Refresh rate on HP zx5000

[W. eWatson]

Now that the HP laptop is working pretty well, XP Home Edition, wireless
is fine, etc., I noticed that moving say a Google window sort of wiggles
it. I suspect the monitor's refresh is the culprit. Can it be changed?
It's not bad, but is noticeable. I think the max pixel size of the
screen is something like 1280x800.

Ah, here are the specs
<http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...321957&prodSeriesId=369807&objectID=c00059853>

 

[Paul]

Now that the HP laptop is working pretty well, XP Home Edition, wireless
is fine, etc., I noticed that moving say a Google window sort of wiggles
it. I suspect the monitor's refresh is the culprit. Can it be changed?
It's not bad, but is noticeable. I think the max pixel size of the
screen is something like 1280x800.

Ah, here are the specs

Refresh doesn't work the same way on an LCD, as on a CRT. The
rate is generally 60Hz, and due to the persistence of pixels
on an LCD, there is no need to go any higher. CRTs don't have
persistence to the same degree, and to eliminate flicker,
users select higher CRT refresh rates. You don't need to do that
with an LCD.

I wish I knew what you meant by "wiggle". Maybe you're seeing
some "image tear" ?

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=107058

Or perhaps you'd disabled "hardware acceleration" for the video
card hardware. And the bitmaps are being moved by memory
block moves via the processor. That will look pretty gross,
and I've had that on a PCI bus video card, while moving
Apple QuickTime viewer windows around the screen.

Just for fun, go to Start:Run and type "dxdiag". Then, check
the Display:Test buttons in there, as proof you've actually got
video drivers etc. (Note - be careful with those Disable buttons.
At some point in the past, the "state" of those buttons was
reversed and was showing the wrong thing. Just try the test
buttons. If the test buttons are missing, then, you've got
a problem.)

http://www.windowsresource.net/cimages/dxdiag2.jpg

Paul

 

[SC Tom]

Now that the HP laptop is working pretty well, XP Home Edition, wireless is fine, etc., I noticed that moving say a
Google window sort of wiggles it. I suspect the monitor's refresh is the culprit. Can it be changed? It's not bad, but
is noticeable. I think the max pixel size of the screen is something like 1280x800.

Ah, here are the specs
<http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...321957&prodSeriesId=369807&objectID=c00059853>

I don't recall ever being able to change the refresh rate on a notebook; I know I can't on my Gateway. If it is
changeable on yours, it would be through the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

 

[W. eWatson]

Now that the HP laptop is working pretty well, XP Home Edition, wireless
is fine, etc., I noticed that moving say a Google window sort of wiggles
it. I suspect the monitor's refresh is the culprit. Can it be changed?
It's not bad, but is noticeable. I think the max pixel size of the
screen is something like 1280x800.

Ah, here are the specs
<http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsuppor...321957&prodSeriesId=369807&objectID=c00059853>

Having trouble posting to Paul, so doing in this way.
I suppose it's more like wobble. The right and left sides do not stay
vertical as the window is moved across the screen. I'll check with
dxdiag later this morning. The wiggle or shimmy isn't bad in that the
window becomes unreadable as it moves. It just doesn't hold its shape.

 

[Paul]

Having trouble posting to Paul, so doing in this way.
I suppose it's more like wobble. The right and left sides do not stay
vertical as the window is moved across the screen. I'll check with
dxdiag later this morning. The wiggle or shimmy isn't bad in that the
window becomes unreadable as it moves. It just doesn't hold its shape.

In the Display control panel, under Advanced, there is a slider control for
Hardware Acceleration. That should be set to "full" for normal usage.
You'd only back off that setting, to a lesser setting, if debugging, or
dealing with known-bad hardware.

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/Public/EN-US/Games/303032a.jpg

I've had one situation here, where the video card drive built into the OS
(i.e. ATI driver provided on the installer CD) had a bug in it. Updating
the driver, from the ATI site, fixed that bug. What was happening there,
was if I was currently playing a 3D game (which ties up one display channel
inside the GPU), the second display channel (used when alt-tabbed back to
the desktop) would lose hardware acceleration. And then the "wiggling/tearing"
would happen when moving windows. Installing a new driver, fixed it.

Paul

 

[Paul]

Kind of odd. The Monitor tab shows default monitor, and there's only one
choice for refresh, default.

There are two choices for monitors.

They can be Plug and Play. In such a case, the monitor has a valid EDID EEPROM
inside, and the computer reads the EDID via the serial interface on the monitor
cable. The idea would be, the brand name of the monitor would be encoded there,
and then would show up as a "named monitor".

If the monitor has an invalid EDID, the computer isn't working right (seems
to happen to me quite a bit), then you use a "monitor driver". Using a
monitor driver, results in a "named monitor". Monitor drivers are normally
used, to provide a color profile, and not to fix plug and play problems.

To get the name of my monitor to show up here on my NEC monitor, I got a
tiny (6KB?) file from the manufacturer.

Some manufacturers (for example Westinghouse branded LCD monitors), don't
provide drivers of that sort. So if your monitor is unnamed, it might
stay that way.

On a laptop, there is no reason for the panel to be named, as it's part
of the laptop. And there is a tendency to not support Plug and Play on
laptop designs, instead relying on a custom driver to tell the GPU
the dimensions of the panel and the like. The panel in that case, is
pretty "raw" and has a digital interface and thin interface cable.
In some cases, people have received a replacement panel, the screen
dimensions changed (panel happens to have a different number of
pixels than the original), and then the laptop display only occupies
a portion of the screen, while the remainder of the screen is black.
And in that case, the owner has trouble getting the display to work right.
So a few things are "hard wired" in that case. Quite unlike on a desktop,
where the monitor is more independent of the computer box.

