No 1680x1050 option with Samsung 226BW 22 incher

[SomeFormOFhuman]

I just built my rig today and somewhat the option for 1680x1050 resolution is missing from my display settings.

MSI Eclipse Plus
Core i7 950 @ 3.07GHz
6x2GB 12GB DDR3-1600
MSI NGTX295 (Single PCB)
300GB Velociraptor (C Drive) + WD 1TB (D Drive)
Vista Ultimate x64

I've tried changing to the latest drivers from Nvidia, LV2G, MSI and they all failed to display 1680x1050 which is the native res.

I have also installed the latest monitor .inf drivers from Samsung.

Also tried using both DVI and VGA cables for a switch but they do not seem to be of any help.

I've also tried powerstrip, added custom resolutions, restarted the system but it was no avail.

Could it be the monitor (Samsung 226BW), or the GPU itself that failed to recognize that 16:10 resolution? I'm all out of ideas. I'm now using the crappy 1280x800 :lol: - that was the max resolution it shows as of now.

Sidenote: Prior to my new rig, I had Windows XP x86 and there was no problem with it detecting its native res. Am I suspecting a bad monitor x64 driver conflict?

 

[successful_troll]

Don’t disturb and look the bright side you can now play crysis (1280x800 VeryHigh setting) with 80fps I am sure a GTX295 with i7 950 can do this.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Hmm.... Maybe I do.. Hehe... :lol:

No seriously, I really need the 1680x1050 for my CADding, 3Ds Max and photoshopping work than just gaming.

 

[mindless728]

try deleting the drivers an re-installing with a slightly older driver

 

[blackhawk1928]

Well...very interesting, make sure you have this video driver:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_186.18_whql.html

-Also, I have xp, so I am not completley sure, but go your window where you can adjust all your resolutions, then once there, click "ADVANCED", then find the tab where it says monitor and then find the little box saying, "Hide modes this monitor cannot display" and if its checked, then uncheck it! And then try setting a custom reoslution in the original window !! I had a similar problem and it helped!

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Well...very interesting, make sure you have this video driver:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7_winvista_64bit_186.18_whql.html

-Also, I have xp, so I am not completley sure, but go your window where you can adjust all your resolutions, then once there, click "ADVANCED", then find the tab where it says monitor and then find the little box saying, "Hide modes this monitor cannot display" and if its checked, then uncheck it! And then try setting a custom reoslution in the original window !! I had a similar problem and it helped!

Tried, doesn't work. Now it shows me 1280x1024. Still no 1680x1050.

 

[blackhawk1928]

thats really weird, I am almost positive that this a software issue...what can it possibly be, I have practically the same monitor as you except and inch larger...i never had a problem, try going into safe mode and see which resolutions you can get, just be sure its a software issue, connect it to another monitor and see if it can max out its resolutions and get proper ratio on them, if it is a software issue then we will keep troubleshooting i guess, if however the other monitor works fine with it, then its your monitor thats faulty and I would recommend returning it if it has a warranty

 

[daedalus685]

This is strange.

It could be the GPU or the display. Either the GPU is not detecting the resolution (hardware or software issue) or the monitor isn't providing the information. Does the display work elsewhere?

A bit off topic, why would you buy a gtx295 if you do professional 3d work?

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

thats really weird, I am almost positive that this a software issue...what can it possibly be, I have practically the same monitor as you except and inch larger...i never had a problem, try going into safe mode and see which resolutions you can get, just be sure its a software issue, connect it to another monitor and see if it can max out its resolutions and get proper ratio on them, if it is a software issue then we will keep troubleshooting i guess, if however the other monitor works fine with it, then its your monitor thats faulty and I would recommend returning it if it has a warranty

I tried going to safe mode, no it does not show all resolutions. I guess my only hope is get another external 22" monitor to hook it up to see how it goes. Are you using Vista x64? I'm guessing it's a monitor firmware problem that doesn't seem to work with x64 OSes, despite driver installation of all hardware. Funny, here's a clue: I've never had a problem with XP x86 with 2 4850s CFed with Catalyst 9.6...

This is strange.

It could be the GPU or the display. Either the GPU is not detecting the resolution (hardware or software issue) or the monitor isn't providing the information. Does the display work elsewhere?

I tried hooking up to my laptop (Dell XPS M1730) both DVI and VGA and no it shows the same thing as my desktop.

A bit off topic, why would you buy a gtx295 if you do professional 3d work?

Quadros are expensive, and I do not have the budget to go for a higher end varient. And even if I did it'll not run well on games even after driver modding. I have test driven the FX5800, good card but I guess it's really expensive. I know I will loose some OpenGL accelerated effects especially in 3Ds Max but I never had a display issue with GeForce cards on my CAD work for SketchUp, 3Ds Max, AutoCAD and Video Encoding for many years. I do both gaming and workstation applications.

Anyway thanks for your help guys. Maybe I'll try using an older driver perhaps. Will update this thread.

 

[daedalus685]

If the laptop does the same as the desktop something is wrong with the display, all the drivers in the world won't help you. It "could" be a bad cable.. being so much cheaper than a display it doesn't hurt to try, but i strongly doubt it.

As for the quadros, I was just curious is all. Except for freelancers, everyone I know gets them from the company, thus no out of pocket expense. This is probably why they get to charge so much for em.

 

[daedalus685]

I mention cable as if pin 6 and 7 are borked the DDC signal will be corrupted. But i doubt this behavior would be due to that as I'm not sure it would work at all without the DDC.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I tried going to safe mode, no it does not show all resolutions. I guess my only hope is get another external 22" monitor to hook it up to see how it goes. Are you using Vista x64? I'm guessing it's a monitor firmware problem that doesn't seem to work with x64 OSes, despite driver installation of all hardware. Funny, here's a clue: I've never had a problem with XP x86 with 2 4850s CFed with Catalyst 9.6...



