Can't pick high resolution

[Soviet]

After switching to Windows 7, I can't choose native resolution for my display (1920x1200). The higher I can get is 1600x1200. I can't set custom resolution on any window - well, I can click on that options, but then i just can't apply any custom settings. It's really pain in the below, to watch 1600x1200 on 1920x1200 monitor, so I hope you can help me.

I tried, without succes, 195.62 from NVidia.com, 195.62 from Gainward.com (my GPU is Gainward 260GTX) and 195.81 beta. I even used third party software like Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper. Without any luck. My maximum resolution is still 1600x1200.

My monitor: Gateway FPD2485W

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello!

Have you tried updating your graphics card drivers? Go into Device Manage and click Update on you card. If it does not find new drivers, go to the card manufacturer's site and download drivers manually.

If you fill in your system specs, perhaps we can find drivers for you. Download Speccy if you don't know your hardware.

 

[Soviet]

I tried, without succes, 195.62 from NVidia.com, 195.62 from Gainward.com (my GPU is Gainward 260GTX) and 195.81 beta. I even used third party software like Driver Cleaner and Driver Sweeper. Without any luck. My maximum resolution is still 1600x1200.

 

[Lange]

Soviet: Do a little google around "Windows 7 Resolution Refreshrate" and it will come up with enough reading material to get you through the next few weeks.
Updating to the latest drivers is the last thing to do, it will not help, also don't update the videocard drivers if Windows 7 update offers this.

Why?
Because Windows 7 uses it's own EDID file over the monitors native EDID file. Since this Windows EDID file contains less resolutions/refreshrates, you won't be able to choose those that are not in that EDID file.
In your case, the loaded EDID file will not contain your 1900x1200 res therefore you are not able to choose that resolution. Windows forces you onto 1600x1200 instead as it "thinks" it is the resolution which will work best on your monitor (Windows 7 still has Windows Vista tics here and there).

Workaround:
You probably have to create you own custom resolution (1900x1200). Once this is done, it will show up in the list of resolutions to choose from. How to do this you will find in the various results Google will come up with.

Example:
I still use a IIyama CRT monitor which i like to run at 1154x864 @ 100Hz. This worked fine under XP but Windows 7 simply did not offer this refreshrate. I only got 60Hz (not the least because Windows "thinks" that everybody had an LCD these days). So i made my own custom resolutions @ 75, 85 and 100Hz.
This didn't work at the beginning because i used either the latest nVidia drivers or if i returned to a bit older drivers, i let Windows update do it's work. Then after quite a search i found out that drivers over 182.50 don't allow you to create custom resolutions anymore. I then installed 182.50 (or 185.52 can't remember) and from then on everything was possible again (but still needed to create those resolutions you want).

When i'm home i will look up the links to the forums i got my info from and post them here (i still have those saved somewhere).

I'm sure when you do a little search here you will find already some stuff.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Try using Vista drivers.

 

[Lange]

Vista drivers will not do the job. It has nothing to do with Vista drivers. Just read through my post.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Lange, I will make a deal with you. I will let you figure out the problem and help the OP fix it. If you can, I will rep you. If not, then I will post, and you will not try to go against my advice.

Deal?

 

[Soviet]

I'll try 182.50. Is there a 182.50 for 7? Or should I go with Vista version?

Also, since I earn for living as a video games reviewer, how badly will those older drivers affect me?

Last thing: why Microsodt did that, and why they didn't fixed it yet?

Lange, I will make a deal with you. I will let you figure out the problem and help the OP fix it. If you can, I will rep you. If not, then I will post, and you will not try to go against my advice.

Deal?

There are no new drivers for Vista only. 195.81 and 195.62 are simultaneously for 7 and Vista. So I tried them already.

 

[Jonathan_King]

I don't see a 7 version, so go ahead and install the Vista version. If that does not work, try taking Lange's advice.

 

[Venths]

Sorry for interrupting the Deal.

Am not sure if you have tried this. If not try this before going for any complex troubleshooting

GO TO > Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display\Screen Resolution

Click > Advanced Settings in the Display page. Here Intel Displays will have GRAPHICS PROPERTIES option. But as you have NVIDIA, am not sure about this option. Check if you have that option. If yes, you will have multiple display resolution options

PS: I don have exposure to Nvidia. Just wanna cross check with you, if it could help you !!!

 

[Lange]

Alright, i'm finaly home, lets' see into this...

First, i want you to check which monitor Win7 currently recognises.
How: Go Control Panel/Device Manager
There select "Monitor" and see if your monitor is propherly recognised.
If it says: "Generic PnP Monitor" you can be sure Win7 is forcing it's own EDID (<-- link what an EDID file is and does), over the monitors EDID file.

