Problems hooking up/gaming on an LCD HDTV with an M1730

I've got an XPS M1730 and a new LCD TV (Vizio 32") in the last couple of weeks, and I just bought a DVI-VGA cable tonight so I could play some Battlefield 2 and COD4 on my TV.

When I first hooked them up and turned both of them on, I had no problem switching to the TV (via FN+F8), and I could browse the internet and such no problem. However, whenever I tried to start BF2, the game would immediately crash. I tried starting it using my laptop display and then switching to the TV, and it worked until I clicked anywhere on the screen, then it crashed again. I tried changing the resolution on my computer and it didn't make a difference.

From what I understand, using a TV as a monitor isn't a great solution (and it's not something I'll be doing all the time, I just thought it would be neat to play games on a 32" screen every now and then), but I assumed that since my TV had a VGA input and my computer had a DVI output that I could play games on there.

Anyway, I messed around in the NVIDIA Control Panel a little bit and thought I screwed some stuff up, so I did a system restore, which did nothing (as it said nothing had changed). Now, when I try to FN+F8 to the TV, nothing happens, and when the cable is plugged into my computer, the screen constantly flashes on and off (like it does when it switches to/from another monitor), but nothing appears on the TV.

I tried to find some info online about this but I couldn't find much - I did try changing the "fullscreen" value to "0" for the BF2 shortcut, but I couldn't get the display switched back to the TV to try it out.

I would really appreciate any help...I was pretty excited when BF2 came up on my TV, and I adjusted the picture so it was centered (top and left were cropped when it came up on the TV), only to be super bummed when the program closed - again - when I clicked the mouse. Here's a little more info on my computer:

Windows XP 32-bit
T9300
GeForce Dual 8800, driver 6.14.11.6757 (the one my laptop came with)
I do have SLI enabled

Thanks!

 

Your TV has got to have a better input than VGA.

 

It does have a couple of HDMI inputs...would my problems be solved with a DVI-HDMI cable?

 

To put it simply, yes.

 

BF2 only supports 60hz. My CRT HDTV for exemple only supports 480p @59hz and 1080i @29hz & 30hz.

People have had problems with this games even on normal computer screens, if those are running at 59hz. Google it a bit

VGA should do the job, since the X360 can do 1080p through it... Check your TV in the nvidia control penal's Video/Television settings


EDIT: Wait, you were able to centered the screen with these drivers? It only appeared in the 175.xx for me. Must be vecause it's a CRT.

 

Thanks for the replies - I'll try a DVI-HDMI cable and hope that works. My TV manual had a section about changing the timing of my computer for the "best picture quality", but I didn't mess with that because I had no idea how to do it, and it was late - would that be of any help?

I assumed my TV was 60hz, but I'll double check. The game looked just fine (clear and not distorted or anything) until I clicked the mouse. And I was able to center the screen via the menu on my TV.

I wanted to try COD4 in case it was just the game, but I couldn't even get my TV to come up on just the desktop after a while.

Also, my TV is 720p, if that helps.

 

It probably has a small bit to do with timing, an HDMI cable would probably help. Otherwise, when you go into the advanced Nvidia Control panel, you can set the screen manually using the drop down selectors. Make sure you select single screen and choose your HDTV. There might be an issue with it trying to run both screens simultaneously. This is especially a problem if you use SLI, where SLI only works on a single monitor.

 

DVI is a dual format it can be digital or analog depending on the source and your cable type, HDMI is digital only. VGA is analog only.

So your definitly using an analog signal right now if your going direct from dvi to vga. Its possible that if you go from dvi to hdmi you will use a digital signal instead (infact I am almost posstive since we are talking about computer connection) You do not want to take a digital signal and downgrade it to analog.

You lose a few options being pure digital sometimes with your control panel, since the way it works is totally different than analog, but you gain alot more in its place.

The BF series is very strange for the fact it requires 60hz to play so I am thinking this is your problem. You should try to confirm by playing any other games you may have and isolate BF2 as the problem and not just your connection, then once you do that start troubleshooting BF2.

There are multiple fixes from changing BF2's config files, to creating custom timings for your monitor, so you have to find the one that will work for you.

 

I'm not sure why it worked initially since it's always been in SLI, but I selected the TV via the drop-down as you suggested and it worked just fine.

As for another game, I just tried COD4, and got even worse results than BF2.

A message comes up before the game starts (and has since I enabled SLI I believe, every time I start the game for some reason) saying my system configurations have changed and asks if I want to optimize the game for the new settings. Since it was on a different monitor/resolution, I clicked "Yes"...the screen went dark and an hourglass cursor came up - I thought all was going well, until the HDD light stopped blinking and the screen was still dark: my computer was locked up (couldn't even cycle through the displays on the gaming LCD). So, I restarted and clicked "No" this time, and the same thing happened - except I got a Blue Screen of Death this time, and here's what it had to say, paraphrased:

Problem caused by file: nv4_disp

The device driver got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardwareincorrectly.

Technical information:
*** STOP: 0x000000EA (0X82E6D6E0, 0X82DF5240, 0XBA4F3CBC, 0X00000001)



WTF, I say. And it's been so long since I've seen a BSOD, too.

Also, I just checked my TV manual and the display that comes up when switching inputs, and it is a 60hz display.

 

Have you tried disabling SLI for the time being?

 

I disabled it through my laptop display (which from what I saw does not allow you to select a different display, versus if you have SLI enabled), and could not switch to my TV via FN+F8. I didn't have time to mess with it too much after that, but I'll see if I can get it to run later.

I assume System Restore will also restore my video card settings to a previous time? I don't want to mess with this so much that my video cards end up messed up without knowing how to change them back.