my dell s2425hsm screen image is too small and doesn't fill the whole screen, how do i fix this?

Diagnosis

The screen image appearing too small, with black borders around the display, is typically caused by an incorrect monitor scaling setting. For the Dell S2425HSM, the most common culprit is the monitor's own Aspect Ratio setting being configured incorrectly (like "1:1" or "4:3") instead of "Widescreen 16:9." This can also happen if your computer's graphics card is applying its own scaling instead of letting the monitor handle it.

How to Fix It

1. Use the monitor's physical buttons to open its On-Screen Display (OSD) menu.
2. Navigate to Display > Aspect Ratio.
3. Ensure this setting is on Widescreen 16:9 or Fill (the exact name may vary).
4. Exit the OSD. If the image now fills the screen, you're done.
5. If not, go to your computer's graphics control panel (NVIDIA Control Panel, AMD Radeon Settings, or Intel Graphics Command Center).
6. Find the display scaling option (e.g., "Adjust desktop size and position" in NVIDIA) and set scaling to be performed by the Display instead of the GPU, and set the scaling mode to Full-Screen.

If That Didn't Work

Perform a factory reset on the monitor via its OSD menu (usually under "Others" or "System") to clear any corrupted settings. Also, test with a different video source (like a game console) or a different cable (HDMI/DisplayPort) to rule out a source-specific or cable issue. If the problem persists only with certain content (like old DVDs), it's likely due to that content's native 4:3 aspect ratio and is normal.

Heads Up

Some gaming or video content is natively produced in a different aspect ratio (like 21:9 or 4:3), which will inherently not fill a 16:9 screen. Forcing it to fill will stretch or crop the image.