New graphics card problem 4

[MarcLodge]

Hi,
I have a monitor with DVI and VGA input which both my wife and I use for a desktop and lapt (not at the same time). We both connect via a VGA switching box and this works fine for our computing purposes. Recently I decided to upgrade my graphics card in the desktop to an nVidia GeForce 210. This has DVI, VGA and HDMI outputs.

As this new card has a DVI output I decided to use this and remove the switching box.

For some reason though, when using the DVI cable, Windows 7 refuses to display what to the VGA was native resolution of 1680x1050. It defaults to 1280x768 and if I change it up to the higher level, the screen goes black and I have to reboot.

Using the VGA cable with the new graphics card, everything is fine, but I don't understand why it won't do the same using the DVI cable. I have noticed a diferrence - when using the VGA, then screen refresh rate is 59MHz, whereas when using DVI it's 60. When I change it to 59, the screen goes black and I have to reboot. Not sure if this is a red herring though.

I've downloaded and am using the most up to date drivers.

Any help or pointers gratefully received.

Marc

 

[rclarke250]

What is the monitor brand and model number? have you tried taking the vga cable off the monitor, and booting the pc with just the dvi cable connected? What about a different DVI cable, and is this a cable you had or did it come with the monitor or bought later? A lot of issues are the wrong type of DVI cable is used for the connection. check your video card, cable, and monitor specifications with this document

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

and hopefully it will shed some light on this.

 

[cdogg]

Other things to try:

1. Are you sure the Nvidia drivers were installed for the video card? If not, make sure you do. Windows 7 by default doesn't require you to install Nvidia's driver and will let you use the card with basic built-in settings. That could be part of the problem.

2. After getting the Nvidia software installed and rebooting, use Nvidia's utility to configure the resolution and refresh rate.



~cdogg
"All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[tf1]

As well as the above sensible suggestions, check at the monitor manufacturer's site and see if they have an INF file for your monitor. Also run Windows Update and see if that offers an updated INF file for the monitor.

The wrong type of cable sounds like the most likely problem at the moment though.

Please note that you really meant 59Hz rather than 59MHz. You should be able to manually select 60Hz though.


Regards: Terry

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi all,
I will attempt to give you further information and answer the questions asked.

RClarke - The make and model is Chimei CMV223D. I have two different DVI cables and looking at the link and pictures on the wiki link, one is a DVI-D (single link) and the other a DVI-D (dual link). The connector on the back of the monitor is DVI-D only and looks to me to be dual. I have tried booting with just (either of) the DVI-D cable(s) with the same effect.

cdogg - I'm fairly certain that the drivers have been applied. I downloaded them from the most recent (18th January!) on the nVidia site. I have tried setting the resoution using both Windows7 and the nVidia control panel.

tf1 - I've had a look for drivers for this monitor and there doesn't appear to be any I'm afraid.

What I have found though is that I'm not alone with this problem. The nVidia/Windows vista or 7/Chimei monitor combination appears to cause this and there are quite a number of posts about this on the net. As of yet, I've not discovered a soution, but I'll keep looking and report back.

Marc

 

[rclarke250]

well, after a google search of that monitor, it seems a known issue regarding the dvi connection for that model, and most people "fix" it by just using the vga cable, as for some reason it seems, windows will just stop seeing the monitor as a pnp monitor, and sees it as a non-pnp monitor, and Chemei does not have an .inf file for the monitor.

 

[BadBigBen]

you can create your own INF file using PowerStrip...

http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

it is not free, unfortunately, costs around 30 bucks, but has worked for me in the past..


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[MarcLodge]

Hi all,
Many of the posts on the net talk of nVidia not cleaning out old stuff when installing a new card and suggests downloading a tool to wipe all traces of the driver and software from the machine before re-installing. The thought is that there's some sort of contention between the old and new that causes the screen not to be recognised and therefore reverts to standard VGA resolution of 1280x768.

I read another post that said that something was being retained by the monitor and once you've started it in VGA mode, it gets confused when switching over to DVI. The solution therefore was to disconnect the monitor from both PC and power for a couple of minutes and reboot.

Before going to the re-install option I tried the turn-it-all-off-and-leave-it-for-a-while option and this appears to have worked.

I'm amazed really that this works, but at the moment I'm running on the DVI cable at the resolution I want, so I'm not going to complain. Not sure what's going to happen next time my wife connects her laptop up to the monitor via the VGA cable but we'll cross the bridge when we come to it, possibly turning everything off again!

Many thanks for everybody's help in this one. It's great to come here and bounce ideas around.

Marc

 

[tf1]

Perhaps a DVI/VGA converter plug so as to keep using the DVI cable for both desktop and laptop may resolve the problem (if it recurs).


Regards: Terry