Maybe OT - Settings For Widescreen LCD Monitor

I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but my
Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm running
the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre correctly shows the
display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor and
offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

Did the monitor come with drivers? I got a dell wide screen and had to
install the drivers before ATI recognized the native resolution which is the
same as yours 1680*1050
Bill

"Bob Huntley" wrote in message
...
I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but
my Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm
running the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre correctly
shows the display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor
and offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

Thanks for the reply.

No, it came with a CD but that had nothing except the user manuals as PDF
files.

I've just managed to find a set of drivers on the Acer FTP site - called
AL2032.ZIP. This unzipped a set of files called 07F0.INF, 07F0.CAT &
07F0.ICM. I've installed these, but apart from changing the monitor name in
Device Manager from "Plug & Play Monitor" to "ACER AL2032W" nothing else
seems to have happened. I'll try a re-boot next in case the drivers need
that to come into effect - see if that does anything.

Bob Huntley,



"W" wrote in message
. ..
Did the monitor come with drivers? I got a dell wide screen and had to
install the drivers before ATI recognized the native resolution which is
the same as yours 1680*1050
Bill

"Bob Huntley" wrote in message
...
I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but
my Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm
running the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre
correctly shows the display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor
and offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

On Fri, 26 May 2006 20:48:02 +0100, Bob Huntley wrote:

I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but my
Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm running
the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre correctly shows the
display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor and
offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

I'm not using CCC drivers anymore so can't remember the exact option but
there is an option in the CCC panel to force resolutions not listed. Look
for it and force the res you want.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried that - but it only offered a limited choice of options as well.

I managed to get it working by the use of Powerstrip - seems to work OK at
the Windows desktop and my next step will be to try it with a range of
games. If all else fails, I'll keep to that solution - but its a bit of
fudge and shouldn't be necessary.

Bob,




"Sean" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 26 May 2006 20:48:02 +0100, Bob Huntley wrote:

I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but
my
Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm
running
the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre correctly shows
the
display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor
and
offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

I'm not using CCC drivers anymore so can't remember the exact option but
there is an option in the CCC panel to force resolutions not listed. Look
for it and force the res you want.

Latest update - Powerstrip works OK at the Windows desktop, but both DX9
games (Flight Sim & Tomb Raider Legend) don't recognise the Desktop setting
and only offer the Standard resolutions.


"Bob Huntley" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply.

I tried that - but it only offered a limited choice of options as well.

I managed to get it working by the use of Powerstrip - seems to work OK at
the Windows desktop and my next step will be to try it with a range of
games. If all else fails, I'll keep to that solution - but its a bit of
fudge and shouldn't be necessary.

Bob,




"Sean" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 26 May 2006 20:48:02 +0100, Bob Huntley wrote:

I've got a Radeon X1800 XL, and have just upgraded my monitor for a
Widescreen Acer AL2032WA.

Its supposed to run with a screen resolution of 1680 * 1050 pixels - but
my
Catalyst control centre only offers me a choice of the "standard"
resolutions (e.g. 1280 * 1024, 1400 * 1050, 1600 * 1200 etc.). I'm
running
the monitor on the DVI cable, and the ATI control centre correctly shows
the
display as an Acer one.

Is there a way I can force the ATI card to correctly detect the monitor
and
offer a choice of widescreen modes.

Thanks in advance,

Bob Huntley

I'm not using CCC drivers anymore so can't remember the exact option but
there is an option in the CCC panel to force resolutions not listed. Look
for it and force the res you want.

Bob Huntley wrote:
Latest update - Powerstrip works OK at the Windows desktop, but both DX9
games (Flight Sim & Tomb Raider Legend) don't recognise the Desktop setting
and only offer the Standard resolutions.

Hi it's Geoff again from the thread I started relating to the same
subject. Hmmm...One of the only 'games' I really play is FS2004, so this
is bad news. I've read a lot of things that make me feel a widescreen
monitor isn't worth the hastle. Well I'm going to keep researching what
my best options are anyway, but from the sound of things I'll only use
Powerstrip as a last resort. At $30 (so that's about 20 GBP for me) it's
at least part the way to a new cheapo graphics card should I decide on a
widescreen monitor, so I'd rather spend the extra for that I think (as
long as I can find a cheap one that does the required resolution!). Well
I'll stick around this thread anyway for anymore opinions about it.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Geoff,

I'll think you'll be OK. After a bit of experimentation its now working on
my copy of Flight Sim 2002 (I don't have the 2004 version) so I think you'll
be OK.

