I fiddled with the monitor's own menus for a bit, but found no way to zoom or enlarge the image. Then I remembered that this is HDMI I'm dealing with. Whenever I'd used HDMI to connect a media-center PC to an HDTV, I'd always run into problems with the size of the image. It was never scaled just right.

Like many laptops, this one was based on an ATI graphics processor, and therefore incorporated the ATI Catalyst Control Center--a utility that gives you finer control over your display(s). After launching the CCC and poking around a bit, I was able to solve the problem. Here's how:

Start the CCC and switch to Advanced Mode. Click the Graphics button in the upper-left corner and choose Desktops & Displays. Near the bottom, under "Please select a display," right-click the monitor that's giving you trouble (in my case it was #2) and choose Configure. Click the Scaling Options tab, then slide the selector to the right, towards Overscan. Keep sliding until your image appears edge-to-edge in your monitor. Click OK and you're done!

Your mileage may vary depending on which version of the CCC you have. Mine was current as of June, 2011.

If you've got a hassle that needs solving, send it my way. I can't promise a response, but I'll definitely read every e-mail I get--and do my best to address at least some of them in the PCWorld . My 411: . You can also sign up to .