resolution problems

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure I'm posting this in the right place but it's quite hard to read the screen at the moment.
I'm brand new to linux and have almost no idea what I'm doing, last night I installed zorin 10 as a second os alongside windows 8. the install went fine but my screen resolution isn't right.
I've tried changing the resolution with no effect, what i think is an error message comes up in the top corner but I can't read it because it is cut off.
I've downloaded the correct drivers for my graphics card but they won't install for some reason.
am I missing something really obvious or did I just make a mistake installing it?
If anyone could help I'd really appreciate it thanks.

Hi,

you haven't told us anything about your hardware!. Open a terminal (Ctrl + alt + t) and type the following command and post the results back here if the rest of my tips doesn't help you:

Code:

lspci

If you have Nvidia graphics, see this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2490

You can also try running DPKG (Network Cable required, it won't work via WiFi) per the update guide and see if that fixes the problem:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2247

Hi thanks for replying

My hardware is
Alienware x51
Intel Core i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz
Ram 16GB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745

I've already downloaded the correct drivers for my GPU but they don't seem to be installing. I'm probably doing something wrong but have no experience with linux so all help with be appreciated.

Hi,

paste the results of the following terminal command (Ctrl + Alt + t) below as your model isn*'t showing in the list I looked at:

Code:

lspci

Copy and paste the results here please. It is the highlighted part of the report we need to know before we can go any further:

wolfman@fred1:~$ lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 USB 1.1 Controller (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 USB 2.0 Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:07.0 Bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:08.1 IDE interface: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
02:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
wolfman@fred1:~$

Hi, please take a look in the How-to's section - another member of the forum has Alienware Notebook and he posted the solution to it - it should be very near the top!