24 inch monitor - 1900X1200 resolution

[Greg Miller]

I have an HP DV6 Pavilion ... Windows 7 OS ... I recently purchased a 24inch monitor but I am unable to select the 1900X1200 resolution it supports. I have tried updating the graphics card through ATI and through the HP Support site but I am not knowledgeable enough to really know what to do and how to do it ... any suggestions from anyone?

 

[spdragoo]

1. Do you have your exact model number? HP's support site lists over 300 "pavilion dv6" models.

2. How are you connecting the monitor to the laptop: VGA, DisplayPort, or HDMI?

At first glance, though, you have to realize that hooking the laptop up to the monitor doesn't mean you're changing the laptop screen's resolution, just that you're projecting the current resolution onto a bigger screen. For example, we use my wife's probook 4520s to watch Hulu on our HDTV: the TV screen is twice the size of the laptop's screen (32" vs. 15.6"), but we're still limited to the laptop's maximum resolution (1366x768) when watching on the TV.

 

[Greg Miller]

It's an HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC ... Product # XG759UA#ABA ... Serial # CNF0390BYK ... I have connected the monitor to the laptop using a standard black/blue VGA connection

 

[spdragoo]

OK, the VGA connector means you can display your desktop on an external source: overhead projectors, external presentation projectors, monitors, TVs, etc. But your resolution is going to be limited by your laptop's maximum resolution. It doesn't matter if the monitor can only handle 1024x576, or can handle 4096x2304, it's whatever the laptop can handle. Since your laptop apparently can't handle 1920x1200, you won't get 1920x1200 quality on the monitor....but the picture will at least look bigger.

 

[Greg Miller]

Can the laptop be outfitted with a driver, card, or software to make it handle 1920X1200? Or do I go laptop shopping???

 

[spdragoo]

From what I can tell on the HP website, & some of the comments in their support forums, you're in a weird situation. First, it looks like the laptop uses "switchable discreet" graphics: the Intel CPU has integrated Intel-based graphics for "low-end" use (desktop, non-video-intensive apps like MS Office, etc.) that uses the laptop's RAM, & a discreet ATI Mobility Radeon 5650 for "high-end" use (games, video rendering, etc.) with its own memory. Can't tell if it's using fixed or dynamic switching, but apparently the Catalyst Control Center settings will show it (fixed = the laptop automatically switches based on hard-coded presets; dynamic = the laptop switches based on the application being run, but you can specify for particular apps which GPU to use).

In any case, it appears that the discrete GPU is built into the motherboard, so you'd have to replace the motherboard completely. However, there's a chance that the motherboard might have space to add additional memory for the GPU; in the DV6-6000 series specs, they mention one of the Intel CPU/AMD GPU motherboards comes with 1 GB for the AMD GPU but can be increased to 2 GB.