Paul
Tue May 06 15:15:52 PDT 2008
Ken wrote:
> On May 4, 1:23 pm, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>> "Ken" <ka...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
>>
>> news:0749796f-d04b-43b2-bcfd-1c171be2c367@n1g2000prb.googlegroups.com...> On May 4, 10:25 am, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>> "Ken" <ka...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
>> news:946f385d-042f-4eb4-be06-2d3815bc0e41@d19g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>>> On May 4, 9:01 am, "philo" <ph...@privacy.net> wrote:
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>>>> Nvidia and ATI have the capability to set a custom
>>>>>>>> resolution. Powerstrip from Entechtaiwan ($) can do
>>>>>>>> that. Nvidia, in the classic control panel, has a
>>>>>>>> custom resolution dialog. With ATI, there can be a
>>>>>>>> list of resolutions you can get to show up in a
>>>>>>>> menu. So there are ways to try to deal with it.
>>>>>>>> Powerstrip is for cases where all else fails.
>>>>>>>> So try the monitor driver first, and select "install"
>>>>>>>> when right-clicked on the INF on the driver CD.
>>>>>>>> Paul
>>>>>>> The monitor is a G900W with 1440 x 900 resolution. The BENQ site
>> has
>>>>>>> drivers which seem to be the same as those on the CD that came
>> with
>>>>>>> the monitor.
>>>>>>> Right clicking the .inf file that is included with the driver and
>>>>>>> selecting install does nothing apparent - perhaps it is installing
>> the
>>>>>>> driver but because plug and play is not detecting the monitor I
>> cannot
>>>>>>> see the driver.
>>>>>>> I have downloaded the Monitor Asset Manager and will see what it
>>>>>>> shows.
>>>>>> But the installation of your video card or display adaptor is
>> essential
>>>>>> if you want to get it working. I'd really concentrate on that first.
>>>>>> If your video card cannot be set to 1440 x 900
>>>>>> there is nothing monitor related you can do to make it so
>>>>> All I know is that the motherboard has a built in adapter using the
>>>>> UniChrome graphics engine according to the Gigabyte website. There is
>>>>> no adapter showing up in the hardware list.
>>>> If you know the exact model of your motherboard
>>>> you should ber able to go to the website and download the correct driver
>>>> for your on-board graphics...
>>>> once that;s installed, hopefully things will get better.
>>>> Just out of curiosity.
>>>> what does it show if you right click on the desktop
>>>> and look at properties ===> settings ?
>>> Settings shows the display as Default Monitor and if I click on
>>> Advanced then there is no Adapter tab and the Monitor tab gives a
>>> Monitor type of Default Monitor and the Properties button is shown as
>>> disabled (grayed out)
>> Then you will definately need to get the drivers for your video card and
>> install them...
>> that should sort things out
>
> Installed the Viaarena driver that Paul suggested and lo and behold, I
> now have Adapter and Monitor tabs in Settings/Advanced. Furthermore,
> plug n play now detects the Benq monitor.
>
> I then installed the Q900W driver for the monitor but I still cannot
> get 1440x900 resolution. The resolution options are the same as
> before.
>
> Any ideas as to what to try next?
I'm not sure there are a lot of options left. It would help if I could
understand why the Openchrome driver has fixed dotclock values for that
chip. Normally, video devices have programmable registers for all that
stuff, programmable to multiples of 8 bits horizontally and multiples
of 2 bits vertically (some manage to do horizontal down to the nearest
bit). But the driver is all that you get as a user, and you cannot
know what the real capabilities are, with only the control panel to
go by. It doesn't seem to be a DAC limit, as there is one resolution
above 1440x900 that is supported.
(It is posslble, but I cannot make any guarantees, that you could
convince Linux to run the screen at 1440x900. I'd try something like
a Knoppix CD, as on the command line you could try "knoppix screen=1440x900".
All that such an experiment would prove, is that the KM400 is not
the limitation to achieving 1440x900.)
If Powerstrip worked with built-in video, there'd be another option.
But for the most part, Powerstrip works with ATI or Nvidia add-in
video cards. Chipset support is spotty, and I don't think VIA is
included.
1280x768 might be the closest resolution that is under the 1440x900
limit.
If you look in the monitor driver folder (on the CD) and open the
INF with a text editor, you should see 1440x900 being added as
a registry value. I'd just double check and see whether the Benq
INF file has done that or not. It probably has.
The Viaarena site used to have a forum, and using a search engine,
I can find references to such issues. But, for some reason, the
forum was moved to "tkforums.com", and I don't understand the reason
for that. That busted the ability for me to read the responses of people
dealing with the issue. It means the people who posted hard fought
information to viaarena, had it thrown away by uncaring admins.
One of the reasons I hate private sites!
(Another example would be the Matrox forums, where if they wanted,
they could have left the forum read-only, so anyone wanting the information
could have access to it.)
Paul