LCD monitor woes.

[RyukaRukario996]

First off, I wish my widescreen one didn't go out on me... (Only displays a pure white background, but would go back to normal when power cycling it for awhile as it warmed up, but now it's stuck as a white screen forever... I think it's dead.)

 

This one I'm now using is small, 1024x768 is the native resolution and the highest possible, but anytime there's EVER... a resolution change for whatever reason it keeps misaligning the picture worse and worse and the "AUTO" button on the monitor itself only is a oneshot "cure" that doesn't really solve the problem permanently..

 

My current monitor is a Philips 150B, according to what my PC is reporting it as. I forgot what my widescreen one was but it's a LG, ironically my father purchased the LG widescreen monitor from Best Buy, the warranty on that has expired and the monitor died out at about that time too... so we can't really do much for that right now.

 

Also my graphics card is a ATI Radeon HD 3200, but Catalyst control center tells me NOTHING on how to make it so resolution changes do NOT scale, if that were possible on these cards it'd be of great help to me because I don't care about scaling and half the time, whenever a program uses a low resolution it's usually DosBOX in fullscreen and that will scale it's own image by itself using it's own scaling system. (Which does not screw up like I mentioned due to DosBOX IS always running it's resolution at my native resolution and just applying post processing scaling during rendering of the scene by itself, NOT my monitor... Therefore it completely avoids this problem.)

 

Here's the system info that Catalyst provides, and I'm kinda confused on how to update my drivers AND this too.. (Don't want to make the mistake of getting the wrong drivers installed..)

 

Driver Packaging Version    8.632-090702a-084305C-Acer    
Provider    ATI Technologies Inc.    
2D Driver Version    8.01.01.921    
2D Driver File Path    /REGISTRY/MACHINE/SYSTEM/ControlSet001/Control/CLASS/{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}/0001    
Direct3D Version    8.14.10.0678    
OpenGL Version    6.14.10.8787    
Catalyst™ Control Center Version    2009.0702.1239.20840    

 

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

[CommanderCrazy]

Oops...

[CommanderCrazy]

A GPU driver update will also include a CCC update with it, so no worries there.

Maybe a new CCC version will have more functions in it? I'm not sure with ATI products...

[RyukaRukario996]

Yeah I should update the drivers but I'm confused on their site which driver update will work with my "ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics" card, which is integrated into this Gateway DX4300-19 I'm using.

 

Not sure if it's really "integrated" or it's just pre-installed PCIe card.

 

EDIT: REALLY confused when I check their driver software release notes, and notice that "ATI Radeon HD 3200" isn't listed ANYWHERE, but "ATI Radeon HD 3300" is... So I'm not sure if I should just scrap this stupid card and buy a new card further up the line or press my luck and just go ahead and do the install procedure..

[Illiad86]

If it says it's 3200 graphics, it's integrated.

 

http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx

 

Whatever OS you have, chose that from the Motherboard/Integrated Video Drivers section :) Then download the full Catalyst Suite :)

 

Not sure about the scaling...what do you mean exactly "mis-aligns the picture"? Is this monitor you're using an older LCD or a CRT?

[RyukaRukario996]

When I mean mis-align it's like.. the very moment it changes to a non-native resolution, the image is skewed off the actual monitors boundaries, which effectively makes the picture unreadable, since half of the screen is black and what's left is scrunched up in the corner.. When returning back to 1024x768 the screen is still mis-aligned so I have to hit "AUTO" to correct it, very annoying.

 

It's the very reason I hate using this old monitor, and wish my LG one never died on me.

 

Also that's the very same executable I downloaded, checked the PDF with the release notes and did not see my specific chipset listed in there. (Am I just being paranoid..? Sorry if I am..)

 

ATI Radeon 3200 is listed but missing the "HD" part unless it's a mistake in the manual or what's on my PC..

[Illiad86]

Looking up your desktop here:

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668416.php that's it right?

 

says you have HD 3200

 

Video Integrated ATI® Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics

 

Says you have the 780G chipset, which is very common...it should be listed on there.

 

you should be able to use those drivers...unless Gateway is like Dell and you're forced to use THEIR incredibly outdated drivers...not sure though.

Edited October 1, 2010 by Illiad86

[RyukaRukario996]

Yes you're correct that IS my system... Speaking of Dell my father now uses my very old Dell as his main PC ever since his own went out on him. (Harddrive crash or something... maybe motherboard died forgot really..) And I DO know how proprietary Dell likes to be with ANYTHING in their PC's... so I'm kinda scared of Gateway is the same way. (Seriously why did Dell think it was smart to make PROPRIETARY power supply units..?)

 

Either way I still have the driver software downloaded and ready to install, when I'm 100% sure it'll work, so I'll be double checking everything possible.