In your dosbox.conf set the resolution to "640x480" and the scaler to "scale2x". Thats what I use on my 19" LCD and it works fine.

If that still causes the monitor to crap out, try setting "1024x768", "1280x1024" directly into the config and see if either one works (but use "none" for scaler on those two...otherwise it won't work)

none of those 3 ways work for me 😢

Try playing with the fullfixed and aspect settings in dosbox.conf. Also note that you're trying to set 4:3 aspect ratio modes on a non-4:3 monitor - 1280x1024 is not 4:3, and 1280x960 is the closest 4:3 res. This is one reason I've been avoiding LCD monitors, and the reason why many people who do get DOSBox working then report either annoying black borders or ugly stretching.

Incorrect, I have an LCD with 1280x1024 native resolution and it works just fine with 320x240,640x480,800x600,1024x768, etc all the way up to 1280x1024. Even in resolutions as low as 640 it looks just fine to me. I have my nvidia driver set to scale image using the display adapter and it doesn't look ugly to me at all....the "smoothing" isn't even that noticable. Using scale2x it looks great.

So even setting 1280x1024 it still won't work? That doesn't make much sense, try what HunterZ stated "fullfixed" and "aspect correction" and it really should work. 😖

When you changed from a 9500 to a 9800, did you uninstall your graphic card drivers ? If not, I suggest you to do it. Many problems occur when you keep your existing drivers with another model, even if it comes from the same manufacturer.

Now it works with 640x480, scaler=normal2x, fullfixed and aspect true. It seems only a little squashed, but i don't care.
However i formatted my hard drive with my new 9800 pro, so there are no problems with previous drivers.

With my 9500 i didn't had to edit dosbox settings, and i don't remember if there was black borders, i'll check.

Thx u 😉

How do I get to load my config.sys?

config.sys isn't supported in DOSBox, unless you boot a real install of DOS inside of it.

Theres also not much point really...is there something you needed from it? 😲

I have the same problem with my system. My specs are as follows:

Athlon 64 3400+ (running at 2.2ghz, stock speed)
3 x 512MB Kingston DDR PC3200 (running at 400mhz, stock speed)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800pro 128mb (running at stock speeds for GPU and DDR)
Samsung 915N 19" LCD monitor (1280x1024 60hz native, VGA cable)

Windows XP SP2 slipstreamed
Omega drivers 2.6.71 (based on Catalyst 5.9 but I had the same problem with many versions of Catalyst and Omega with this monitor)

I recently replaced my CRT with this LCD and was unable to get fullscreen until I tried 640x480, normal2x, fullfixed true as recommended in this thread. I get black bars which sucks but is tolerable.

FYI, I can run Dosbox on my laptop, which has an LCD screen, at many different resolutions without changing any major display settings.

Is LCD the problem? Could the problem be that my LCD's native resolution is 1280x1024 which is 5:4 ratio? Does it matter that my monitor has a VGA cable, not DVI?

I can play Windows games at 1024x768 just fine (with the expected pixel stretching).

If I can help test, please let me know!

Analog LCDs are generally limited in what they can accept, so that's one source of problems. Especially old, seldomly used video modes often don't work or work badly (the DOS popular 320x200 mode, for example). If these modes work depends highly on the particular LCD screen, the driver, and the driver settings - anything can be the cause. Laptops drive their LCDs digitally, which avoids this particular problem, but there may be others.

In any case, you are best off using "fullfixed" plus "fullresolution" at your native resolution, plus an "output" value that is NOT "surface". After that, the scaler and all other options don't matter - choose as you like.