Display issue with Acer Aspire One 11.6" AO751h (c/o Amazon)

As I post this, I am virtually certain of two things:

(1) I've got the wrong forum, and this is either going to be moved by a mod or I'm going to be directed elsewhere; and
(2) one of you guys has the solution to my problem.

I ordered an Acer Aspire One AO751h-1545 11.6-Inch Black Netbook from Amazon. Shipped delivered. On time. All good there. I don't have possession of the netbook because it was shipped to a family member in the US, which means I'm working on descriptions from the user. Less than ideal, but we can probably work with that.

The pre-installed software is crap (i.e. whatever monstrosity of MS Word is being shipped now), but we all know that's how it goes. I can deal with that. The user doesn't seem to mind the speed of the machine, so the clean-out that most of you have done is a good idea but will have to wait.

The problem is this: the text on the screen is so small as to be unreadable. The default text size is being described as 6-point. Or maybe 4-point.

The user is working on Word with 200% zoom or more. Firefox is set with a default font size of 36 or something. Skype? The fonts are cranked way up so she can read the chat window, but contacts are identified by remembering how long their name is. Again: it's too small to read.

We've increased the font size in Windows Settings, but that's isn't enough. Font sizes to Extra Large? Not enough. We degraded the resolution in Windows Settings, but in addition to degrading the quality of the image it also warps the screen "so a square is an oval". We even tried the Accessibility settings for the visually impaired, but that didn't help. Apparently Acer helpline was useless and acted like, yeah, you're SUPPOSED to use a magnifying glass with your netbook.

So what suggestions do you guys have?

Maybe a driver update? A BIOS setting? Something glaringly obvious that we've missed? Some magic keystroke of CTRL-ALT-Open Apple-LEFT CLICK?

I'm hoping for something deeper than Windows Settings and less involved than a new OS or an admonition to use Linux (because that ain't a happening thing).

But, you know... I'll take what I can get.

Thanks.

 

Update: the text in the BIOS is readable during startup.

Seems clear that this is a result of taking the 1366 x 768 from a 22" screen and pushing it down to an 11.6" screen.

"It's a full desktop!"

No, everything is 1/2 the normal size and unreadable.

 

I'd put my money on a driver issue.

Have you tried to uninstall the current driver and reinstall another? If you look around there's a thread about optimising the 751h in the forum somewhere. Its got a link in it with the best possible driver for xp / vista.

 

Had exactly the same problem with the Aspire-1 10 inch netbook. Almost same troubleshooting that never resolved the problem. Contacted Tech-support and was told there was no solution, driver was supplied by Intel >>> aka, just live with it!
:evil:
Sold that dang thing ASAP and say to all >>> keep away from netbooks unless you have perfect eyes. Bought a replacement HP DV2-1030us flaptop, small with 12 inch display >>> at 800x600 it is perfectly viewable and only slightly larger than my old/bad netbook.