Putting the Black Bars in Diablo II

[Relondo]

I've just installed Diablo II on my Widescreen (1600 x 900) Laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium. After some fiddling, I've gotten rid of the nasty discoloration problems by running D2 in a window. As of now, I can play by lowering my laptop resolution to 800 x 600 and playing D2 in window (for maximum size), but it is still stretched out. I would like to maintain the aspect ratio of the original game-that is, add black bars on the sides of the screen.

Can anyone help?

 

[Stas]

There should be an option somewhere to run the monitor at whatever resolution in "letter-box" mode, this will put in black areas and maintain the aspect ratio

 

[Relondo]

Where would that be?

 

[Archone]

Ive got a program called "Monitor Manager" on mine, with Windows 7.

 

[Relondo]

Where did you get that from?

 

[Valhauros]

What video card do you have, ATI or Nvidia?

 

[Relondo]

AMD Radeon, which means ATI, right?

 

[Valhauros]

Yes, it does. I answered a previous thread with the same problem a month ago. Here's the link:
Forcing 4:3 aspect ratio?

There is also a screenshot there. If you have the last updates to the driver, the solution should work for you.

 

[Relondo]

This didn't work. I found the option, but now that I've set Diablo II to run normally instead of in a window, it launches and kicks me back to the desktop. I can still tab into it, but after a few seconds of a flashing screen, it goes to the desktop again, leaving Diablo running.

 

[Valhauros]

Have you try launching using the folder .exe instead of the shortcut?

 

[Relondo]

I haven't. I will try that now.

 

[Relondo]

When I turn off windowed mode and launch directly from the .exe, nothing happens at all. I mean, the executable starts, but Diablo doesn't.

*UPDATE*

It launched, but it took about five minutes, and still it kicked me back to the desktop.

 

[Valhauros]

Maybe a silly question, but, Have you tried selecting compatibility mode? (> Windows Xp). Beyond that, I don't really think I have any other suggestions. Good luck.

 

[Relondo]

I'm running in compatibility mode for Windows XP. But, anyway, if I run D2 in window, it maintains the aspect ratio now. So I at least have that small triumph. Guess I'll just keep playing it windowed, for now.

 

[Relondo]

Well, thanks for your help, anyway.