[bckid]

hey all. i've search and found nothing, so here goes:
im looking at getting this philips widescreen for my 12" pb rev d.
when i hooked it up in the store, my pb didn't offer it's native screen resolution of 1280x768 - and the closest fit i could find made everything stretched out, i forget the resolution. is there are way i can get the right resolution so that it matches up perfectly? or am i going to have to change monitors because my little pb can't handle 1280x768.

also, i'd rather not span, i search and foudn that to be an option, but id really prefer to run this lcd as separate desktop

thanks!

[ibook_steve]

Your Powerbook can certainly handle that resolution. Were you mirroring or spanning when you tried this out? If you're mirroring the main display, you can't go above 1024x768 since that's the max resolution of the internal display, so the external display with either have to stretch or have black bars. Why don't you want to span? Extra desktop space is always welcome! In any case, if you span, you'll be able to get to the max resolution. Or you can run in closed lid mode, so the external display is your only monitor, getting you to the max resolution.

Steve

[bckid]

I guess I could go for spanning, I just like having the dock underneath me and having a menu bar up top....how do i run it when the pb is closed? i guess ill do a search on that....

[ibook_steve]

Many topics on this and in your user manual. Dragging the little menu bar in your Displays preferences sets the main screen.

Steve

[bckid]

even with spanning, i can't configure my screen to fit correctly....the native resolution on my external is 1280x768, however the only available resolutions that are being displayed to me are either 1024x768 or 1280x960, the lcd will work with the 1024x768, but everything is strechted and pictures look terrible....is there any way i can get the external to display at its native 1280x768 resolution? or do i have to go find a new external?

[bckid]

ive been trying to work with this switchres program, but it doesn't have a preset resolution of 1280x768, so i have to custom make one. and of course there are so many options to tweak that i have no idea what they mean, and after many a reboot and tweak i still cant get it....does anyone have settings for this resoltuion? or do i even have to be going through all this to get my screen to work? it seems kind of rediculous....

[ibook_steve]

Are you sure you are displaying all the available resolutions? I forget where the setting is, but you may not be seeing all the available resolutions of the display. Also try clicking or selecting "Detect Displays." I'm not sure at what point you are attaching the display to your machine, but it may not be detecting all the available displays. When you open display preferences on the external display, does it just show something like "Color Display" or does it show the product name of the display? This would indicate whether the display was being detected correctly by your computer.

Steve

[bckid]

I'm hitting "detect displays" throughout the whole process, and while it does come up with a whole bunch of resolutions, the 1280x768 that I'm looking for is not listed. and yes, it says generically "color display" and doesn't say the make and model number, but im not too surprised about that. is there a driver or something i can install? i checked the philips web site and they dont have much there...

im beginning to think i'm going to have to give it back, which sucks because it was open box and it was a good deal...

ive been flipping around with switchres, which is a great program, but for some reason with all its preset display resolutions, it also doesn't offer the one i need - pretty much everything but that one. i've been trying to set it up manually, but there are so many terms in that program that i have no clue what they mean: pixel clock, front porch, sync width, back porch, scan rate, interlaced etc....

is someone around here gifted at the art of SwitchRes who could help me out? i think that's the only way ill get this thing to work....


thanks...

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by bckid

I'm hitting "detect displays" throughout the whole process, and while it does come up with a whole bunch of resolutions, the 1280x768 that I'm looking for is not listed. and yes, it says generically "color display" and doesn't say the make and model number, but im not too surprised about that. is there a driver or something i can install? i checked the philips web site and they dont have much there...

im beginning to think i'm going to have to give it back, which sucks because it was open box and it was a good deal...

ive been flipping around with switchres, which is a great program, but for some reason with all its preset display resolutions, it also doesn't offer the one i need - pretty much everything but that one. i've been trying to set it up manually, but there are so many terms in that program that i have no clue what they mean: pixel clock, front porch, sync width, back porch, scan rate, interlaced etc....

is someone around here gifted at the art of SwitchRes who could help me out? i think that's the only way ill get this thing to work....


thanks...

No, you should be surprised about that because it means that either your Powerbook is not detecting the display correctly or there is something wrong with the monitor. All monitors, at least from about the last 10 years, have a PROM chip that identifies the display to the host computer to tell it what kind of display it is and what resolutions it supports. This is all in hardware, so drivers don't have anything to do with it. If you're not seeing the brand name and only Color Display, as well as only standard resolutions like 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768, then the display has not been detected correctly. Do you have any other monitors that you can test this with to make sure your Powerbook can detect an external monitor correctly? Or can you attach this monitor to another machine? If you can see a brand name on your computer with a different monitor, then there is something wrong with the monitor you bought. Take it back. If you can attach the monitor to another machine and it shows up correctly with all available resolutions, there could possibly be something wrong with the graphics chip in your PB not communicating with the monitor correctly. Hopefully, this is not the case. Run these tests to pinpoint the problem, if you have the hardware available. Also, have you tried shutting down completely and booting the machine with the monitor attached? Sometimes this may provide different results. Try these things out and get back to us.

Steve

[polendo]

That is really strange. I just bought a similar product ---LG model L173SA, 17" with HDTV, components, DVI, VGA etc etc. Right of my memory, I'm not sure if 1280X768 is being listed, but I'm 100% sure I used 1280 X 960 on the Mac mini and it displays correctly all the space, colors and such. No screen stretching of any kind. Having said that, there is no way that the Mac mini could display that resolution and a powerbook 12" rev. d can't. I will check again tonight if the resolution you are talking about is listed.

The mac mini uses the ATI 9200 card.. yours is the nVidia?

[ibook_steve]

All 12" Aluminum Powerbooks use Nvidia.

Steve

[polendo]

Something to look into : http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtop...p;start=0&

Though they are talking about a TV, looks like they are modifying a file on the nvidia drivers of the 5200 in order to recognize such and such resolution.

Editing to add information.

From the apple web site:

NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics processor with AGP 4X support and 64MB of DDR SDRAM video memory (12-inch models)

* Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports up to 1024 x 768 pixels on the built-in display and up to 2048 x 1536 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors (6)


Now lets take a look at what that little no. 6 says :

"Some third-party DVI displays may not support all resolutions. Actual resolutions and refresh rates depend on the monitor."

Looks like the monitor is the decision maker. You would need to make a decision about it.

[polendo]

Well.. guess what? I also do not have that resolution (1280 X 768) listed in my LG LCD.

I do have listed:
1280 X 1024
1280 X 960
1152 X 870
1024 X 820
1024 X 768 (extended)
1024 X 768...

[bckid]

well looky here....i tried the complete shut off, plug in, then boot up with the monitor, and it worked! not perfectly, but now tiger's display preferences is allowing me to view at 1280x768 at 60hz....the only problem is the text looks really funny, it looks kind of squished together (thats a technical term)...but the icons, and everything look great....any ideas? and thanks steve for the boot up idea!

[ibook_steve]

Does the name of the display show up or does it still show up as Color Display? If you get the name of the display now, that means that there could be something wrong with your hot plug detection circuitry, meaning your machine detects and communicates with the monitor fine at a cold boot but not when you attach the monitor during normal operation. I don't know why the text would be squished.

Steve

[bckid]

nah, it still just says color display...i may try fiddling with the switchres #'s to see if i can get the text straigntened out....