Windows 7 - Force DVI/HDMI resolutions and refresh rates

**baarod** · 04-27-2009

How to Force DVI or HDMI Resolutions and Refresh Rates in Windows 7

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Click here to read the entire tutorial

**bobdynlan** · 10-11-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by johnhoh

I have somewhat choppy video on all 4 of my monitors. Windows 7 version 7600, nvidia 6200 driving 2 monitors and motherboard intel 965g driving the other two.

Onboard GMA 3000 even struggles with single output in high resolutions, nVidia 6200 was the low end of its time, don't expect much more than you currently get. It's a wonder you got them all in sync

.
Think about the poor processing power you have for pixel processing, resize & stuff, think about the missing GPU acceleration for video from your current setup. You really need to upgrade your 6200 to a nvidia 8-9 series or ati 3-4k series, it will not cost much. The next step would be to forget about onboard outputs and get a solution like Matrox's DualHead, then you would be able to drive your four monitors only on your ad-in video card.
I cannot tell you to give up on your current setup. Please provide more info like your full PC spec's, monitor spec's (all 4), software used, and detailed description of your problem - my bet is that it's not related to this topic so this guide may not help you.

Quote: Originally Posted by SecondNipple

when I want to specify a Timing by entering 1366 at the "H. active pixels" box, it automatically switches back to 1360! Also I does not let me enter a refreshrate below 61.

Read this forum page from the top and follow the dialog between me and pdp76. He tries to add the same 1366x768 resolution which is not standard 16/9 so PED will not allow it in Standard Timings, but it's possible to add it in Detailed Timings. The refresh rate limitation (60, not 61) is talked about in the extended guide that you did not read, but can be overcomed in Detailed Timings.

**johnhoh** · 10-12-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by bobdynlan

Quote: Originally Posted by johnhoh

I have somewhat choppy video on all 4 of my monitors. Windows 7 version 7600, nvidia 6200 driving 2 monitors and motherboard intel 965g driving the other two.

Onboard GMA 3000 even struggles with single output in high resolutions, nVidia 6200 was the low end of its time, don't expect much more than you currently get. It's a wonder you got them all in sync

.
Think about the poor processing power you have for pixel processing, resize & stuff, think about the missing GPU acceleration for video from your current setup. You really need to upgrade your 6200 to a nvidia 8-9 series or ati 3-4k series, it will not cost much. . Please provide more info like your full PC spec's, monitor spec's (all 4), software used, and detailed description of your problem - my bet is that it's not related to this topic so this guide may not help you.

All 4 monitors worked flawlessly on winxp64 with my two weak video adapters. Full system is gateway gt5238e, intel e6300 cpu, 1.5ghz memory, (3) samsung 204b 20" monitors and (1) envision e416 24" monitor. The machine is primarily an internet machine. The problem is most repeateable by going to AMC's Mad Men site, play any video in fullscreen. The choppiness is seen by people's mouths not moving along with their words. Thanks.

**bobdynlan** · 10-12-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by johnhoh

All 4 monitors worked flawlessly on winxp64 with my two weak video adapters [...] The problem is most repeateable by going to AMC's Mad Men site, play any video in fullscreen. The choppiness is seen by people's mouths not moving along with their words. Thanks.

Believe it or not, your flawlessly working two video adapters are weaker in Windows 7, because of the new driver model requirements, Aero interface and other taxing stuff not present in winxp. The processing power and memory requirements for both the CPU and the GPU are higher. Are you running 64bit Windows 7? 1.5Gb RAM memory could also limit you on some tasks. I don't know if the vista issues with mixing video adapters was solved in 7, but that could be a factor, too, and speaking of it, you did not describe the display/resolutions/fullscreen mode used when having issues (on one display, on all of them in cloned mode, on all of them in stretched mode).

What's your Windows Experience Index? What's the cpu and memory load when you are playing videos from Mad Men site (not available in my country)? What browser are you using, what kind of videos are those - did they switched to hd format or something since your last use in winxp? If you download them on your computer and play them with a true media player (wmp/mpc-hc) not a lame-inside-a-browser-flash-player, is the choppiness gone? Can you go back to win64 and verify that it's a Windows 7 issue or not?

My bet still stands - it's not related to this topic so this guide may not help you. It does not seem to be a DVI /HDMI /resolution /refresh issue. And if it's true, this discution is offtopic in here, and should be moved into a thread in the Drivers / Performance section.

