Only Allow 800x600 6hz

I installed a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit pc in my Mame cabinet and it works fine except for 1 issue. Windows 7 thinks my monitor supports more resolutions and refresh rates than it actually does. So some game programs I have try to change the screen settings and screw up everything and I get the dreaded "Out of Range" error on my monitor. These games I'm trying to use run at 800x600 60hz because they ran on my old pc, but they think my system supports higher resolutions so they change the settings on their own.

How can I lock down Windows 7 so that only 800x600 60hz is allowed? I was able to do this on my old XP Pro pc but can't figure this out in Windows 7.

Thanks

Terronium 12 said:

Right off the bat, are the video drivers installed?

Oh yes absolutely. The video chipset (Intel i7 with integrated video) does support these higher resolutions, it's my monitor that does not. So these games are seeing these higher resolutions available in my video card and changing it which messes up the monitor. And changing the monitor is an absolute non starter. It's a 33" Wells Gardner Arcade monitor. It's worth way more than the pc. Lol....

Actually no monitor even shows in device manager. Strange, I would have thought at least a generic vga monitor would show there.

Terronium 12 said:

What monitor are you using?

EDIT: Don't even mind that question, I can't read at all today. Are there drivers for that you can install? Seven may not have installed generic drivers because it can't recognize it properly.

There are no specific drivers for this monitor, I would have thought Windows 7 would have just loaded generic drivers for it and shown that in device manager.

I don't know why no monitor is showing in device manager, the monitor is working fine. It's just that I would like to lock it down so that no program can try to change the computer to a higher resolution which the monitor does not support...

Ivan the SoSo said:

Is this computers sole purpose to run arcade games? If so using XP might be your best bet.....

Yea, in hind-site XP would have been better that's for sure. I was hoping Microsofts "Latest & Greatest" would be the way to go but it certainly isn't looking that way at the moment...

cluberti said:

Unfortunately, in this case monitor drivers are just as important as video drivers - the video driver probes the monitor and tries to ascertain what resolutions/refresh rates it supports. If it can't figure it out and the monitor doesn't respond with that data (one or the other), then it assumes what the generic monitor supports. Unfortunately, if you don't have monitor drivers, neither the Intel drivers nor Windows is going to ascertain the correct maximum size or refresh rate (automatically, at least). You'll probably have to go back to XP if you want this to work properly if it worked there.

Can't I just get some Generic Monitor driver that only supports 800x600 60hz and load that? If so where can I find one? That was kind of the point of this monitor, it's a special arcade monitor that does not require special drivers so it never even came with any. XP realized it was a regular 800x600 monitor but Windows 7 doesn't seem to realize it and allows programs to make invalid resolution changes.