors? I got a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1800 so I watch TV on one screen and browse the web in another Also widescreen gives you "peripheral vision" in FPS games.