RetroPie is not full screen on my display. I have tried almost every conventional method, but nothing works.

A Former User

Hmm, this is going to be a tough cookie to crack.

Greg137

@itsnitro Please contact me if you find anything that might work. Thank you for your effort thus far!

Greg137

Update: I managed to cut the bar on the side of the screen about in half by forcing the resolution from my TV to my 5" display. This is the closest I've gotten to normal, but it still is not perfect. I will continue trying, but without help from people who know what they're doing more than I do, I won't be able to do much else. Also, the color has not changed. It still seems almost as if it is not being supplied with enough power, but I am using the supplied power cord for power, so that should not be what is causing it. I am at a loss of what to do next, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Greg137

Another update: So I was messing around with the resolution and switching the hdmi cable from my TV to my display, and after about 10 or 20 minutes of switching back and forth trying to find a resolution that would work, my 5" Elecrow LCD Display, completely out of the blue, stopped working and displayed a white screen. I tried a different hdmi cable, I tried a different power source... Still a blank white screen. So I guess I don't need to fix the resolution anymore... I'll just have to get a completely new display or just forget about this whole thing and continue using my TV. Thanks @itsnitro for your attempt to help me, but I won't be needing anymore help. -Greg

pjft

Sorry that happened.

This is actually addressed in the wiki, and if you're TV didn't have a setting to make the screen without the borders, it's easily solved by disabling overscan on the Pi system config.

Let us know how it goes.

Greg137

Alright, I'm back. With a new screen. It is still doing the exact same thing and I cannot get the screen to be normal with any methods that normally work. So, I guess the problem is still the same...

pjft

@Greg137 Ok.

So this time, before messing up the screen :)

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

and uncomment the #disable_overscan=1 line (i.e. remove the "#" at the beginning of the line).

Also, make sure there's a line stating overscan_scale=1.

Then reboot.

Greg137

@pjft I did exactly what you said, and it did not seem to do anything...

pjft

@Greg137 interesting. Can you paste the content of your /boot/config.txt file on pastebin and send it over for me to take a look? Maybe I missed something.

Greg137

@pjft I'm not entirely sure how to do that. Could please explain how?

pjft

@Greg137 sure.

cat /boot/config.txt

Send over the contents. You can either copy and paste to a site like pastebin.com or take a picture if you can't copy and paste (though the picture will be harder to read).

Whatever works :)

Greg137

@pjft I'm still not sure how to go about copying and pasting... I cannot select text. And if I was able to, how would I be able to paste it to anywhere through RetroPie?

pjft

@Greg137 correct. The copying and pasting would only take place if over SSH which I take you're not using.

You might be better off, then, doing

nano /boot/config.txt

And taking screenshots of the several pages.

Greg137

This post is deleted!

Greg137

@pjft I cannot upload a picture to the forum apparently.. So is there any other way to do this? I suppose I could just go through and type everything...

pjft

@Greg137 there's a size limit. Either reduce the pictures on your computer (I think the maximum size is 1MB or 2MB?) Or upload them somewhere (imgur? Dropbox? Google drive?) And share the link.

I'll look into them tomorrow. It's late here, sorry.

Thanks.

Greg137

@pjft Okay. I'll try a few things and post tomorrow sometime. Thanks for your help!

pjft

@Greg137 Not a bother.

I suppose there are two options:

One is to confirm that you do have disable_overscan=1 on the file (without the # sign).

If that is there but you're still not seeing a difference, then my next suggestion is to do something like what I was suggesting here:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/86146

Re-add the # to the beginning of the disable_overscan=1 line, and make sure you have overscan_scale = 1 there.
Play with those values - overscan_left, overscan_right, overscan_top and overscan_bottom. Start with a single one, and make it big so you can see a difference - maybe 200 or 400 (I don't know the resolution of your screen).

After you confirm it is making any change, then adjust the value as needed - it can even be negative if necessary. Start with a single margin, and then work your way to the others.

Hope this works.

You'll need to reset your Pi on each attempt.

Remember to exit and save the config file at each attempt, though, by pressing Ctrl+X and then stating "yes".

Best.

Greg137

@pjft Alright, I will try that, thanks. And here is the link to the photos I took of my config file: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0uymgAR8TjMNlFpamxLYkt4VjQ

I will grant you access as soon as I can.

pjft

@Greg137 Sounds good - please do so. You can erase them and revoke the access shortly after, it's just for me to take a look at the pics and see if anything stands out as off.

Still, the guidance I'll give will be fairly similar to the one in the previous post, but keen on seeing how the file is looking. :)