SecondNipple · 10-13-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by bobdynlan

Read this forum page from the top and follow the dialog between me and pdp76. He tries to add the same 1366x768 resolution which is not standard 16/9 so PED will not allow it in Standard Timings, but it's possible to add it in Detailed Timings. The refresh rate limitation (60, not 61) is talked about in the extended guide that you did not read, but can be overcomed in Detailed Timings.

I followed exactly all the steps after reading the dialog between you and pdp76 and the detailed guide. So after updating the driver NOTHING changed. I still can't create a custom resolution.

I atteched two pics where you can see my settings.

It's def. not hardware issue, since it worked fine on XP.

pdp76 · 10-13-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by bobdynlan

Read this forum page from the top and follow the dialog between me and pdp76. He tries to add the same 1366x768 resolution which is not standard 16/9 so PED will not allow it in Standard Timings, but it's possible to add it in Detailed Timings. The refresh rate limitation (60, not 61) is talked about in the extended guide that you did not read, but can be overcomed in Detailed Timings.

I followed exactly all the steps after reading the dialog between you and pdp76 and the detailed guide. So after updating the driver NOTHING changed. I still can't create a custom resolution.

I atteched two pics where you can see my settings.

It's def. not hardware issue, since it worked fine on XP.

I didn't have to create a custom resolution after creating a detailed timing. I oberwrote detailed timing #1 in my case. That even made windows think 1366x768 is the native res of my tv so it automatically picked it after I installed the custom inf and rebooted

SecondNipple · 10-19-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by pdp76

Quote: Originally Posted by bobdynlan

Read this forum page from the top and follow the dialog between me and pdp76. He tries to add the same 1366x768 resolution which is not standard 16/9 so PED will not allow it in Standard Timings, but it's possible to add it in Detailed Timings. The refresh rate limitation (60, not 61) is talked about in the extended guide that you did not read, but can be overcomed in Detailed Timings.

I followed exactly all the steps after reading the dialog between you and pdp76 and the detailed guide. So after updating the driver NOTHING changed. I still can't create a custom resolution.

I atteched two pics where you can see my settings.

It's def. not hardware issue, since it worked fine on XP.

I didn't have to create a custom resolution after creating a detailed timing. I oberwrote detailed timing #1 in my case. That even made windows think 1366x768 is the native res of my tv so it automatically picked it after I installed the custom inf and rebooted

Did you just leave the standard timing #1 at 1360x768 (cuz it forces you to do so)? Sent you a private message btw.

**Bobby09** · 10-21-2009

Before I ask or answer any questions I'd like to say thanks to everyone who took out time to contribute to this thread and this issue.

I've gon on a scavenger hunt all through the internet to try and solve my problems with my screen resolution/display settings. I think that I've tried just about everything that I am capable of understanding. I am the kind of person who likes to "push it to the limit" as those cheesey Disney kids would say but as of now I am in no way capable of doing so. To elaborate if I break anything that I have right now. I will be stuck without it for a very, very long time.

At this point I'm tired of searching the web to try and find solutions to my problem so I'm asking if someone could help me with some sort of remote desktop application and show me physically what I am too blind to see. All I am trying to do is set my screen to its native screen resolution (1440x900). These are some of the steps I tried to take but were unsuccesfful.

Tried editing DefaultSettings.XResolution/YResolution in RegEdit
Tried overriding EDID/INF data
Tried installing monitor driver from manufacture's official website.
Tried looking through the modes list under Advanced Settings

And tons of other things that I can't think of at the moment, but regardless all failed. When I had Windows XP Professional running, all I had to do was install the driver for my monitor and it worked with no hastle. Here are some of the specs for my computer/monitor.

Monitors - LG W1952(Analog) and it's supposably "working properly"
Driver Provider: LG

Display - Standard VGA Graphics Adapter and it's supposably "working properly"
Driver Provider: Microsoft

A link to my monitor's vendor is provided below.

http://www.lge.com/us/computer-products/monitors/LG-lcd-monitor-W1952TQ.jsp

**Killer344** · 10-23-2009

Ok, I give up, I need a hand here

, I tried like 10 times with bobdynlan's guide but I still couldn't get my dell 2209wa (I'm on a HD 4770 crossfire) to work at 75hz 1680x1050 (it goes out of sync)

Using this timings on powerstrip with xp sp3, it works..

The problem is that I can't get powerstrip to work on Windows 7..

**Bobby09** · 10-23-2009

I think I'm going to just have to get a new graphics card. The one I have right now seems to not be able to work with Windows 7. I mean it works, but the features are limited because of it (I think).

