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    Strange monitor resolution issue

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Wintersdark, Jun 19, 2008.

  1. Wintersdark

    Wintersdark Notebook Consultant

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    My notebook is as per my sig. I also use a Acer AL2216W 22" widescreen lcd as a secondary monitor. Well, more accurately, as a primary monitor when I'm at home.

    I've had this monitor for a couple years now, and it's served me very well, dispite somewhat warm colour reproduction. It's served in a number of multiple monitor configurations without trouble.

    I've had it running as a secondary monitor for this notebook since I bought the notebook. It's always worked fine, and (unlike my HDTV) it's native resolution is identical to that of my laptop's display(1680x1050), so it's easy and convenient to switch back and forth between the lappy's display and the Acer.

    Suddenly, however, it seems to be stuck in 1280x1024. On the display side, that is. Windows and nVidia Control Panel both report the graphics adapter sending at 1680x1050, however, I can only see 1280x1024 onscreen and the display pans around the remainder of the resolution when you mouse to the screen borders. In the Acer's onscreen menus, I can see that it is currently set to 1280x1024 no matter what I set my resolution to in windows or nVidia CP.

    I've removed and reinstalled my nVidia drivers, upgraded drivers (from 175.80 to 177.35), downloaded drivers for the Acer and installed them - something I had never bothered before.

    I've tried enabling/disabling scaling, but all this achieves is whether or not resolutions lower than 1280x1024 get zoomed to full screen or not. Higher resolutions still pan.

    1280x1024 is *NOT* the display's native resolution. It looks absolutely terrible, and renders the monitor largely unusable - text is horribly blurry.

    There is only one way I can get the monitor to actually display in 1680x1050. If I set my resolution in nVidia CP to 1280x1024, and disable scaling, the Acer displays that centered in (display side) 1680x1050.

    This baffles me. What the heck is going on?
     
    Wintersdark, Jun 19, 2008
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  2. Wintersdark

    Wintersdark Notebook Consultant

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    Hmmm, update:

    I can no longer get it to show the 1280x1024 in 1680x1050. It's completely stuck in 1280x1024 now.

    Edit: More details:

    nVidia CP detects my Acer as it is (acer al2216w) but seems to believe it's an HDTV. If I attempt to run the multiple display setup wizard, it asks me to choose which HDTV timing to use. Of course, as none of those are the native resolution (or even the resolution it's stuck in), and it's not an HDTV none work, and simply get scaled to 1280x1024. Gah!
     
    Wintersdark, Jun 19, 2008
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