ATI Radeon 2900XT resolution problem

[belial8321]

Hey guys, i have a problem with a radeon 2900XT and a TV i am trying to use as monitor - i recently gave my girlfriend the monitor this pc used to use, which was a 1280x1024 vga monitor - i am now using a 1920x1080 hd tv with pc-rgb port in the back, i've got it all hooked up fine but i can't set the screen res to 1920x1080, the most i can set it to in catalyst control center and in windows display options is 1680x1050 - the tv says it's aspect ration is 16:9 and i thought 1920x1080 was 16:10 - can someone please help me sort this out?
Is it the ageing graphics card that has a max res it can do? is that why i cant set it higher?

Tia

Jamie

 

[varkanoid]

1920 x 1080 is 16:9

Max resolution is 2560 X 1600 digital display and 2048 X 1536 for analogue display for a 2900xt methinks.

Its probably the TV reporting back to the PC/GFX card the max resolution is 1680 x 1050.

Might be limitation of VGA port on tv, check your tv manual.

 

[Orcvader]

Standard VGA cable limitations seem to be 1680x1050. You need to make sure you're using a SVGA cable, assuming the port on your card can support the max VGA res of 2048x1536.

 

[Surveyor]

Standard VGA cable limitations seem to be 1680x1050. You need to make sure you're using a SVGA cable, assuming the port on your card can support the max VGA res of 2048x1536.

Rubbish.

A standard VGA cable will support up to 2048x1536.

 

[Orcvader]

Rubbish.

A standard VGA cable will support up to 2048x1536.

I thought so too, but a few months ago I bought a 3m VGA cable and annoyingly the max res was 1680x1050. I bought another cable, this time labled SVGA and it displayed 1920x1080 perfectly. Maybe I was just unlucky?

 

[Surveyor]

You might need to force the resolution if your PC isn't seeing the TV correctly.

Make sure that the native resolution of yout TV is 1920x1080 before proceeding.

Right click on the desktop, select screen resolution, click on advanced settings, click on the monitor tab, untick the box for "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display".

You should now be able to select different resolutions and refresh rates. Be careful with this because if you select a mode the screen can't display it will go blank. If that happens then wait 30 seconds and hopefully the settings will revert back to the working settings.

If it buggers up completely switch off the PC, restart in safe mode and reset the resolution.

 

[Surveyor]

I thought so too, but a few months ago I bought a 3m VGA cable and annoyingly the max res was 1680x1050. I bought another cable, this time labled SVGA and it displayed 1920x1080 perfectly. Maybe I was just unlucky?

I've used the cheap VGA cables that get shipped with monitors for 1920x1080 with no problem.

VGA cables need to be relatively short as the analogue signal drops with longer cables. Perhaps there was too much signal loss with a 3m cable.

Thinking about it that might be the OP's problem.

OP - How long is the VGA cable you're using?