problem with getting full screen on 17" monitor

[mystical_seeker]

I have a dilemma that i need help with, i'm hoping that maybe someone will be able to assist me with it. I have tried contacting Hewlett Packard....with lame results that did me no good at all.
ok, here it is....
I have a Pavilion 4553z (link is to specs....)
http://www.hp.com/cgi-bin/cposupport...Tfile=bph05066

here's the deal....
The other day i went to the HP web site to upgrade my video drivers, while i was there i saw that they had an upgraded version of my Bios that would fix certain problems that i had been having. Ok, i d/l the video drivers no problem, i d/l the bios go to reboot my computer and my viewable desktop screen has shrunk. I have a 17" monitor of which i have a viewable area of 9.5"x7"around that there is about 1.5" of black
screen that is totally worthless. My settings are on 800x600 256 colors, the only way i can get a full screen is if i max my settings to 1024x768, and even then everything is miniature.
i have no clue how to restore my desktop to the way it was. Also the colors are all funky now, if i have a picture on my desktop and i go to open a program the desktop flashes to like a negative hue then goes back to normal...never did that before this fiasco. Colors on some programs are dull and have a negative effect to them.
HP's advice was to go into safe mode, and enter device manager to delete my display driver, then reboot so the comp. would put it back the way it was....been there done that, with no change. If you have any idea what i am talking about, have seen it before etc. please let me know what to do to rectify this problem, i would truly appreciate it.
Thank you...
Tam
ps....the discussions on these pages seem to open to dead pages when i try to open them....if someone has an answer for me please e-mail me at mystical_seeker@yahoo.com

[Jimstep]

Have you tried to expand you vertical and horizontal settings on the monitor controls to expand the image on the monitor?

[Tekkitan]

yeah hp monitors dont have the buttons to expand the vertical and horizontal settings, but if you have the ATI drivers installed, you can do it from the video card properties

[Harshu]

Using A 17" moniter @ 800by600 is really....... what to say. Just Increase the resolution of at least 1024by768. This is the recomended resolution for 17" moniters. Increse your colur setting to 16bit at least(become colourful buddy). And increse the size of you Desktopfont and increase the size of your icons. Every thing will be fine.