HDTV as monitor: resolution problems

Quoth

Hoping this is the right place for this question, if not please mock me until I run away in tears. I am not the most tech savvy person so I will probably say things wrong.

I bought a new computer with a Radeon HD 4850 card that I delightedly hooked up to my 46" HDTV via a DVI cable. It ran at 1920x1080 or something like that and it looked fabulous. I went through all the setup stuff and eventually it started downloading Windows updates. Vista, to be precise.

Unfortunately, after downloading all the updates, my computer restarted and suddenly the 1920x1080 resolution option completely disappeared. It ran at 1600x1200, which was stretched all funny.

I downloaded the newest ATI drivers and installed them. No dice. The Help menu is telling me to do things like click buttons that don't exist and enable settings that aren't there. I can't force the appropriate resolution, with or without having the EDID detector thing enabled.

Help? Please?

Ego

Does the resolution show up in the Displays Manager section of the catalyst control center? Or under the 'force' button (on the same section of catalyst) in the 'desktop area' submenu? Also, again in the same section, does it say what sort of TV you have connected (in the box under 'selected display on: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series') or just say it's a plug and play device?

I'm guessing this is a driver issue, since I have close to the same setup working well (the only diff being TV size, and that I'm using the DVI-to-HDMI dongle that came with the card to hook up to the TV, as my DVI to HDMI cable dropped out the sound.)

Bob Sapp

Did you have your PC hooked to the TV or a computer monitor when you set the original resolution? The video card will determine the monitor/tv when it boots and that could be screwing with your resolution choices if you originally booted with it hooked to a monitor.

Quoth

The resolution does not show up as an option, even when I turn off the EDID detector and change the maximum settings manually. It does not say what kind of TV I have in the selected display, just says it's a random monitor or some such thing. I have a Samsung but I can't remember the model off the top of my head.

Do you think I should try switching to an HDMI cable?

Quoth

Bob Sapp wrote: »

Did you have your PC hooked to the TV or a computer monitor when you set the original resolution? The video card will determine the monitor/tv when it boots and that could be screwing with your resolution choices if you originally booted with it hooked to a monitor.

I booted it to the TV originally. Only hooked it up to a monitor later when I changed the settings to something that wasn't supported and couldn't change it back. Currently have the TV cloned to the monitor settings.

Ego

Technically an HDMI cable shouldn't change anything but if you've got one and have the dongle handy, I'd definitely give it a shot. I'm convinced that the 4800 series does weird things with DVI-to-HDMI cables. To expand on this I'm convinced it sends the TV an analog-DVI signal which the TV then decodes as if it were VGA, assuming the TV is capable of doing so. edit: is it a DVI to HDMI cable, or DVI to DVI cable that you have your TV connected with?

I'd look for drivers for your TV. Mine shows up in device manager as a plug and play device, but in catalyst it's detected properly.

I'd say to try booting up with a linux livecd to see if you get 1920x1080 there, but from experience I can tell you that you'll probably not have display options above 1600x1200 in most of them with a 4850 just from a live-boot.

Quoth

Ok, no HDMI cable, got it. What is blowing my mind is that the resolution was there and then it vanished after reboot when the Vista updates finished installing.

Where would I find drivers for the TV?

Ego

Hmmm looking online, I don't see any drivers for the TV (assuming it's the LN46B650.) Have you tried running a driver cleaner and re-installing your video drivers afterwards?

Quoth

How do I run a driver cleaner? Sweet christ this computer is brand new out of the box, I hate Windows sooo muuuch.

Ego

Try it through control panel since ATI actually added an uninstaller (that's nice of them.) Plus the old program I used is apparently not free anymore, discovering that is always a great feeling.

I'd do that, then install the ATI video driver by itself, followed by the catalyst drivers. If that doesn't work it might be worth looking at what installed in your vista updates --if there was something related to displays, you may wish to roll your system back with system restore and then do an update skipping that one.

Quoth

I'll start with those options, but man I am not looking forward to reading up on 29 updates.

Ego

Quoth wrote: »

I'll start with those options, but man I am not looking forward to reading up on 29 updates.

On the plus side it's a lot easier in Vista, just hop into windows update and click 'view update history' (it's a link to the right of the 'Updates were installed:' text) and right click -> view details on any of the ones you want to see. You'll be able to skip most of them without even viewing the details as the majority will just be security and definition updates. Looking at my own, the only one I see for any hardware is actually a mouse driver update .

If rolling back does return the resolution, it may be as simple as installing your display drivers and then rebooting before letting windows do it's updates. Since the update process broke things I imagine it's just a case of windows updating your display drivers after you'd already installed them, managing to clobber something in the process.

Ragaz

I don't think you can use 2 different resolutions for ATI cards in Clone mode. So is your PC monitor maxed out at 1600x1200? That would max your tv at the same resolution. Try disconnecting your PC monitor, and rebooting the system to just run the TV. That should give you the resolutions you are looking for.

Quoth

Ragaz wrote: »

I don't think you can use 2 different resolutions for ATI cards in Clone mode. So is your PC monitor maxed out at 1600x1200? That would max your tv at the same resolution. Try disconnecting your PC monitor, and rebooting the system to just run the TV. That should give you the resolutions you are looking for.

No, see, I only had it connected to the TV when the problem occurred. I only connected it to the monitor later when I changed the setting to something totally not supported and couldn't change it back due to not being able to see anything.