I have just installed SUSE 10.1 and amongst other things have a problem with my desktop resolution. It is configured duting installation yo 1600 x 1200. This makes the icons and text far to small on my 19in monitor. I use 1100 x 860 in Windows.
However when I try to reduce the resolution my monitor refresh rate does to high (95 - 115 htz ) and I get a "signal frequency out of range" monitor error and can't use linux. I can't seem to manually change the refresh rate when I reduce the resolution.
Also my desktop does not fill the whole screen as it leaves a 1inch border.
Any help would be appreciated.

Have you tried running sax2?

The control panel allow you to set icon size in different parts of the GUI. As to the big borders, these can frequently be adjusted on the monitor itself with buttons provided. Adjustments are saved for each size. The best approach to monitor adjustment is sax2 although it appears that your monitor is already recognized and configured. The defaults for unrecognized monitors maxes at 1024.

Thanks for your quick response.
Yes I have tried that but for every reduced resolution possibility the monitor refresh rate goes to high and I know that it will cause a ouof range monitor error if I apply the new resolution. I seen to have limited options to change the refresh rate for every resolution often just 1 or 2 options.

Thanks for your quick replay.

I can set the icons to different sizes but they don't always look very good.
I did notice that during installation the monitor was recognised as a 17in monitor and not 19in but the installation procedure did use my whole screen it was only when getting into suse that the problem was apparent. I changed the monitor size setting to 19in during the installation and on another occasion ignored the monitor size setting but the problem is the same.
I know I can change the settings on the monitor itself but it would mean the settings would not be good for my windows setup and would need changing back everytime I use windows and then back again when booting SUSE. No change of resulution seems to be able to correct the problem.

What ever ap you run to configure your monitor it results in changes to:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

One word of caution editing this file -- make sure you don't exceed the limits of your monitor as its possible to damage it if you do.

what happens if you ignore the manufacturers settings and choose something like " ->Vesa 1280X1024@75HZ " in SAX2 ?
( or ->LCD 1280X1024@60HZ if you have an lcd screen )

Have you tried reinstalling and selecting 18" or 18.1" as display size? (If it's a CRT and not LCD you have, remember the actual screen area you get is only 18").

I had almost the exact same problems. Turns out that during install yast incorrectly detected my 19" CRT as 17". I missed it. But I reinstalled and this time I checked the hardware settings before accepting and changed the 17" to 18.1" and resolution to 1024 x 768 (same as my windows settings). Worked perfectly. So it's now running just as in windows at 85Hz.

Hope that helps you out.

Also, if you want 3D you'll need to download and install the driver. Then you must enable 3D in sax2.

I have similar - or even harder - problems.

Sax2 completely fails to configure the screen resolution I ask.
I tried the following:
* Select VESA mode 1600x1200@75Hz, click "Test" or "Save"
- Mode shown in test and saved is 1280x600@75Hz
* Select VESA mode 1600x1200@85Hz, click "Test" or "Save"
- Mode shown in test and saved is 1152x768@55Hz
* Select proper monitor, 1600x1200 (screen refresh rate not offered)
- Mode stored is 1856x1392! Screen refresh rate unknown but apparently low.

So obviously Sax2 just ignores the mode I want, doesn't give me full control
about refresh rate anyway, and I cannot configure my monitor properly with
SuSE 10.1, it's all a big mess and nuisance.

SuSE 10.1 has been a major disappointment. After years as a loyal SuSE user I've changed to Ubuntu 6.06. As I mentioned above, regardless of what application is used to set your video parameters they all result in changes to /etc/X11/xorg.conf which you can make manually with an editor.