old crt monitor and "Super VGA 1600x1200"

C

colin

Hi
I have an old but good monitor viewsonic 21"
wich will do 1600x1200 quite nicely
and I have radeon 9800 gfx card.

But im having trouble to get anything better than defualt monitor setings
wich is
1024x768 with certain programs.
if i uncheck dont list unsuported modes box i can use it fine
for the desktop at 1280x1024 however some full screen utilities
wont go past the 1024x768

so ive managed to change the defualt to "super VGA 1600x1200"
but its made little or no diference.
I also tried "viewsonic 21ps" although mine is just "viewsonic 21"

I think I managed to make my own monitor.inf for win2k but
im not sure if this works in winxp,
nor can I remember much about it or find the same info again.

its not plug and play so how do i specify exactly its capabilities?
windows seems to ignore what i tel it

Colin =^.^=
 
N

NotMe

In many cases it's a matter of the driver for the video card supporting the
higher resolution, not the monitor.
 
C

colin

The video card driver works at 1600x1200 when I set the desktop to that
resolution
but I only can do this when I deslect dont display unsuported resolutions.

If i set the desktop to 1600x1200 in the catalyst control center but dont
have this unchecked everytime I reboot the desktop is set back to 1024x768.

the monitor0 setting is set to 1600x1200 in the catalyst control center too.


thanks
Colin =^.^=
 
C

colin

colin said:
The video card driver works at 1600x1200 when I set the desktop to that
resolution
but I only can do this when I deslect dont display unsuported resolutions.

If i set the desktop to 1600x1200 in the catalyst control center but dont
have this unchecked everytime I reboot the desktop is set back to
1024x768.

the monitor0 setting is set to 1600x1200 in the catalyst control center
too.


thanks
Colin =^.^=

ah ive made some progress, I have my tv connected so I can watch videos on
my pc on the comfy sofa,
Catalyst seems to need to have the tv conected either as clone or extended
mode,
as it sets up the video in either of these two modes.

there doesnt seem to be an option just to have it display overlays and not
be involved in the desktop.
however i find the descriptions for the options are totaly 110% confusing.

I had clone mode becuase extended makes the cursor disapear of the screen
anyway I disabled ther tv totaly and now it works just fine,
I can play my game upto 1600x1200 fullscreen.

im not sure how I get it so i can do this and play movies to my TV without
having to go and change the options each time, but then this is more
specific to my gfx driver and setup software, rather than winxp.

Colin =^.^=
 
R

RalfG

Clone mode means just that, it duplicates the settings and output on both
displays. Your problem lies in the fact that the TV is not capable of
handling anything higher than 1024x768 input... realistically probably even
lower than that.. so if the adapter is set to Clone mode both displays have
to be 1024x768.

Use the extended desktop setting if you want different resolutions on each
display. Just drag Media Player or whatever you use to view movies onto the
TV.

If you really want, you can set the TV to be the primary display instead of
the monitor. That will put the start button and desktop icons on the TV, and
the monitor will be the secondary display. The trick then will be to get
your games and other apps to open on the monitor instead of the TV. Most
will stay there if you drag them over once, but some apps always want to
open on the primary display.
 
C

colin

RalfG said:
Clone mode means just that, it duplicates the settings and output on both
displays. Your problem lies in the fact that the TV is not capable of
handling anything higher than 1024x768 input... realistically probably
even lower than that.. so if the adapter is set to Clone mode both
displays have to be 1024x768.

Use the extended desktop setting if you want different resolutions on each
display. Just drag Media Player or whatever you use to view movies onto
the TV.

If you really want, you can set the TV to be the primary display instead
of the monitor. That will put the start button and desktop icons on the
TV, and the monitor will be the secondary display. The trick then will be
to get your games and other apps to open on the monitor instead of the TV.
Most will stay there if you drag them over once, but some apps always want
to open on the primary display.

yes I got the clone and extended part,
when I have clone the tv just displays a 1024x768
portion of the main desktop wich is 1280x1024
as i move the mouse it pans around too wich is fairly neat i gues

so it allows the desktop to be bigger than the tv can display.

ive just tried extended mode and it seems to work ok,
xept the tv is in the other room,
so its possible I might lose something off the side of my desktop
and not be able to see it unless i go into the other room lol!

its the video->theater mode bit wich was confusing
although i think i got that now too actually.

in overlay display mode theres
1)clone mode shows overlay :-
a) in standard mode
b) theatre mode full screen <- wich seems the one to chose.
etc..
2)extended mode shows overlay :-
etc..

but i dont want the tv involved in the desktop at all realy,
but seems i have to have clone or extended in order to have an overlay
at all.

il just stick with extended and try not to lose stuff for now,
unless anyone knows anything different?

thanks for al the help
Colin =^.^=
 
C

colin

colin said:
Hi
I have an old but good monitor viewsonic 21"
wich will do 1600x1200 quite nicely
and I have radeon 9800 gfx card.

But im having trouble to get anything better than defualt monitor setings
wich is
1024x768 with certain programs.
if i uncheck dont list unsuported modes box i can use it fine
for the desktop at 1280x1024 however some full screen utilities
wont go past the 1024x768

so ive managed to change the defualt to "super VGA 1600x1200"
but its made little or no diference.
I also tried "viewsonic 21ps" although mine is just "viewsonic 21"

I think I managed to make my own monitor.inf for win2k but
im not sure if this works in winxp,
nor can I remember much about it or find the same info again.

its not plug and play so how do i specify exactly its capabilities?
windows seems to ignore what i tel it

I fiddled around with the catalyst control panel for ages,
im not sure exactly what i did wich made it work
but i changed force tv detection to off and list all posible modes under
display options
I also tried few other setings here,
still didnt do what I wanted,
I then cvhanged about changing to extended mode and strecth mode and
increased the size of the 2nd display area,
then changing back to clone mode and my game wil now use 1600x1200 and i
dont lose my cursor or stuff of the edge of the screen.
yet before in clone mode my game wldnt go past the tv size.

I got it working like this then updated the drivers and it was back to
square 1
it did however improve my 3dmark06 score to 950.
however I repeated the proceduer and it working again.

Colin =^.^=
 

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