Paul

 

[W. eWatson]

....

There are two choices for monitors.

They can be Plug and Play. In such a case, the monitor has a valid EDID
EEPROM I have no idea.
inside, and the computer reads the EDID via the serial interface on the
monitor
cable. The idea would be, the brand name of the monitor would be encoded
there,
and then would show up as a "named monitor".

Monitor name is simply Default Monitor.

If the monitor has an invalid EDID, the computer isn't working right (seems
to happen to me quite a bit), then you use a "monitor driver". Using a
monitor driver, results in a "named monitor". Monitor drivers are normally
used, to provide a color profile, and not to fix plug and play problems.

To get the name of my monitor to show up here on my NEC monitor, I got a
tiny (6KB?) file from the manufacturer.

This PC is well out of warranty, I would think HP would want to charge
me for asking for such a program. See more on this below.

Some manufacturers (for example Westinghouse branded LCD monitors), don't
provide drivers of that sort. So if your monitor is unnamed, it might
stay that way.

On a laptop, there is no reason for the panel to be named, as it's part
of the laptop. And there is a tendency to not support Plug and Play on
laptop designs, instead relying on a custom driver to tell the GPU
the dimensions of the panel and the like. The panel in that case, is
pretty "raw" and has a digital interface and thin interface cable.
In some cases, people have received a replacement panel, the screen
dimensions changed (panel happens to have a different number of
pixels than the original), and then the laptop display only occupies
a portion of the screen, while the remainder of the screen is black.
And in that case, the owner has trouble getting the display to work right.
So a few things are "hard wired" in that case. Quite unlike on a desktop,
where the monitor is more independent of the computer box.

Paul

The computer belonged to my wife, and she has no interest in Win, so she
put Linux on it. Six years later she has no use for it, so I asked her
to restore Win. She did, with a barebones effort. I plan to give it to
a friend who working on a project with me. It's quite possible there may
be a CD that was included with display drivers on it. I'll check the box
that we still have that likely has several CDs in it, and written material.

 

[W. eWatson]

Nothing on CDs in the way of display drivers. It had a pdf, and I
searched it for refresh and monitors. Nothing.

I would think BIOS might be a place to look next.

 

[Paul]

The computer belonged to my wife, and she has no interest in Win, so she
put Linux on it. Six years later she has no use for it, so I asked her
to restore Win. She did, with a barebones effort. I plan to give it to
a friend who working on a project with me. It's quite possible there may
be a CD that was included with display drivers on it. I'll check the box
that we still have that likely has several CDs in it, and written material.

You have the serial number/asset tag on the machine, you know the
model number, so tracking down a driver on the HP site should not
be a problem. There is more than one sub-model of ZX5000 (and
potentially hardware differences).

Paul

 

[W. eWatson]

You have the serial number/asset tag on the machine, you know the
model number, so tracking down a driver on the HP site should not
be a problem. There is more than one sub-model of ZX5000 (and
potentially hardware differences).

Paul

Actually, I decided to get on the web and look for one. I found it. As
soon as I clear the PC of some working I've been doing on it,
programming, I'll install the driver. With a little luck,I might do it
tonight.

 

[W. eWatson]

Kind of odd. The Monitor tab shows default monitor, and there's only one
choice for refresh, default.

I installed the driver but it made no difference. I'm taking it to a
computer shop to see if they know anything about it.

 

[SC Tom]

I installed the driver but it made no difference. I'm taking it to a computer shop to see if they know anything about
it.

On my Gateway laptop, in Control Panel > Display > Screen Resolution, my monitor is listed as "Mobile PC Display." If I
open the Advanced screen and go to the Monitor tab, it says "Generic PnP Monitor" with a (non-changeable) refresh rate
of 60 Hertz. I can't even select the "Hide modes that this monitor can't display" box; probably 'cause there aren't any
available.

 

[BillW50]

On my Gateway laptop, in Control Panel > Display > Screen Resolution, my
monitor is listed as "Mobile PC Display." If I open the Advanced screen
and go to the Monitor tab, it says "Generic PnP Monitor" with a
(non-changeable) refresh rate of 60 Hertz. I can't even select the "Hide
modes that this monitor can't display" box; probably 'cause there aren't
any available.

What model of Gateway? As I have nine of them. And the refresh rate I
believe is dependent on your GPU. If you don't have a GPU (integrated
graphics), then I think depends on the BIOS.

 

[SC Tom]

What model of Gateway? As I have nine of them. And the refresh rate I believe is dependent on your GPU. If you don't
have a GPU (integrated graphics), then I think depends on the BIOS.

It's an M-6850fx. It has an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 GPU with 512MB dedicated RAM.

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/TempestFX/1015363R/1015363Rsp8.shtml

The CPU has been upgraded to a T8300 @ 2.40GHz, but that shouldn't affect the refresh rate ;-)

And for grins 'n' giggles, I just rebooted into BIOS and there are no video settings of any kind, not even a mention of
the word "video."

I'm not complaining though; it works fine and looks great to me.

 

[W. eWatson]

Found a missing disk that contained the drivers. I didn't even know it
existed, but I happened to mention that there were a lot of missing
drivers, she went right for it. It was her PC for 6 years, when she
decided to get a new one.

The PC is now very happy, and so am I.

 

[SC Tom]

Found a missing disk that contained the drivers. I didn't even know it existed, but I happened to mention that there
were a lot of missing drivers, she went right for it. It was her PC for 6 years, when she decided to get a new one.

The PC is now very happy, and so am I.

The most important part is keeping HER happy As long as her PC is doing well, and you can correct any problems she
can't, life will be good <BG>.