Next steps:
- With your current nVidia drivers, open the nVidia Control Panel. You will find that also under Control Panel/nVidia Control Panel.
- Open this and select Display on the left and there go Manage Custom Resolutions.
- On the main screen you have 2: The display has the following custom resolutions associated with it. Normally, the box under that line should be empty.

I can't include a picture but i have made a Screenshot how it should look like.

! If you can't see a create button under that main box or don't have this option at all at the left, remove your current drivers, reboot, and then load the 182.50 drivers. I have currently these drivers: 182.50_geforce_winvista_64bit_english_whql.exe

- take your monitor's manual and look up the possible refresh rates for 1920x1200.
- after installation you follow the steps above and push the "create" button.
- another screen opens where you have to enter the resolution you want (1920x1200), the refreshrate and the bits per pixel. For this last one you enter "32". The refreshrate you have to look up in the manual. It's possible that your monitor can show 1920x1200 at more then one refreshrate. You then simply create more then one 1920x1200 res. Look at my screenshot for 1152x864.
- for now, you don't need to go to the advanced tab.
- when everything is entered you can press the test button. If OK, you can save and see your newly created resolution in the box on the previous screen.
- from here you can now follow the normal steps to change a resolution, you're newly created res should be there to choose.

It might be possible that you will look at an unsharp screen at 1920x1200. If this is the case, you need to go into the advanced tab and change the refresh rate step by step up or down (by 0.1Hz) until you have a sharp picture. I can't talk you through that because i'm still using a CRT monitor but during my search i came accross a lot of posts from people who had that problem (happened only on LCD's).

Also: If you install 182.50 drivers, Win7 will ask to update them through Windows update. Always say no or you are back at square 1!!

@ Venths: That exists in nVidia too (and also for ATI) but he won't find his old resolutions there either because Win7 uses his own EDID file over the one from his monitor.
PS: no offence...LOL.

@ Jonathan_King: NP, i may have sounded a bit harsh but i have gone through the exact same problem (and a few others) and i can assure you i tried everything (you mentioned without any succes) before i digged a bit deeper into the problem. Took me about a 4 days (and lots of hours) to find a solution. So don't be offended, i only wanted to cut you short so he would focus on the real problem...

About the promised links i was going to post: i'll zip my mouth for now because i can't find them so directly (my computer is a bit of a mess after a faulty harddrive a few days ago). When i have them, i'll post them but just Google a bit and you'll have more then enough. Biggest problem will be reading and reading and reading until you stumble on the right one.

Overall: It's not a driver issue, it's a Windows 7 issue.


Google Search: 94.000.000 hits on "Windows 7 Resolutions Problems"
You will find a lot of info on your problem already on the first 2-3 pages Google comes up with.
They will deal both with the refreshrate problem on LCD's and/or resolutions that don't show anymore.
a link to start: Tom's Hardware
You can always visit the nVidia or Guru3D forums for extra info.

Honestly, when i first installed Windows 7 and encountered the problem, i almost reverted back to XP. When i started searching, i was amazed to see how many people had problem with either their resolution or refreshrate.

 

[Venths]

@ Venths: That exists in nVidia too (and also for ATI) but he won't find his old resolutions there either because Windows 7 uses his own EDID file over the one from his monitor.
PS: no offence...LOL.

@ LANGE: Nothing to get offended here. Its how we learn stuff.

I have read your earlier post and was checking at my end. I had all resolutions and hence i posted it. How would I get all resolutions and only for his monitor her get the EDID prob ?

 

[Lange]

Because "somehow" (but don't ask me how) Windows threaths every monitor a bit differently. I have a CRT IIyama HM903DT-B which Win7 recognises perfectly as IIyama HM903DT-B, it shows up like that in the hardware list but for some odd reason it uses it's own standard EDID file instead of that of my monitor. I miss about 50% of the resolutions/refreshrates my monitor actualy can handle under Win7 (and prefectly handled under XP).
Like i said, i was really stunned by the shear number of posts on various forums about this problem. +/- 70% of those posts handled about fuzzy looking screens (just set your LCD monitor to anything else then it's native res and you see the fuzzy effect, except if you have an expensive one which can handle more than it's native res).
Whatever they tried with drivers, it almost never led to any solution. The real cure for those people is playing around with their refreshrate until they find one where suddenly the screen becomes razorsharp again.
Then you have the others who lack one or more resolutions which don't show up anymore after they moved to Win7 (from either Vista or XP).
Also, if your native res is, let's say 1280x1024 and Win7 gives you that option and all is fine, why would you look for anything else?

