strange that the sides of my screen are black and unused as if they were not part of the screen at all. I mean a good inch on either side. weird.
Need to update your video drivers so it can drive your screen properly.
Toshiba doesn’t support Linux, so they do not provide any drivers for any Linux version.
Linux has certified Ubuntu for some Toshiba laptops, but your model is not yet on their list. I think that their Certified designation means they include good drivers for all standard devices on those systems.
You might not be able to find a better display driver than the one that Ubuntu installed.
Check the properties of the display for ways to adjust the screen (assuming Ubuntu has a properties menu or some other way of controlling the screen properties).
As I mentioned before, I’m not really a Linux guy, so I don’t know much about how you might fix that in Ubuntu.