monitor glitch on installing Win8.1

[Marcoz]

I have an older Dell, XPS 8500, and have just installed a full copy of Win8.1 on a new hard drive.
the machine came with Win8 installed, but in the last two years i tried to set up a double boot and
screwed up the old hard drive.
I installed Win8.1 (Although winver says Windows 8 when I access that), and it says version 6.3 (Build 9600) (c) 2013.
Sometime before the old Win8 packed it in, I tried to use this Win 8.1 DVD to put in as a double boot system.
It did run for awhile, and I noticed, however, that it displayed on my Samsung smart TV with a gap all around the edge of
the monitor signal coming from the XPS.
When I had used the TV/monitor originally, together with the XPS, somehow i managed to cause it to display full screen.
However, now, with this all new installation of Windows 8.1, it's back to the black gap/border/frame again, and I don't
recall how i got it to work properly with Windows 8.
When I used it with Windows 8, I also had a 16:9 computer monitor on, first, as monitor 1.
Anyway, I'm sure this has happened to someone out there, and it's likely a simple fix, but tinkering with screen resolution
on both the TV and Win8.1 doesn't seem to help.
So, any help here would be appreciated.

Marcoz

 

[Marcoz]

Oh, the XPS has this video card; NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 1GB DDR3 for Win 8

 

[TechnoMage]

When I installed Windows 8.1 on my desktop PC with a GeForce video card installed, it took Win 8.1 several days and several reboots to finally come up with the correct driver. It's funny that way. What it doesn't do during initial install, it may do several days later. Give it a chance. Reboot! Reboot! Reboot!
But finally, from somewhere, it did come up with the exact, correct, driver and my video is perfect. Just be patient.

 

[Marcoz]

When I installed Windows 8.1 on my desktop PC with a GeForce video card installed, it took Win 8.1 several days and several reboots to finally come up with the correct driver. It's funny that way. What it doesn't do during initial install, it may do several days later. Give it a chance. Reboot! Reboot! Reboot!
But finally, from somewhere, it did come up with the exact, correct, driver and my video is perfect. Just be patient.

Thanks TM; I suspect you'd recommend I have it set up for internet use, as that may be the source of the driver you got.
No idea how that would happen, however, this PC of mine is not yet set up for internet use. I wanted to correct these other
problems first--well, there's a second problem, but I think I'll put that in another thread.
I know one can search for drivers on one's own computer. Mine came up with a generic "plug n' play" driver.
Of course I could search the internet on the computer (not the XPS) I currently use for that, but I'm not clear what I'd be looking for,
since, I think, smart TVs were not yet around when that machine was put on the market.
I did have the idea that because I'd already had a monitor on the XPS, making the smart TV monitor 2, may have had something
to do with it working full screen.
Bu thanks for your advice, who knows, I'll give it a whirl.

 

[Marcoz]

Thanks TM; I suspect you'd recommend I have it set up for internet use, as that may be the source of the driver you got.
No idea how that would happen, however, this PC of mine is not yet set up for internet use. I wanted to correct these other
problems first--well, there's a second problem, but I think I'll put that in another thread.
I know one can search for drivers on one's own computer. Mine came up with a generic "plug n' play" driver.
Of course I could search the internet on the computer (not the XPS) I currently use for that, but I'm not clear what I'd be looking for,
since, I think, smart TVs were not yet around when that machine was put on the market.
I did have the idea that because I'd already had a monitor on the XPS, making the smart TV monitor 2, may have had something
to do with it working full screen.
Bu thanks for your advice, who knows, I'll give it a whirl.

Well, your suggestion didn't do anything, sorry to say. I'm fairly sure Windows doesn't keep loading a device driver, once it's found the driver it thinks is correct.
However, this evening I tried to rectify the other problem I was having; the watermark that sometimes shows up--I have learned--in a new installation of Windows.
First, I went through the tedious "Activate Windows" process--which I'd never seen before (my Win8 must have been activated at the factory, I just don't recall doing it.) This involved a longish phone call to Microsoft via the phone number given in the Activation wizard.
That was successful, so I tackled the the watermark problem--bottom right side of desktop--which goes; "Secure Boot is not correctly configured" (paraphrasing here), so I went to the following page of advice to rid myself of this little bugger.
Here's the URL for the benefit of any others who may encounter this:

How to Fix and Remove the "SecureBoot isn't configured correctly" watermark on Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2

This article will show you how you can fix or remove the "SecureBoot isn't configured correctly" watermark error in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2.

thepcenthusiast.com

Anyway, I chose the first method on their list of fixes and that worked. You access the BIOS, and enable Secure Boot.
When I saved that modification, and exited the BIOS, I went to the desktop and VOILA, my monitor signal was FULL SCREEN.
Don't know if that was due to Activation process, or just getting Secure Boot up and running.
Now I can use this computer with the internet as intended.