Now, that could be a problem. You see, my LCD is on my desktop, where I use MAME32. My cabinet uses FastMAME, with a CRT. Both of these probably have different options from whatever Javery is using (I don't think he stated what he's using).
But I can try to help:
First things first: Make sure Windows is configured to your native resolution (1280x1024, apparently, but I would double check). Every thing will go wrong if this one is wrong.
The Options, as they appear in MAME32:
Display
Clean Stretch = None
Rotation = Clockwise
Enforce Aspect Ratio Marked
Advanced
Switch Resolution to fit Unmarked
Size = 1280x1024
Stretch Using Hardware Marked
Aspect Ratio 4x3
That, adapted as necessary to the mame.ini file, should give you an image that fills your screen completely.
or...
use "Aspect Ratio 5x4" and you'll have perfectly 4:3 image (the correct aspect ratio) on your 5:4 LCD. (Yes, that seems counter intuitive, but that's right)
Now some notes:
That's not, in my opinion, the settings that produce the best image, but that should be enough to get you past the black borders stuff, then you can experiment with filters and everything else.
Setting MAME to use 1280x1024 may use a lot of computing power unnecessarily, but using any other resolution will introduce blur as the image is internally converted to the native resolution. 640x512 should be fine, but I could never get that resolution to work properly.
Now, the above settings will give you very blurry image anyway, so you can get away with other resolutions, but if you start playing with filters and have the required horsepower, you'll want to have MAME set to your native resolution, so that any blur introduced in the image is there deliberately.
PS: Then again, I'm talking from MAME32 experience. I don't know what you can do with filters and a LCD on pure MAME.
Well, the first thing to do would be to discover what kind of LCD you really have. It *looks* like a widescreen to me, but that may just be the picture.
Try to find out what is its native resolution.
Javery said before it is not widescreen, and if the Cnet page is correct, it's native resolution is 1280x1024.
In the test suggested above, the picture will not show letterboxed if you have a 5:4 LCD configured to a 4:3 resolution. Mine is 1280x1024, if I configure it to 1280x960, 4:3 pictures will appear slightly stretched, not letterboxed. Whatever resolution you choose on a LCD, it will always be converted internally to the native resolution in a way to cover the entire physical screen.
I didn't realize this. Could you post the settings your are using with your screen. That might be the easiest thing for Javery, since you both appear to have 1280x1024 screens.