I tried hooking up to my laptop (Dell XPS M1730) both DVI and VGA and no it shows the same thing as my desktop.



Quadros are expensive, and I do not have the budget to go for a higher end varient. And even if I did it'll not run well on games even after driver modding. I have test driven the FX5800, good card but I guess it's really expensive. I know I will loose some OpenGL accelerated effects especially in 3Ds Max but I never had a display issue with GeForce cards on my CAD work for SketchUp, 3Ds Max, AutoCAD and Video Encoding for many years. I do both gaming and workstation applications.

Anyway thanks for your help guys. Maybe I'll try using an older driver perhaps. Will update this thread.

-Well quadros are more business grade and high end, but You can get a similarly priced quadro as a 295 that will do significantly better in 3d work, especially cad! quadros are built for cad, FX5800 is like the one of the most high end cards and is like 3k, A good 400-600 quadro will do really well, I am not sure how well it will do in games, but if you do game a lot then keep a geforce, if you dont, I recommend going down the quadro route.

 

[royalcrown]

Vista and 7 have support for nvidia 1680 x 1050 out of the box w ms drivers, op should not need to use nvidia drivers to get that res. Maybe your card is not passing DDC data to your display correctly, are you using a dvi cable or the vga and an adapter ?

 

[royalcrown]

I mention cable as if pin 6 and 7 are borked the DDC signal will be corrupted. But i doubt this behavior would be due to that as I'm not sure it would work at all without the DDC.

I would expect it would just fall back to a default such as 1024 x 768 like my monitor first did.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Thanks guys... you're all have been of great help. Yeah I have tried changing cables - still no luck.

I'm currently using a DVI cable, weirdly it showed a 1920x1080 option?! That doesn't sound about right. Anyway previously I tried VGA and adapter (DVI to VGA conversion) and it still doesn't work. Sigh man.... Both cables show 1280x800, 1280x1024 options however. Using 1280x1024 will give stretching.

Man, I really need another screen to test it.

 

[royalcrown]

...the 1920 option is the next notch up ! Something is fluxed up ! Try resetting to factory defaults...then call Hanns and tell him to pick up his busted asss monitor..lol. At this point I'd say the card since the monitor worked in XP.

 

[jedimasterben]

Try uninstalling the monitor inf and using Windows Update to see if it finds a working one.

 

[erikz]

Greetings.

I have an answer for you.

Samsung have a crap product. That's your answer.

Here are the details why...

It seems the 226BW had a bad EDID. Essentially it's the location on the monitor that the computer uses to check the specs of the monitor. The 226BW is only programmed to 1280x1024 on the EDID chip, so the computer won't allow ANY res higher than that.

The morons at Samsung tech support kept claiming that there is a work around and that "it can't be the monitor, it's your OS." Yes there is a work around but ONLY in XP. Vista has no work around that they know of.

I have found 2 solutions but can't do either at the moment. The first is to add a custom res in nvidia control panel, this worked with one version of a driver 1 year ago and I can't get it working with new drivers.

The other is here
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1207444.html

But I can't seem to get "advanced timing options" in powerstrip, it's greyed out for me.

If I were you, if the two solutions don't work, return the monitor. OH and make sure you ring Samsung tech support and abuse them, I sure did.

Regards,

Erik

 

[blackhawk1928]

Did you say samsung has crap product? I bought a 23'' monitor from samsung and I never had any problem with it and it works like a beauty, good contrast ration, good brightness, good response time...excellent for gaming and 3d work so i wouldn't exactly call it crap. Plus it came with detailed instructions and software for installation and i am pretty sure you get live telephone technical support for it. So how is it crap? But i dont want to get into a big argument so yeah

 

[erikz]

I'll tell you why it's crap... again...

They ship a monitor with the WRONG EDID information so that you cannot run a 1680x1050 monitor at it's Native resolution, making the monitor COMPLETELY useless. ONTOP of that, their "WONDERFUL" phone support techs try to tell you that there is "nothing wrong with the monitor" and that the monitor "does not send a signal to the computer" Which is a complete LIE because the EDID is read by the PC to determine the specs of that monitor.

So in Summary, Fail Monitor, Fail Tech support.

I'm looking at my crap 226BW now, it's my second screen running at 1280 x 1024, I look at it every day and want to punch the Samsung tech support guys in the face and I will never buy another Samsung product in my life again.

 

[SomeFormOFhuman]

Hey hey guys guys, sorry for the lateness of my reply. LOL almost a month late I know...

Anyway, I had a spare 4:3 1280x1024 19" monitor lying around so I used it for a month as a temporary replacement LCD monitor till I find out what the problem is... I knew I couldn't stand looking at a square screen with limited resolution anymore, so I decided to take chances on my own hands and buy a new 24" monitor.

About RMAs, well the 226BW is over 3 years old, and warranty has expired. So I decided to go for a new monitor instead.

And with that decision, I bought a Samsung SyncMaster 2443 24" 1920x1200 LCD monitor.

And.... Viola!!!! Flawless!! Haha, now as I'm typing this, I'm running the full 1920x1200 24" DVI display. Colours are neat, sharp and very accurate. Lovin' it.

So the culprit is the 226BW itself and the bad EDID. And... Yeah.... That's pretty much what I thought so too, erikz.

And I'm now running Windows Ultimate 7 x64 RTM.

And best of all, I didn't install any monitor driver, plug and play. And it works out of the box.

Enjoy.

EDIT: BTW thanks everyone else with your suggestions.

Stefan