Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo 2 Vista will not run in fullscreen mode.
  • Subject: Halo 2 Vista will not run in fullscreen mode.
Subject: Halo 2 Vista will not run in fullscreen mode.

When I start the game, it is in windowed mode and switching it to fullscreen in the settings does not work. I have tried many solutions that I found online and nothing has worked. If anyone can help, that would simply be awesome.

  • 02.23.2009 6:48 PM PDT
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Posted by: Anton P Nym
who says you have to be an ace to have fun?

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Stupid parents let their stupid children play games that are rated M when they should be playing Big Birds Spelling Adventures

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Also the AR is actually good in CQB now and no longer a glorified baseball bat.

What are your system specs?

  • 02.23.2009 7:55 PM PDT

I am on a Gateway P-7801u FX laptop with a core 2 duo 2.26G Hz processor with 4 gigs of RAM and an Nvidia 9800m GTS. I haven't had this problem with any other games so far. I tried Alt+Enter and that doesn't work and I'm pretty sure I've disabled all the tablet PC services. I also tried to re-install the game and that didn't fix it. I even have the latest drivers and Direct X 10 update. I'm at a loss at what to do.

  • 02.24.2009 5:04 AM PDT
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I have the same exact system as you and have the same problem as well, cant enter that damned full screen mode. Whenever i try to go to full screen it allows me to click on it and the 15sec confirmation window pops up asking me if i want to keep these settings, but when i click full screen the screen does not even flicker like it is trying to do it and it just remains windowed.

I have the latest drivers for everything and have tried reinstalling halo 2.

(Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit)

[Edited on 02.24.2009 12:24 PM PST]

  • 02.24.2009 12:14 PM PDT

And I thought I was one of the only few having this problem. I wonder if it just has something to do with our systems? Either way it is still ridiculous. How could they let a problem like this go? What is more silly is that there seems to be no solution and that they never fixed this issue. I called the Microsoft support line yesterday and the guy I talked to had me try a few things, most of which I already tried, and nothing worked. He finally said he would get back to me in a few days with a solution (hopefully). This is really silly and I still don't get how they let this problem get into the game. I mean, this is a HUGE problem.

  • 02.25.2009 5:29 AM PDT

Posted by: Nessy

The bungie.net community is the halo PC community that is renowned for being unbelieveably sucky.

The problem is the special video drivers for your laptops.

  • 02.25.2009 11:47 AM PDT

Really? Do you know this for sure or are you just guessing? Man, what a bummer.

  • 02.25.2009 12:32 PM PDT

Posted by: Nessy

The bungie.net community is the halo PC community that is renowned for being unbelieveably sucky.

Posted by: GameLifterX
Really? Do you know this for sure or are you just guessing? Man, what a bummer.


http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_179. 48_beta.html

Have you tried this driver? Read the description and you'll see that notebooks use their own OEM (original equipment manufacture) drivers. NVidia makes this very clear. They don't really support you. It's one of the details that most people do not realize when they buy laptops.

The problem may be the game itself, but the solution is still going to be a driver fix.

  • 02.25.2009 2:55 PM PDT

I do have those drivers and unfortunately I am still having this issue. I appreciate your help though. I just looked on Gateways website and all they had was an older version of Nvidias drivers. Well, looks like I just have to wait for the next driver update and if that doesn't work, then I guess that's that. Thank you for the help. At least now I know what's causing the problem.

[Edited on 02.25.2009 4:41 PM PST]

  • 02.25.2009 4:40 PM PDT

Posted by: Nessy

The bungie.net community is the halo PC community that is renowned for being unbelieveably sucky.

That's too bad. It's hard to say which is to blame, the game, or the drivers. Unfortunately, it's going to take a driver update to fix nonetheless. H2v has limited support for resolutions, it's really a poorly done game. Even Halo PC will recognize all the supported desktop resolutions and give you those options in game. H2v is pretty crappy in that respect.

  • 02.25.2009 9:09 PM PDT

Yeah, when I researched this problem I found out so many other problems that people were having with Halo 2 Vista. It's pretty sad.

  • 02.25.2009 9:16 PM PDT
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Alright well i have found something moderately interesting, i have a 22inch Full HD Dell monitor and connected that to my laptop through the VGA port and also the HDMI, if set as the laptops primary monitor halo 2 will go into full screen mode but only on this monitor! It seems to me that the monitor with the laptop is somehow preventing the game from going into full screen mode.

So in conclusion the gateway P-7811FX Monitor (1920x1200 resolution screen) is not compatible with halo 2 for vista in full screen mode. Other monitors will work through VGA/HDMI so it seems its not a video card problem.

Also it seems this specific laptop does not require OEM specialized video drivers, the generic ones from nvidia will work and i have posted a link below.

Here is a link to the video drivers that i used with this setup (currently most recent version)
This is for the Nvidia 9800M GTS
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_notebook_winvista64_179. 48_beta.html

Version: 179.48
Release Date: February 11, 2009
Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit
Language: U.S. English
File Size: 147 MB

Hopefully this helps some people out!!



Gateway P-7811FX Laptop
OS - Windows Vista 64-bit SP1
Ram - 4GB of DDR3
Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
Video - Nvidia Geforce 9800M GTS w/512 MB

  • 02.26.2009 4:34 PM PDT

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for finding this out. I may try hooking my laptop to my HDTV and see if it runs in full screen there.

  • 02.27.2009 7:30 AM PDT

I just hooked it up to my HDTV and it ran in full screen! What was really weird though is that I had it in dual mode where it displayed the picture on both my TV and laptop screen and it also ran in full screen on the laptop screen. Then when I unhooked it from the TV and tried it again on my laptop, it still played in windowed. It's like when you play it on an external monitor it tricks it into running in full screen when it really doesn't want to. Very puzzling. My HDTV is a Samsung 40' 1080p 120Hz.

  • 02.27.2009 9:05 AM PDT

Posted by: Nessy

The bungie.net community is the halo PC community that is renowned for being unbelieveably sucky.

Did you guys even try other resolutions besides 1900x1200 when you were trying to get fullscreen working before? Does H2v even support that resolution?

  • 02.27.2009 11:59 AM PDT

Yes, Halo 2 Vista does support 1920*1200 and I tried many different resolutions while trying to get it into full screen. When I hooked it up to my TV I tried changing the resolution as well just to see what happened and it asked what refresh rate I wanted it at when I changed the resolution. Now, I know the refresh rate of my laptop monitor is 62Hz so I wonder if that has anything to do with it not running in full screen? Maybe when I had it hooked up to my TV it changed the refresh rate of my laptop screen to 60Hz to match my TV which is maybe why it decided to go into full screen. Just a guess, but I wonder? I can't seem to change the refresh rate on my monitor so it's hard to tell. I heard there is a way to turn off V sync on Halo 2 but I'm not sure how. Anyone know how?

  • 02.27.2009 2:49 PM PDT
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hmmmm i never thought of the refresh rate deal, here are a few commands to add to your shortcut if you wanna try it without vsync............



-windowed Switch to run the game in windowed mode.
-novsync Improve the game performance.
-monitor Switch to allow users to move the game between monitors when running in full screen.
-nosound Switch to run the game without audio.

in this case you would add this command to your shortcut and it would look something like this in the "target" field.

"D:\Program Files (x86)\Halo 2\halo2.exe" -novsync

Gonna try this in a bit to see if it helps out, will post my results


Still wont go fullscreen =(

[Edited on 02.27.2009 5:32 PM PST]

  • 02.27.2009 5:24 PM PDT

Darn. I wonder what the "-monitor" command would do? I'll have to try it later though because I'm about to head out.


didn't work :-(

[Edited on 02.28.2009 12:05 PM PST]

  • 02.27.2009 6:38 PM PDT

Just to give everyone an update on this situation, I recently got back with the Microsoft tech guy and we tried a few more things but they didn't work. He advised me to contact Nvidia on this problem and I did. Right now I'm communicating with an Nvidia spokesperson trough e-mail on this problem. If I get a solution to this problem I will let you guys know, if not, I will ask the Nvidia spokesperson if he can report this problem to the people who work on the driver updates and hopefully get this issue fixed.

  • 03.04.2009 4:01 PM PDT
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GameLifterX

Thank you so much for posting about this, and following up with Microsoft and NVIDIA!

My machine has the GeForce 8600m GT (179.48 drivers from 2/11/09) and Halo 2 will not enter full screen mode.

Can't wait for the next driver release, hopefully it will have the fix.

  • 03.27.2009 10:34 PM PDT

No problem, man. I am really anticipating the new diver release as well. Hopefully it will fix this problem once and for all.

[Edited on 03.28.2009 5:14 PM PDT]

  • 03.28.2009 5:13 PM PDT

The new drivers have been released for notebooks and I am about to install them. Let's hope it fixes the problem.

EDIT: Nope, still won't go full screen. I officially give up. One of my favorite games of all time won't even go full screen on my laptop. I guess that's life..........

[Edited on 04.30.2009 5:35 PM PDT]

  • 04.30.2009 2:25 PM PDT

Halo 2 Vista command line switches.

  • 05.01.2009 9:19 AM PDT

Still won't go full screen.

  • 05.01.2009 12:32 PM PDT