Issues with new monitor

**Whiteshiva** · 26-03-2009, 01:49 PM

I just bought a new monitor for my 5 (!) year old desktop, decided I had enough of looking at a tiny little screen, and went for a 22" Samsung widescreen LCD. According to the documentation I should now be able to have a resolution of 1680x1050, but when I set the "display properties" at this value, the picture is magnified to the extent that I can only view a small section of the picture at a time, i.e. everything on the screen appears too large.

The monitor came with cables for both analog and digital connections, although I have only connected the analog, since my desktop does not have a digital video outlet.

For the time being, I have set the resolution back to the original 1024x768, and for watching movies, etc. this is no problem per se, but I would really like to utilize the screen to its fullest potential.

Do I need to go out and buy a new video card as well, or is there something else I can do to tweak the system?

I don't really want to buy a new computer, despite its age, it is still more than adequate for what we are using it for (basically emails, internet, downloads, office work, watching movies). I just added some more memory and a bought a couple of TBs of external storage, so the machine is pretty good for its age.

Anyone?

**baldrick** · 26-03-2009, 02:14 PM

do you have a video card in the computer ?

if you are running it from the onboard video I suggest you go to the motherboard manuf website and get the latest drivers for the motherboard.

this may not help you in the end and you may need to put a video card into the machine - though your machine may not really have enough power to take advantage of the 22" at its native resolution. and a 5 year old motherboard will be AGP graphics card slot , or even PCI.

can you give us some more details of your system .
Motherboard manuf and model
ram
cpu

**Marmite the Dog** · 26-03-2009, 03:51 PM

Did you install the drivers/software that came with the monitor?

**Whiteshiva** · 26-03-2009, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Did you install the drivers/software that came with the monitor?

Yep - although it didn't appear to make much difference.

**Whiteshiva** · 26-03-2009, 09:19 PM

Originally Posted by baldrick

do you have a video card in the computer ?

if you are running it from the onboard video I suggest you go to the motherboard manuf website and get the latest drivers for the motherboard.

this may not help you in the end and you may need to put a video card into the machine - though your machine may not really have enough power to take advantage of the 22" at its native resolution. and a 5 year old motherboard will be AGP graphics card slot , or even PCI.

can you give us some more details of your system .
Motherboard manuf and model
ram
cpu

I'll try - hopefully this makes more sense to you than it does to me:

Video Card: Chip type RADEON 9250/9200 Series AGP (0x5961)
DAC Type: Internal DAC (400MHz), Memory size 128 MB
Font resolution 96 DPI

Monitor Type: Samsung SyncMaster T220
Current refresh rate is set at 60Hz
Mode: 1024 x 768 with 32 bit colour depth

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80 GHz
BIOS 512kB
Memory 1024 MB (upgraded from 512)
Mainboard ASUSTeK Computer INC 'P4SD-LA'

Is this the type of info you needed?

**baldrick** · 27-03-2009, 07:47 AM

grab this driver pack - latest ATI Catalyst driver pack for XP
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site

is this your video card ?

or are you really missing the DVI port ?

this card drives a 19" samsung widescreen fine at 1440x900 with the VGA port - computer Pentium 3 1GHz , 256meg ram

let us know what resolution you are able to do with the new driver pack - to me it should be fine driving 1680x1050

**Whiteshiva** · 27-03-2009, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by baldrick

grab this driver pack - latest ATI Catalyst driver pack for XP
MajorGeeks.Com - Contacting Download Site

is this your video card ?

or are you really missing the DVI port ?

this card drives a 19" samsung widescreen fine at 1440x900 with the VGA port - computer Pentium 3 1GHz , 256meg ram

let us know what resolution you are able to do with the new driver pack - to me it should be fine driving 1680x1050

Much appreciated B - although I already have the latest ATI driver - I did in fact a driver update a few months back.

Sadly, it appears that I am really missing the DVI port (assuming that's what you call a digital port). I fiddled around with the frequency setting yesterday (adjusted from 60 to 75 Hz) and suddenly I managed to get 1280 x something. Looks a million times better!

I might be tempted to change out the video card if I can get the max resolution though - do you know (roughly) how much one would be? Any recommendations as to type/brand name/specs?

**baldrick** · 27-03-2009, 04:03 PM

Originally Posted by Whiteshiva

although I already have the latest ATI driver - I did in fact a driver update a few months back.

did you use the ATI Catalyst driver pack ?
the link says those drivers were released on the 18th march 2009

|MG| ATI Catalyst Drivers for Windows XP 9.3

you need to be using a widescreen 16:9 resolution for your monitor
try 1440 x 900 if it will not give you 1680x1050 .

as for a video card , thanni.com has no agp cards on their site and hardwarehouse only had one at 1150 baht - never heard of the brand before
AXTROM nVIDIA AGP XT-VN55256 GeF FX5500 256M DDR/128bit AGP 3 Yrs. ALC 1150

I would suggest going to pantip or future ( maybe lak si plaza ) and some shop will have some old stock - see if you can find a Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT ( Asus or XFX branded ) - I have run my 22" samsung with that card in one of my older machines.

let me know if you have anymore questions

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