Utter chaos.

[ZenWarrior]

I started a rebuild and it quickly turned into an entirely new machine. I've got a core i7 920 on a gigabyte EX58 UD4P with 6GB (3 x 2GB) RAM DDR3 1600. I started out trying to run a Powercolor Radeon 4870, but that card had a manufacturers error, so it crashes the system when I, say, try to download Adobe Flash Player. Got a GeForce GTX 260 now, no crashes. My monitor is a Hannspree HT09 28" LCD. 1920x1200 native.

Here's the REAL issue. After Windows 7 finishes setting up, I'd say about 1/2 inch of viewable desktop is "cut off" by the edges of the monitor, on all sides. The oddest thing, in my mind, is that besides the crashes to the Blue Screen, the Radeon 4870 was the only card that didn't have this "cut off" problem.

All drivers are current. Even tried a bait and switch with the bad 4870 displaying properly, with no driver updates, power down, put in the GTX 260 and still it's being "cut off".

Monitor Driver? Windows 7 is recognizing my monitor as a T280H. Which I believe is the samsung-made screen module itself.

 

[Lebon14]

Did you try another monitor? That may solve the problem coz it could be the problem. Did you try the monitor on another OS like XP or Vista?

Also, try to ajust the settings using the monitor's buttons.

 

[ZenWarrior]

I did try Vista 64-bit. No luck there. Monitor's settings are limited to aspect ratio and even in the "normal" 4:3 the edges are still cut off.

 

[Antman]

You need to adjust your overscan/underscan. You want to underscan. I do not have nVidia, so I will not guide you through the menu.

It is a well-hidden setting in ATI CCC.

 

[Zidane24]

nVidia Underscan Settings: what happened? - AVS Forum

Read this and see if this will fix your issue

 

[Otonashi]

Thanks, Antman and Zidane24, we'll try it out; ZenWarrior is my brother. I did attempt to use Powerstrip, but it seems ludicrous to have to manually configure those settings, when I should just be able to tell Forceware or Catalyst to use a different monitor. Especially annoying is that Windows 7 installs "Nvidia Control Center" automatically. The full account of everything we've tried takes several tens of minutes to relate just in a general sense, so I'll forgo posting the entire story. The next thing we're trying if the underscan adjustment doesn't work well is re-installing windows 7 with a crt monitor attached to a Radeon 2400, and then hooking up the HT09 to it, which the 2400 can't power, then force shutting down and plugging in the gtx 260. Last time this was done, the cut off issue did not exist. I'd like to try this method with the gtx 260 on the crt from the beginning, but I assume that "Nvidia Control Center" will automatically be installed and detect the monitor change and fsck everything again.

We also tried using a Diamond 4890, which exhibited the same "cut-off" issue through it's HDMI port to the HT09's HDMI, but not when hooked up through the 4890's DVI port to the HT09's VGA port, using a DVI to VGA adapter. This also limited resolution to 1680 x 1050, which is usable but not awesome. Additionally, the HT09 does not have a DVI port, just 1 VGA port and 2 HDMI ports.

 

[Antman]

...Especially annoying is that Windows 7 installs "Nvidia Control Center" automatically...

The nVidia installer does this, not Windows. It can be removed.

 

[Otonashi]

As an update: We picked up an XFX Radeon 4850 1GB, and the over-scanning issue is gone. I'd like to keep working on the issue, but I'm not sure how much time I will have to do so. I will pursue opening trouble tickets with the relevant parties, though.

Antman, which Nvidia installer are you talking about? Forceware was never installed on that attempt, it was a clean Windows 7 install, and the "Nvidia Control Center" was already available the first time I got into the desktop. There's no other logical explanation for how it got onto the computer. Most damning is that "Nvidia Control Center" isn't present when using the Radeon 2400 to install, and then switching the GTX 260 in directly after the first time the desktop is loaded and then the computer is shut down. Additionally, I believe "Nvidia Control Center" is what you get when you run Quadro cards, which need to have custom files present for Forceware to work, although I haven't kept up on that end of things.

 

[Zidane24]

...Especially annoying is that Windows 7 installs "Nvidia Control Center" automatically...

The nVidia installer does this, not Windows. It can be removed.

If you remove the Nvidia Control Panel from Add/Remove it will take the driver away...

So I found a good way to have both (until Nvidia Fixes this)

-Download the latest installer
-Have UAC on max
-Run installer as Admin

Everytime I do this it installs the driver but the Control Panel never gets installed...hopefully this may work with folks who don't want the NCC

 

[Antman]

Most damning is that "Nvidia Control Center" isn't present when using the Radeon 2400 to install...

The Nvidia software is not included with ATI hardware.

 

[Antman]

Antman, which Nvidia installer are you talking about? Forceware was never installed on that attempt, it was a clean Windows 7 install, and the "Nvidia Control Center" was already available the first time I got into the desktop. There's no other logical explanation for how it got onto the computer...

As the evidence devlops, I am going to have to got with...

There is one logical explanation.

Somebody else, drive this home for me.

 

[Tews]

Do you have strong password protection for your user account ... seems like someone may be installing things that you're not aware of ....

 

[johngalt]

He's been switching video cards in an atempt to fix this.

The problem here is that if you have more than one video driver even if it is not active it can b0rk things up.

Plug in the card you want, use Phyxion.net | Driver Sweeper | Products | Products to clean out *all* drivers relating to nVidia and ATI and start fresh.