Not sure if this is the best solution, but it worked for me. I set up a Hot
Key combination in Powerstrip to switch to the right screen resolution, and
tried to run it inside Flight Sim. It apparently failed to work (the screen
stayed as 1600 * 1200) - but I was then able to go the Flight Sim display
options menu and be offered a choice of 1680 * 1050 (it wasn't available to
select yesterday). I picked that selection, and the monitor is now running
correctly at that resolution.

PS - Also had to adopt a similar approach on Tomb Raider Legend - so it
seems to be generic Direct X behaviour. For Open GL games (Doom 3) I just
had to edit the config. file.




"Geoff" wrote in message
...
Bob Huntley wrote:
Latest update - Powerstrip works OK at the Windows desktop, but both DX9
games (Flight Sim & Tomb Raider Legend) don't recognise the Desktop
setting and only offer the Standard resolutions.

Hi it's Geoff again from the thread I started relating to the same
subject. Hmmm...One of the only 'games' I really play is FS2004, so this
is bad news. I've read a lot of things that make me feel a widescreen
monitor isn't worth the hastle. Well I'm going to keep researching what my
best options are anyway, but from the sound of things I'll only use
Powerstrip as a last resort. At $30 (so that's about 20 GBP for me) it's
at least part the way to a new cheapo graphics card should I decide on a
widescreen monitor, so I'd rather spend the extra for that I think (as
long as I can find a cheap one that does the required resolution!). Well
I'll stick around this thread anyway for anymore opinions about it.

Cheers,
Geoff.

Bob Huntley wrote:
Geoff,

I'll think you'll be OK. After a bit of experimentation its now working on
my copy of Flight Sim 2002 (I don't have the 2004 version) so I think you'll
be OK.

Not sure if this is the best solution, but it worked for me. I set up a Hot
Key combination in Powerstrip to switch to the right screen resolution, and
tried to run it inside Flight Sim. It apparently failed to work (the screen
stayed as 1600 * 1200) - but I was then able to go the Flight Sim display
options menu and be offered a choice of 1680 * 1050 (it wasn't available to
select yesterday). I picked that selection, and the monitor is now running
correctly at that resolution.

PS - Also had to adopt a similar approach on Tomb Raider Legend - so it
seems to be generic Direct X behaviour. For Open GL games (Doom 3) I just
had to edit the config. file.


Well that's good news. After what others are saying though it looks like
my card won't do any good in 3D anyway even though it's likely to
display the resolution I want. So I could get the widescreen monitor and
either use my current card with or without a trial version of Powerstip,
but work on upgrading the video card asap. At least I'll be able to use
it in 3D with Powerstrip if neccesary while I save my pennies.

* Geoff:

Hi it's Geoff again from the thread I started relating to the same
subject. Hmmm...One of the only 'games' I really play is FS2004, so this
is bad news. I've read a lot of things that make me feel a widescreen
monitor isn't worth the hastle.

It's no hazzle, at least nut usually (and with a better monitor)...

Well I'm going to keep researching what
my best options are anyway, but from the sound of things I'll only use
Powerstrip as a last resort. At $30 (so that's about 20 GBP for me) it's
at least part the way to a new cheapo graphics card should I decide on a
widescreen monitor, so I'd rather spend the extra for that I think (as
long as I can find a cheap one that does the required resolution!).

_Every_ Radeon card does 1680x1050 as does _every_ Geforce card (yes,
even the ancient Radeon 7200 or the Geforce256!). And all of the
somewhat newer (say less than 2 yrs old) drivers support that resolution
as well...

The thing is that both ATI Catalyst and Nvidia ForceWare drivers hide
widescreen resolutions until a widescreen display is connected to the
gfx card. To realize that such a display is connected the driver has to
read the DDC informations provided by the monitor. If, however, the
monitor doesn't provide such infos or the driver doesn't get it (i.e.
broken driver installation) then you will never see these resolutions
being offered...

Better widescreen displays like the ones from Dell, Apple or HP identify
themselves correctly so with these displays is plain plug and play. With
the Acer displays I heard several complaints like yours.

If I were you I'd try the display on another computer and see if it
works there as expected (you don't need a monitor inf file which often
is wrongly called "monitor driver"). If it does you should examine your
driver installation or if its not fixable think about a Windows
reinstall. If it doesn't work on another computer it's time to call the
service and complain.

Benjamin