Why Does My Screen Flicker on and Off while Playing Games?

When playing games, my window is 1/2 size of screen?

• when playing games, my window is always 1/2 the size of the screen if i click full size it remains the same size but the rest of the screen is black. i know it can be full screen because it was in the beginning but i dont know what happened to change it. any ideas or help? I have a latitude d600 laptop w/ windows xp and i cant find video in my control panel

• Answer:

  Try right clicking the program's icon, selecting properties, clicking the compatibility tab. Check the box for "run in 640x480 screen resolution", and click ok. Your program should now automatically re-size your screen when you run it, and it will return to normal after the game is closed. If the game is designed for 800x600 or 1024x768, you will need to right click on the desktop, select properties, choose the Settings tab, and slide the slider to the left. Just remember to change the setting back after playing the game, or you will have giant desktop icons and blurry programs.