**Breezerdk** · 10-23-2009

Hey There i have tried for like 6 hours in a row now, and trying to get my Samsung Syncmaster to run in 1024x768@100hz under windows 7, wihout any luck.
so now i just hope one of u guys could make me a working inf file i can use...
Please help me with this kind of problem, it would be much apriciated indeed

Here is the info from Monitor assest Manager

Code:

Monitor
  Model name............... SyncMaster
  Manufacturer............. Samsung
  Plug and Play ID......... SAM002F
  Serial number............ HVAX201227
  Manufacture date......... 2004, ISO week 7
  -------------------------
  EDID revision............ 1.3
  Input signal type........ Analog 0.700,0.000 (0.7V p-p)
  Sync input support....... Separate, Composite, Sync-on-green (w. pulse)
  Display type............. RGB color
  Screen size.............. 360 x 270 mm (17,7 in)
  Power management......... Active off/sleep
  Extension blocs.......... None
  -------------------------
  DDC/CI................... Supported
  MCCS revison............. 1.0
  Display technology....... Not supported
  Controller............... Not supported
  Firmware revision........ Not supported
  Active power on time..... Not supported
  Current frequency........ 11,33kHz, 0,52Hz
Color characteristics
  Default color space...... Non-sRGB
  Display gamma............ 1,94
  Red chromaticity......... Rx 0,625 - Ry 0,340
  Green chromaticity....... Gx 0,285 - Gy 0,600
  Blue chromaticity........ Bx 0,150 - By 0,075
  White point (default).... Wx 0,283 - Wy 0,298
  Additional descriptors... None
Timing characteristics
  Horizontal scan range.... 30-110kHz
  Vertical scan range...... 50-160Hz
  Video bandwidth.......... 290MHz
  CVT standard............. Not supported
  GTF standard............. Supported
  Additional descriptors... None
  Preferred timing......... Yes
  Native/preferred timing.. 1280x1024p at 85Hz (4:3)
    Modeline............... "1280x1024" 157,500 1280 1344 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1072 +hsync +vsync
Standard timings supported
     720 x  400p at  70Hz - IBM VGA
     720 x  400p at  88Hz - IBM XGA2
     640 x  480p at  60Hz - IBM VGA
     640 x  480p at  67Hz - Apple Mac II
     640 x  480p at  72Hz - VESA
     640 x  480p at  75Hz - VESA
     800 x  600p at  56Hz - VESA
     800 x  600p at  60Hz - VESA
     800 x  600p at  72Hz - VESA
     800 x  600p at  75Hz - VESA
     832 x  624p at  75Hz - Apple Mac II
    1024 x  768i at  87Hz - IBM
    1024 x  768p at  60Hz - VESA
    1024 x  768p at  70Hz - VESA
    1024 x  768p at  75Hz - VESA
    1280 x 1024p at  75Hz - VESA
    1152 x  870p at  75Hz - Apple Mac II
     640 x  480p at  60Hz - VESA STD
     800 x  600p at  85Hz - VESA STD
    1024 x  768p at  85Hz - VESA STD
    1280 x 1024p at  85Hz - VESA STD
    1600 x 1200p at  75Hz - VESA STD
    1600 x 1200p at  85Hz - VESA STD
    1920 x 1440p at  60Hz - VESA STD
    2048 x 1536p at  65Hz - VESA STD
Report information
  Date generated........... 24-10-2009
  Software revision........ 2.30.0.797
  Operating system......... 6.1.7600.2
Raw data
  00,FF,FF,FF,FF,FF,FF,00,4C,2D,2F,00,39,31,51,41,07,0E,01,03,6F,24,1B,5E,2B,02,99,A0,57,49,99,26,
  13,48,4C,FF,FF,80,31,40,45,59,61,59,81,99,A9,4F,A9,59,D1,40,E1,45,86,3D,00,C0,51,00,30,40,40,A0,
  13,00,60,08,11,00,00,1E,00,00,00,FD,00,32,A0,1E,6E,1D,00,0A,20,20,20,20,20,20,00,00,00,FC,00,53,
  79,6E,63,4D,61,73,74,65,72,0A,20,20,00,00,00,FF,00,48,56,41,58,32,30,31,32,32,37,0A,20,20,00,32

Hope u guys can help me please

EDIT: Im using a Nvidia Geforce 8800GT Card, with the newest Nvidia driver installed (downloaded today)