Apple 30" Cinema Display - Resolution Issue

[quardorf2]

Hello,

I used to use a MBP as my main computer, coupled with a 30" Apple Cinema Display (Model A1083 - purchased three years ago). I recently purchased a PC (i7-950 3.06 GHz; AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB; Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit) to use as my home computer, and the MBP for mobile purposes. However, I cannot get the new PC to recognize the native resolution of the Apple Cinema Display (2400x1600). The monitor shows a maximum display resolution of 1200x800. I am using the only connection the monitor has to hook into the PC -- DVI-D Dual Link.

In the screen options, under Control Panel, it shows the monitor as "CINEMA" but the drivers reflect "Generic PnP monitor".

I've been looking on various forums and seems like people have gotten this to work but I am still missing something. If anyone could give me some help, it would be greatly appreciated. From what I can discern, people used to use WinACD (http://sourceforge.net/projects/winacd/) as a fix for this common issue, but the file has been discontinued and the last version was made for WindowsXP.

Anyone have any ideas?!?!

 

[ko888]

The native resolution of the A1083 is actually 2560 x 1600.

It's normal for the display to show up as a "Plug and Play Monitor on AMD Radeon HD 6850 ..." within Windows.

A DVI-D dual-link cable is a necessity when you are attempting to operate the display at 2560 x 1600. If you use a single-link cable the display won't be detected and/or work properly.

Do you have the latest AMD Catalyst Display Driver installed?

 

[quardorf2]

You are correct, the display is actually 2560 x 1600.

The display comes with a DVI-D dual link cable, so I plugged the monitor directly into the DVI-D dual link port in the computer.

I do indeed have the latest AMD Catalyst Display Driver (downloaded from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/10/Pages/radeon.aspx?os=Windows%20Vista%20-%2064-Bit Edition&rev=10.10).

Still not working, unfortunately.

 

[ko888]

Just because the DVI cable came with the display does not guarantee that it is a dual-link DVI cable. There are cases where a single-link cable is packaged in error with the display.

When you were using the MBP connected to the A1083 display, was it using this same cable and was the display operating at its native resolution of 2560 x 1600?

A single-link DVI cable won't allow the display to work at resolutions above WXGA (1280 x 800), what you seem to be limited to.

When you look at the ends of the cable what pin configuration do you see from the following?

 

[quardorf2]

Got it! Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone in the future runs into this problem. The cable that came with the display is DVI-D (Dual Link), see ko888's helpful image above. My computer has both a DVI-D (Dual Link) and DVI-I (Dual Link) port. Naturally, I plugged the DVI-D (Dual Link) cable into the corresponding DVI-D (Dual Link) port. This gave me the resolution issue. When I plugged the DVI-D (Dual Link) plug into the DVI-I (Dual Link) port, the comptuer was able to recognize the Cinema Display's native resolution.

For some reason it took me a full day to move the plug into the other available port. I hope this helps someone. And thanks ko888 for taking time to respond and help me out -- greatly apprecaite the kindness!

 

[jmanson]

Thanks for the guidance.

Bought the Radeon HD 4650 and now the display works with my Dell Precision 390 running Windows 7 x64 at 2560 x 1600!

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey