video cards and resolution query..

Walsandrew · 2 Jan 2011 at 19:09

hi, this is probably something a lot of you can answer easily but for me it's not quite so obvious. i recently purchased a prebuilt machine from ocuk and having connected it to my monitor, the resolutions windows 7 is suggesting i set it at aren't even close to the true resolution of the monitor. is this graphics card related? and would reinstalling my video drivers resolve this? thanks for any help

d_brennen · 2 Jan 2011 at 19:13

What resolution is your monitor? What res is your desktop set to at the moment?

Check in Device Manager to see if the appropriate driver is installed for your card too.

Oh and I believe there is an option to hide settings the monitor isn't capable of displaying. Another thing, what cable are you using?

Walsandrew · 2 Jan 2011 at 19:25

my monitor is 1920 x 1080. current (and max that i can set it) resolution is 1280 x 1024. as far as i can tell the drivers are all installed. also, ocuk said they would install them. though i noticed under one of the display adapters, there are two 'standard vga graphics adapters', one of which says this device cannot start. fyi if it helps, i am running 570 sli.

d_brennen · 2 Jan 2011 at 19:36

Google Nvidia drivers, select the card family, model and OS you have and download the driver.

The two video devices showing in Device Manager tell me that it ain't installed

Walsandrew · 2 Jan 2011 at 20:05

or just install from the cd?

Sleeve · 2 Jan 2011 at 20:18

Same as me actually.

My monitor is 1440 x 900 but windows only lets me display 1360 x 768

How come?

d_brennen · 2 Jan 2011 at 20:32

Walsandrew said:
or just install from the cd?

Getting the latest drivers is always a good idea

Sleeve88 said:
Same as me actually.

My monitor is 1440 x 900 but windows only lets me display 1360 x 768

How come?

Odd one. Is this on Windows 7?

Walsandrew · 2 Jan 2011 at 20:47

d_brennen said:
Getting the latest drivers is always a good idea

will i need to anything different other than install the gtx 570 drivers, as it 570 in sli? or will i need to do something to set them up as well? thanks for your help btw

d_brennen · 2 Jan 2011 at 21:01

Just the driver, you may have to enable SLI from within the Nv control panel

Sleeve · 2 Jan 2011 at 21:45

d_brennen said:
Getting the latest drivers is always a good idea

Odd one. Is this on Windows 7?

Yeh...

d_brennen · 2 Jan 2011 at 22:59

How about trying to update the monitor "driver" from within device manager. Windows update should have a profile for it

Sleeve · 3 Jan 2011 at 12:54

Windows has determined the device driver is up to date

judmann · 3 Jan 2011 at 16:21

Sleeve88 said:
Windows has determined the device driver is up to date

Did you download then install drivers from windows or from Nvidia?
Download drivers from Nvidia

varkanoid · 3 Jan 2011 at 16:25

Sleeve88 said:
Windows has determined the device driver is up to date

obvious question but does the monitor device driver actually say your monitor make and model or some generic LCD device when you look in device manager ?

have you tried going to the monitor manufacturers website to see if there is a driver there to use ?

Sleeve · 3 Jan 2011 at 16:42

varkanoid said:
obvious question but does the monitor device driver actually say your monitor make and model or some generic LCD device when you look in device manager ?

have you tried going to the monitor manufacturers website to see if there is a driver there to use ?

Says Generic.

It's a cheap Delium monitor from a competitor, and it has no website.

It did come with a CD, but that's only got the manuals on it.

d_brennen · 3 Jan 2011 at 17:46

Is it DVI or HDMI you're using to connect to the screen?

Ch3m1c4L · 3 Jan 2011 at 23:17

the fact that one of his gtx 570's says it cannot start is the problem. while this could be nvidia driver issue, more likely is its come slightly loose or the power cable has loosened itself etc.
Re-seat the cards and the check the power cables are securely connected, once this is done download and install latest drivers and reboot. after this SLI will be disabled so right click desktop and go into nvidia control panel and turn it on again. If in device manager it is still saying one card wont start its going to be much more likely that its a hardware issue, but id try re-seating the cards again just to confirm rather than ebing without it for ages then just finding out it was dust in the slot :/

James_200sx · 4 Jan 2011 at 10:56

Is it a cheap monitor cable. Had this before with a crappy monitor lead. Changed cable and could then use proper resoulation instead of utilitys to force card to the res.

Supernaut91 · 4 Jan 2011 at 12:33

Definately try and use an HDMI cable, they can be picked up for pennies. Btw James, only analogue cables can have a 'poor cable standard'. Digital cables either dont work or they do. (DVI, HDMI) The reason i know this is i recently bought a Humax Freeview HD box and was interested in buying a chunky HDMI cable, to then find out there was no real difference from a decent £5 one to a £50 one.