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Background: old PC new wide screen monitor. Old PC's video card does not
include a wide aspect ratio setting resulting in a 4:3 picture that is
stretched wide on the monitor. Aquired a used old free video card that did
have wide screen capability and set to 1600x900, the card's best available
for this monitor (but not the monitor's native resolution). The replacement
card's wide mode worked well enough though somewhat blurry. Very recently,
and all at once, certain colors went florecent and others dull; also washed
out with extreme banding. Checked all drivers, etc. Removed wide
capability video card and inserted original - screen image now very good but
as before stretched to fill wide screen. Prefer to use the screen stretched
as opposed to 4:3 aspect so as not to burn lines into the monitor.

Question: Is there a way to aquire additional screen resolutions (wide) for
a pre-wide screen video card? I already have the latest drivers with no
help in this regard. Prefer not to sink money into this old PC. Sorry, I
cannot say what kind of video slot(s) I have - assume old style no longer
readily available like my type of RAM cards are not. If you direct me, I
can relay what my system says (Win XP).

- Kele

Kele wrote:

> Background: old PC new wide screen monitor. Old PC's video card does not
> include a wide aspect ratio setting resulting in a 4:3 picture that is
> stretched wide on the monitor. Aquired a used old free video card that did
> have wide screen capability and set to 1600x900, the card's best available
> for this monitor (but not the monitor's native resolution). The replacement
> card's wide mode worked well enough though somewhat blurry. Very recently,
> and all at once, certain colors went florecent and others dull; also washed
> out with extreme banding. Checked all drivers, etc. Removed wide
> capability video card and inserted original - screen image now very good but
> as before stretched to fill wide screen. Prefer to use the screen stretched
> as opposed to 4:3 aspect so as not to burn lines into the monitor.
>
> Question: Is there a way to aquire additional screen resolutions (wide) for
> a pre-wide screen video card? I already have the latest drivers with no
> help in this regard. Prefer not to sink money into this old PC. Sorry, I
> cannot say what kind of video slot(s) I have - assume old style no longer
> readily available like my type of RAM cards are not. If you direct me, I
> can relay what my system says (Win XP).
>
> - Kele

Is the monitor a secret? You also didn't mention if it is a CRT or LCD
monitor (but then knowing the make and model would tell). In the
manual, it should state what is the native resolution for the monitor.
Anything else (lower or higher) requires interpolation which results in
artifacts (ex., fuzziness, color tinge). Find out what is the *native*
resolution for the monitor and set the video card to that value.

Monitor's native resolution is 1920x1080 (wide LCD)

Video card current resolution: 1280x1024 (4:3 aspect ratio)
Video card (16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra) current available resolutions:
800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024 (all 4:3)

Restated question: can a video card's available screen resolutions be
changed to include additional resolutions (a wide aspect ratio)?





-----------
"VanguardLH" <> wrote:
Is the monitor a secret? You also didn't mention if it is a CRT or LCD
monitor (but then knowing the make and model would tell). In the
manual, it should state what is the native resolution for the monitor.
Anything else (lower or higher) requires interpolation which results in
artifacts (ex., fuzziness, color tinge). Find out what is the *native*
resolution for the monitor and set the video card to that value.

[ Kele adds: ...I would if I could. I have a wide screen monitor and a
square screen capable video card. But hopefully, I can make the square
screen (4:3) video card have a wide screen (16:9) resolution setting; I'm
asking if that's possible.

The NVIDIA card that just abruptly went bad (see first post details) is here
and can be re-inserted. It does have a wide resolution available
(900x1600), though not my monitor's native resolution, it was better than
this card (ATI Rage) that has no selectable wide resolution. If there is a
test(s) / fix(es) I can try on the NVIDIA card, I'm willing to try. I did
perform a driver update attempt on the card and adapter, both resulted in
"you already have the latest..."]

Kele wrote:
> Monitor's native resolution is 1920x1080 (wide LCD)
>
> Video card current resolution: 1280x1024 (4:3 aspect ratio)
> Video card (16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra) current available resolutions:
> 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024 (all 4:3)
>
> Restated question: can a video card's available screen resolutions be
> changed to include additional resolutions (a wide aspect ratio)?
>

I could find an example from that era, of what that kind of card supports.
This isn't your exact card, but it hints at what it might do. VGA tends
to be a bit distorted at super-high resolution values.

http://support.gateway.com/s/VIDCARD...00071117.shtml

640 × 480,
800 × 600,
1024 × 768,
1152 × 864,
1280 × 1024,
1600 × 1200,
1800 × 1440
1920 × 1080,
1920 × 1200,
1920 × 1440 (234MHz B.W.)

