New monitor, display issues

[Eireann]

Here I am again!

I bought a monitor on sale yesterday. It's HDMI, which my computer doesn't support, so I had to go to the store today to get an adapter. I plugged everything in, turned the computer on, and voila!

The monitor works, but the display isn't full-screen. My sister's husband, who works in IT, thinks it's the cabling that's the issue. Are there any other possibilities? And if it is the cabling, what do I do about it?

[EricKei]

I suspect the cabling, too. I assume that messing with the resolution in the OS doesn't help? Does the monitor have any manual scaling dials/buttons? If it lacks HDMI, I am assuming it dates back quite a few years.

[Eireann]

It's the monitor that is HDMI. The computer doesn't have a port for it. I tried adjusting the OS settings, and those on the graphics card. No luck.

[Eireann]

EricKei, thank you! The monitor does, indeed, have buttons that control the display size. It's full-screen now!

[Kit-Ginevra]

Typical woman.Always moaning because it's not the size you expect it or want it to be...

[Eireann]

Now there's another issue. I bought an HDMI to VGA adapter, and though it works, there are issues. For example, the whole screen had a magenta cast to it, and anything black looked dark green. I contacted a coworker in IT and asked for his opinion. He suggested getting another adapter (HDMI to DisplayPort). I bought the adapter online and paid to have it delivered today at my home. Meanwhile, the colors on the monitor straightened out.

But. I plugged the HDMI into the adapter, plugged it into the computer, and NOTHING. I just get a little "No signal" notification.

What the hell else should I do? The IT guy told me that HDMI to VGA is not optimal because HDMI is digital and VGA is analog. That's why I bought the second adapter. But why no signal?

[RealUnimportant]

For example, the whole screen had a magenta cast to it, and anything black looked dark green.

This is paradoxical, if anything adding a magenta cast should make green things look black. But you say this sorted itself out, so why not just put that adaptor back if the new one's not doing what you want? "Not optimal" doesn't mean "can't be used", just means that there may be a way that's simpler or yields a better result, but if the result you got was acceptable then it'll be fine.

There's too many moving parts here to say why it isn't working, it could be anything from the adaptor being duff to a setting in your OS not allowing the output to a fault in your computer that's always been there unnoticed because you didn't use that port before. If you don't have someone you can take it to for a proper diagnosis, just send the part back as unfit for purpose & let them know it didn't work with your set-up so they can test it before reselling.

[EricKei]

Glad to help! I remembered that some CRT monitors did that, so I figured maybe even a newer one would have the option. Happy to hear it at least solved *one* of your problems!

It is entirely possible that daisy-chaining adaptors simply won't work. As RU said, sub-optimal is still better than not working at all.

As for analog vs digital, yeah, that could be a concern - At least in theory, an HDMI connector will either transmit 100% or 0% of the signal, with no in-between. Can the system take a graphics card with an hdmi or dp port on it?