Sony VGN-TZ180N: Display Not Filling Entire Screen In Windows XP, Resolution Max Is 1024x768

A client recently had me reinstall Windows XP on their Sony Vaio VGN-TZ180N laptop. There were lots of driver issues after installing Windows XP Professional that were mostly resolved by downloading various drivers from Sony’s support site for the laptop. One that caused me a bunch of problems because I assumed it was related to reinstalling the operating system was the display driver. Once I finally figured out what the issue was it was really easy to resolve but again locating the problem was hard to do. Below I describe the drivers to install and how to resolve the issue of the display only filling about half the width of the laptop screen.

Sony VGN-TZ180N: Windows XP Video Card Drivers For Intel 945GM Chipset:

The VGN-TZ180N laptop from Sony has a video card with a Intel 945GM chipset. Sony offers drivers for the Intel 945GM chipset on the support site dedicated to the VGN-TZ180N laptop however it is best to download the newest drivers for Windows XP from the Intel web site. The drivers for the video card can be downloaded by clicking here. Once you download and install these drivers it is possible to still have an issue with the display which I describe in more detail below along with what resolved my issues.

Sony Vaio VGN-TZ180N With Windows XP Display Issues:

In my case with this clients laptop the display only covered about half of the laptop screen. The other issue was the fact that it would only allow me to change between two screen resolutions which I think were 1024×768 and 640×480. I don’t specifically remember as I had limited time to fix the clients computer so I wasn’t able to note all of the details. So I first attempted to reinstall the video drivers available from the Sony support site but the same issue continued to exist. I then downloaded the latest Intel 945GM chipset drivers from the Intel web site but after installing them and rebooting the same issue existed.

Vaio VGN-TZ180N Screen Resolution & Display Errors Resolved:

Finally after trying various ways to resolve the display issue I decided to modify the hardware acceleration setting and after doing so more screen resolutions became available and the issue was resolved. Below are the steps I took to modify the hardware acceleration and then change the screen resolution setting.

Open Display Settings: Right click on the desktop and select Properties from the drop down menu to open the Windows XP Display Properties configuration window. Click on the Settings tab to display the screen resolution settings as displayed in the below image.
Advanced Display Settings: From the Display Properties configuration window displayed in the image above click the Advanced button to open the Windows XP advanced display properties.
Display Properties Troubleshoot Tab: Once the Digital Flat Panel and Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset advanced properties are open click the Troubleshoot tab as displayed below which will allow you to modify the Hardware Acceleration setting.

More than likely bringing this down one level will resolve your issue but you may have to play around with the setting until it allows you to configure different screen resolutions that resolve the issue.
Save Settings: Now click OK out of each of the open windows to save the settings.
Modify Screen Resolution: Once you have modified the hardware acceleration setting you should be able to modify the screen resolution to settings that were not previously available. You can modify the screen resolution by right clicking on the desktop and selecting Properties from the drop down menu. Next click on the Settings tab to display the available screen resolutions.