August
10

solve/fix that 1440×900 issue with 19″ LCD monitor

Category: Bug / Error, Daily Dose, Technology

It’s been ages that I’ve been contemplating to acquire an external monitor for my laptop/s. So finally I did today. I bought a refurbished 19″ LCD Samsung SyncMaster 920NW for 105$. The colors are still vibrant, it seems fresh. But one problem – texts squashed, circle looks ellipses. Its distorted.

Problem, sounds easy… wrong resolution. Just a right click, properties, etc etc etc… Presto.

Surprise! Your monitor prompts you:   “Not optimum mode. Recommended 1440×900 60hz”

Again, sounds easy. Go back to your desktop properties – then select 1440×900 as it is the optimized resolution for your wide 19″ monitor. Lucky you if you have that resolution. Me? I DON’T.

I tried downloading Samsung’s driver. – NO LUCK.
Updated XP Driver. – SAME, NO LUCK.

Lots of lost souls in google. Seems nobody hasnt solve or fixed it yet.

Well, not really. I thought it was suppose to be fixed if you update your display driver.
(Im using HP 520 laptop so mine’s onboard and its intel. T’was discussed here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?strState=LIVE&lang=eng&ProductID=2102&DwnldID=15559

It didnt help. you wont get that 1440×900 on the list.

Even if you pick those other updated intel driver.
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-028366.htm (keep this noted, youll find this useful – later on this post)

More google – and thank you Lord one smart man who encountered this issue way back 2007 FOUND AND FIX THE PROBLEM. Well for most of us though.

Ill quote his solution and mark red and green those key points you need to change. (on most case, you just need to edit 2 lines – might not be the same with others.):

After some research it appeared that the latest driver from Intel was not configured to support the resolution of 1440×900, even though after experimenting with settings within Windows display properties and actually getting it set to 1440×900 on one occasion. A quick Google also revealed the maximum resolution supported was 1680×1050. I was baffled as to why a graphics controller and its driver that allows a resolution as high as 1680×1050 would not allow me to set a resolution at the lower 1440×900.

It turns out that the driver is to blame. It seems Intel do not configure their driver to natively allow a resolution of 1440×900 (as well as other resolutions between 800×600 and the maximum supported resolution of 1680×1050). It seems this has also been a problem with other chipsets that Intel manufactures (from their 915 series upwards).

An inspection of the zip version of the driver (Intel provide 2 drivers, one in the form of a self extracting .exe and the other is a .zip file containing all the driver files) for my graphics controller revealed that a file within the driver- igxp32.inf (a setup information file) would allow me to specify extra resolutions that could be used by the computer after the driver was installed. Opening this file in notepad, one section immediately caught my attention:

[NonEDIDMode_AddSwSettings]

Within this section of igxp32.inf it appeared I could enable up to 5 extra resolutions for use within Windows display properties. The next line of the file has been commented by Intel:

HKR,, TotalDTDCount, %REG_DWORD%, 0 ; This shows number of DTDs to be used. ; 0–>Disable the feature.

Well I wanted to enable all the resolutions I could, so I changed the 0 to a 5 like so:

HKR,, TotalDTDCount, %REG_DWORD%, 5 ; This shows number of DTDs to be used. ; 0–>Disable the feature.

The next 5 lines within the file seemed to be the settings for the extra resolutions that would be added after this driver is installed. The first 4 had been set already to offer 1920×1080@60, 1920×1080@50, 1280×720@60 and 1280×720@50 resolutions. The last, 5th line had no hexadecimal values, and the comment on the end of the setting was blank, so here is where I edited and added the resolution for the screen I was trying to get working. A quick Google of 1440×900@60 revealed the hex values for that resolution to be:

HKR,, DTD_5,%REG_BINARY%, 97,29,A0,D0,51,84,20,30,50,98,13,00,00,00,00,00,00,1C,37,01 ;1440×900@60

So I edited the 5th line to look like that above and saved the file. Upon un-installation of the old driver and installation of the newly modified driver, a quick delve into the settings in display properties revealed all 5 new resolutions selectable. I could now apply the 1440×900 resolution I wanted.

Thanks to him, he saved (me) the world.

His page: http://www.jjclements.co.uk/index.php/2007/07/19/intel-gfx-driver-resolution-fix/

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solve/fix that 1440×900 issue with 19″ LCD monitor

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