There are a few more cards listed here.

http://support.gateway.com/support/d...&uid=298156908

I find sometimes, that to get the best resolution options, test the
computer, video card and monitor, with a Linux LiveCD. I find I can run
things at native resolution with that.

This tool can define custom resolutions, and is available for an evaluation
period. It uses information similar to a "modeline". It's called PowerStrip.

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm

To get the modeline, you could try this tool, while your new monitor is
plugged in. If the video card has working DDC on the VGA connector, it
will be able to read the monitor's resolution table. (DDC is a serial
connection on the VGA monitor cable, that reads the EDID EEPROM inside
the monitor. It's how Windows is supposed to get Plug and Play information
from the monitor, and automatically get the correct resolution. Some
older video cards might be missing DDC. Plug the monitor into a modern
video card, read out the EDID that way, and save the modeline info you
get.)

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm

For example, I have a 1280x1024 monitor, and this is the "Real-Time" output
displayed by moninfo.
Clock <-- Horizontal ---> <--- Vertical --->
Modeline......... "1280x1024" 108.000 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

I could plug that into Powerstrip, to define that exact output. Some simple
arithmetic, is needed to do the conversion. You subtract the numbers from one
another in the modeline, to get the smaller numbers necessary.

Conversion from "modeline" to "powerstrip", would use the equations in
the MGA.MON example here.

http://www.epanorama.net/documents/vga2rgb/timings.html

There is another example here, of modeline and custom resolution setup. You
can see how subtracting the numbers in the modeline from one another, gives
the numbers in the Powerstrip window.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=174783

Depending on how old the video card driver software is, there
is sometimes a custom resolution dialog you can use. And then
you don't need to buy PowerStrip.

This is an example of a manual for Catalyst Control Panel from long ago.
The modern interface, might not be exactly like this.

http://web.archive.org/web/200603142...ek.com/CCC.pdf

I seem to remember there was some option to "display all resolution options",
but I can't find it in the manual.

HTH,
Paul

>
>
>
>
> -----------
> "VanguardLH" <> wrote:
> Is the monitor a secret? You also didn't mention if it is a CRT or LCD
> monitor (but then knowing the make and model would tell). In the
> manual, it should state what is the native resolution for the monitor.
> Anything else (lower or higher) requires interpolation which results in
> artifacts (ex., fuzziness, color tinge). Find out what is the *native*
> resolution for the monitor and set the video card to that value.
>
> [ Kele adds: ...I would if I could. I have a wide screen monitor and a
> square screen capable video card. But hopefully, I can make the square
> screen (4:3) video card have a wide screen (16:9) resolution setting; I'm
> asking if that's possible.
>
> The NVIDIA card that just abruptly went bad (see first post details) is here
> and can be re-inserted. It does have a wide resolution available
> (900x1600), though not my monitor's native resolution, it was better than
> this card (ATI Rage) that has no selectable wide resolution. If there is a
> test(s) / fix(es) I can try on the NVIDIA card, I'm willing to try. I did
> perform a driver update attempt on the card and adapter, both resulted in
> "you already have the latest..."]
>
>

Thanks Paul, you put alot into that replay. I'll see if I can utlize.

Kele wrote:

> Monitor's native resolution is 1920x1080 (wide LCD)
>
> Video card current resolution: 1280x1024 (4:3 aspect ratio)
> Video card (16MB ATI Rage 128 Ultra) current available resolutions:
> 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024 (all 4:3)
>
> Restated question: can a video card's available screen resolutions be
> changed to include additional resolutions (a wide aspect ratio)?

You'll need to get a video card that supports the *native* resolution of
your LCD monitor. Then if you want text and objects to look larger, up
the DPI setting. Getting a higher resolution means text and objects
will look smaller. Yes, you get more of them on the screen but they got
smaller in size and harder to read. If you up the resolution but don't
use it to increase the granularity used in painting the text and objects
(i.e., up the DPI) then you wasted money on getting a higher resolution
monitor. Smaller at the same DPI means the stuff is still painting at
the old lower granularity. Running the LCD monitor at anything other
than its native resolution will result in the problems you noted (e.g.,
fuzzy output).