Another example on how Win7 messes around with monitors. Mine is a 4/3 sizescreen, suited for all 4/3 resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1600x1200 etc...). The monitor can show a lot of other res'ses too like 5/4 but these always give a squeezed image because the size of the screen is not suited to show it propherly. Now Win7 forces me to use 1280x1024 which is a 5/4 res. I can change to 1280x960 (4/3) but if i then update the drivers, Win7 is back again proposing me his 1280x1024 res.
Why? I don't have a clue but i do know that this res is a common LCD res and not a CRT res. So Win7 thinks i'm using some sort of LCD which i don't.
Another thing is the ClearType character set. This is now set to "on" by default and this only suites LCD's, not CRT's. Then on top of that they changed their default character set to Segoe which is certainly not suited to show on a CRT monitor because of it's fuzzy look.

It took me 4 days to find the solution for the missing res (the res i wanted was still there but ony at 60Hz (LCD!!)) and quite a bit more to finetune Win7 so it looked good and sharp on my hardware. None of these tweaks related on drivers.

Tip about drivers: I've learned through the years not to update a driver if there is no need for it. If everything works as it should, leave it that way there's no goal in updating them then. Having the latest drivers mostly only suites the latest hardware, not older hardware (there are always exceptions offcourse) and the moment everything works fine... leave it working fine...

A lot of people always ask, why would you change a resolution for. Well, for viewing purposes as a start but mostly for games. Playing a game at 1600x1200 demands 4x the processpower of the same game played at 800x600. If a game does not play wel (most likely the Frames Per Second-rate or stutter) at 1600x1200 you can always tune down on resolution to boost the FPS and get a playable game again. But for that you have to be able to change your monitor to the desired res in the first place and that is where Win7 is a bit of a *******...for some people (but way to many if you look at the hardware forums).

 

[Venths]

Well said Lange

Tip about drivers: I've learned through the years not to update a driver if there is no need for it. If everything works as it should, leave it that way there's no goal in updating them then. Having the latest drivers mostly only suites the latest hardware, not older hardware (there are always exceptions offcourse) and the moment everything works fine... leave it working fine...

I too accept this point of yours ...

Often I get problems with latest audio drivers. Atleast once in a week, I have to troubleshoot it and resolve the MIC issue

 

[Soviet]

No luck .

First, i want you to check which monitor Win7 currently recognises.
How: Go Control Panel/Device Manager
There select "Monitor" and see if your monitor is propherly recognised.
If it says: "Generic PnP Monitor" you can be sure Win7 is forcing it's own EDID (<-- link what an EDID file is and does), over the monitors EDID file.

It's Heneric Non-PnP Monitor (but was recognized as a PnP Monitor on XP).

- take your monitor's manual and look up the possible refresh rates for 1920x1200.
- after installation you follow the steps above and push the "create" button.
- another screen opens where you have to enter the resolution you want (1920x1200), the refreshrate and the bits per pixel. For this last one you enter "32". The refreshrate you have to look up in the manual. It's possible that your monitor can show 1920x1200 at more then one refreshrate. You then simply create more then one 1920x1200 res. Look at my screenshot for 1152x864.
- for now, you don't need to go to the advanced tab.
- when everything is entered you can press the test button. If OK, you can save and see your newly created resolution in the box on the previous screen.
- from here you can now follow the normal steps to change a resolution, you're newly created res should be there to choose.

Nope. Every 1920x1200 mode I tried failed the test. And I think I tried everything, even messed around with Advanced options.

 

[Soviet]

Lange, I love you anyway.

Done that:

a link to start: Tom's Hardware

And it's working!

Small afterquestion: am I sentenced to live with this 7 moth old driver? I'm afraid to try any newer drivers with method form Tom's Hardware in case it won't work again .

Thanks again. I spend two weeks on that.

 

[Lange]

Fine you got it working but you don't have to "love" me for it...LOL.
I don't need no credits because i'm just a messenger, i didn't work out the solution, the credits should go to those how came with the solution. I just saw this post because i'm following a hardware sound problem here in the forums.

About your afterquestion: Yes, for now until either Windows comes with an update so that monitors are recognised propherly or either until nVidia comes up with a solution which overrides Win7's PnP setting which is just crap imo.
But if it's working fine, there is really no need in upgrading the drivers. If you still have other problems like games which don't work 100% with that driver, you can still try...

What did you finaly do then if creating a custom resolution didn't do the trick because in the Tom's Hardware link there is more then one solution. The one to make a custom driver with PowerStrip?
I did not go that route because after reading through the post it was not 100% clear to me if it would give me more then then max resolution of the monitor (which i don't need) so i took another route and created the resolutions i wanted. While keeping the Tom's Hardware link, i found more then one on creating your own custom resolutions so i finaly tried that. I think (but that's just a guess) that both solutions do +/- the same thing but through another route.

 

[Soviet]

Yes, I used PowerStrip and created custom driver. Funny thing is, I was so close to that by myself, I just didn't used the option "have disc" .