1920x1200 on a Dell 2405FPW

[Tom Scales]

I am having more trouble getting my 9800 Pro to properly support this
monitor. It is connect via VGA (the DVI port is in use from another
computer).

9 times out of 10, when I boot, the card thinks the monitor can only support
1600x1200, so it scrolls left and right with black bars on the side. I've
tried everything that I can think of. It has the correct monitor profile,
so it should understand the resolution.

Now I just used CCC to force it to use 1920x1200 (it still thinks the
monitor can't do it) and it is all scrunched up on the right side of the
screen.

My nVidia 6600 drives it fine through either VGA or DVI.

Gotta love the wonderful ATI drivers.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm pretty close to replacing the card.

Tom

 

[First of One]

Try setting the refresh rate to 50 Hz, if you haven't already. Granted, over
the VGA port this shouldn't be necessary, but the interaction between the
monitor profile and card driver may be quirky.

 

[Frodo]

Does it have the correct monitor inf file?
Listed in Device Manager.
What make and model is your monitor?

 

[Tom Scales]

Yes, it does. It's a Dell 2405FPW and the inf properly lists 1920x1200 as
the proper resolution.

I solved the problem pretty easily though. Pulled the piece-of-junk ATI
card and put a $39 nVidia 6200 in. Loaded the drivers and it has worked
flawlessly ever since.

Tom
who's still feeling burned by his non-working ATI TV Wonder 650.

 

[Benjamin Gawert]

* Tom Scales:

I am having more trouble getting my 9800 Pro to properly support this
monitor. It is connect via VGA (the DVI port is in use from another
computer).

9 times out of 10, when I boot, the card thinks the monitor can only support
1600x1200, so it scrolls left and right with black bars on the side. I've
tried everything that I can think of. It has the correct monitor profile,
so it should understand the resolution.

This usually happens when the computer boots without the monitor being
switched on. In this case the gfx driver can't poll the monitor via DDC
and thus reverts to standard spect ratio resolutions. The cause for this
is that Nvidia and ATI drivers hide widescreen resolutions if the driver
doesn't detect a widescreen display. It's enough to have the 2405FPW
switched on, it's not necessary to also select the VGA input.

Now I just used CCC to force it to use 1920x1200 (it still thinks the
monitor can't do it) and it is all scrunched up on the right side of the
screen.

Forcing the resolutions is usually a bad idea because the driver does
support them already.

Benjamin

 

[Tom Scales]

* Tom Scales:


This usually happens when the computer boots without the monitor being
switched on. In this case the gfx driver can't poll the monitor via DDC
and thus reverts to standard spect ratio resolutions. The cause for this
is that Nvidia and ATI drivers hide widescreen resolutions if the driver
doesn't detect a widescreen display. It's enough to have the 2405FPW
switched on, it's not necessary to also select the VGA input.


Forcing the resolutions is usually a bad idea because the driver does
support them already.

Benjamin

Unfortunately, the monitor IS on. CCC says it can't query the monitor with
DDC. Don't know why, as the nVidia card can.

Tom

 

[Robert E. Wilson]

I had a similar problem:

I had a 9800XT with a DELL 2405 on the DVI connector and a DELL 2001
on the VGA connector with no problems.

I then purchased a DELL 2407 and placed it on the DVI connector and
moved the 2405 to the VGA. The 2405 would work, but it would not
always quite get the sync correct and the text would be blurred. It
was never as far off as you described, but still off. Since the 2405
worked fine when on the DVI connector, I thought the problem was
related to the VGA signal. Could 1920x1200, 32bpp color be too much
for the bandwidth available? Could there be too much signal loss in
the analog cable? I tried several cables, and did think some were
slightly better than the others, but none worked perfectly reliably.

I solved the problem by upgrading to a X1600XT with dual DVI
connectors. Both monitors work fine now.

--Bob

 

[Tom Scales]

No, it isn't a problem with VGA, because I used the same cable connected to
a $39 nVidia card and it works perfectly. It's an ATI problem, likely with
the drivers.

Tom

 

[Mark]

I am having more trouble getting my 9800 Pro to properly support this
monitor. It is connect via VGA (the DVI port is in use from another
computer).

9 times out of 10, when I boot, the card thinks the monitor can only
support 1600x1200, so it scrolls left and right with black bars on
the side. I've tried everything that I can think of. It has the
correct monitor profile, so it should understand the resolution.

I had the exact same problem with my Radeon 8500 and 2405. I finally
fixed it for good after manually installing the 2405 monitor .inf
(before doing that it would always use the plug n play driver) then
doing multiple reinstalls of the ATI drivers.

 

[Tom Scales]

I had the exact same problem with my Radeon 8500 and 2405. I finally
fixed it for good after manually installing the 2405 monitor .inf (before
doing that it would always use the plug n play driver) then doing multiple
reinstalls of the ATI drivers.

Been there, done that, didn't help. I just lost interested and pulled the
9800Pro. Never have liked it anyway -- too darn loud.

Tom