WinXP - Widescreen resolutions not available
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Thread: WinXP - Widescreen resolutions not available

  1. January 17th, 2008, 03:55 PM #1
    arch0nmyc0n
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    WinXP - Widescreen resolutions not available

    Some old lady bought a widescreen monitor. Her computer is not listing any widescreen resolutions in the display properties page. I have a widescreen at home and 1440x900 works well enough for me, but all she has are standard resolutions like 800x600, 1024x768 etc. What would you do to attempt to fix this? I'm just trying to think of all the things I should try when I go out there next week.

    What I'm thinking is a monitor driver if there actually is one, which I doubt it. A video driver update if possible. She's most likely got one of those onboard VIA junk vid card, do these normally support widescreen? If not, a new video card to just get it working.

    Is there anything else I'm missing to try?
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  2. January 17th, 2008, 04:01 PM #2
    CCT
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    If it doesn't list them, her current vid chip/card doesn't likely support the pther resolutions.

    You need info.
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  3. January 17th, 2008, 04:02 PM #3
    Ferrit
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    Yes agreed with CCT the video card is likely generic/basic and doesn't support any of those types of resoolutions
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  4. January 17th, 2008, 10:13 PM #4
    arch0nmyc0n
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    Gah, I told my boss not to sell widescreens to just anyone... I'll just order her a regular 19"... unless she wants a video card for her email and web surfing...
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  5. January 18th, 2008, 06:02 AM #5
    NooNoo
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    Does the lady know which graphics card? The intel onboards and the via onboards do do widescreen with the right monitor driver, but you have to look in the list of modes the "the card doesn't support". Well it does support 1440x900 quite nicely as long as windows knows it's not a plug and play monitor.
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  6. January 18th, 2008, 01:26 PM #6
    arch0nmyc0n
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    Going back through my notes from ages ago, I found out that it should be an Asus A7VM-400 motherboard. (Wow Asus' site has been slower than moleasses the last few days) Asus says it's a:

    Integrated VIA UniChrome Graphics (VIA/S3G KM400A)

    This is of course if she hadn't got another video card since then. I don't have any in my notes, but she does have "friends" that help her with her machine.

    I was doing some looking aorund and I found this file on Microsoft's OEM site:

    WindowsXP-KB927516-x86-ENU
    Windows XP Starter Edition Widescreen Fix - 1/22/07 - Allows Windows XP to be viewed on widescreen displays.
    "Starter Edition"? I'm not familiar with that... I can't find reference to this in the knowledge base or even google says it knows nothsink... Now this was just a 5 minute search, but do you think this may help? I can't find out anything about what it actually does.

    I tried a few searchings for widescreen support for "VIA/S3G KM400A", anyone know for sure? She got the machine built in 2005 sometime, so there's a good chance the driver is from that time or before.

    The monitor is an Acer 1916WA

    She's not back till Monday so I have time to study solutions.


    EDIT: I've also ordered a 19" regular screen for her in case I can't figure it out.
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  7. January 20th, 2008, 09:14 AM #7
    NooNoo
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    Google does Microsoft's fact sheet on xp starter edition

    And yes that patch will help if she has the starter edition. A bios update may also be in order since the video bios is part of the system bios. The model number given doesn't quite match the Asus site so you will have to look for yourself.
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  8. January 20th, 2008, 01:11 PM #8
    arch0nmyc0n
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    I was unaware there was as starter edition of XP. I guess that shows how much I've been paying attention...

    Anyways I wrote the model number down directly from my boss' invoicing database... knowing my boss I should have checked it out but it is actually A7V400-MX.
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  9. January 20th, 2008, 01:19 PM #9
    CCT
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    That fact sheet Noo linked says, in part, "Further simplification of the operating system includes setting a maximum display resolution of 1024x768".......
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  10. January 20th, 2008, 01:21 PM #10
    arch0nmyc0n
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    She doesn't have starter edition. She has a OEM copy that came with the computer we sold her. The whole starter edition topic came up when I found that patch on microsoft's website.
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  11. January 20th, 2008, 01:27 PM #11
    NooNoo
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    Right, so a bios update would be needed. Asus did release a bios for several motherboards with the Unichrome onboard chip so it could be set to 1440x900.
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  12. January 20th, 2008, 02:01 PM #12
    CCT
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    Which, btw, is the native resolution for the Acer AL1916W.
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  13. January 20th, 2008, 02:33 PM #13
    arch0nmyc0n
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    Ok so I'll do the BIOS update there. Once it's done, will it just automatically show the setting or will I have to do something in windows?
    "We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men." -- Monsignor; The Boondock Saints.
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  14. January 20th, 2008, 02:51 PM #14
    CCT
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    Right click the desktop, click properties, settings and then set the size (screen resolution) and click OK.

    edit: I don't know if that mobo uses the Asus Afudos bios tool, BUT, if it does, make sure you get the latest one offered.

    You create a floppy boot disk, download the latest afudos to it, and boot to this disk and run afudos to make a copy of your EXISTING bios (name it oldbios.rom).

    At the prompt type Afudos /o Oldbios.rom

    Exit and remove the floppy and reboot.

    THEN download the latest bios and copy it to the floppy naming it Newbios.rom .

    Reboot with the floppy in the drive and run afudos again and this time upload the newbios.rom .

    At the prompt type Afudos /i Newbios.rom

    Don't press anything or cough loudly when the afudos is running (haha).

    Once again, exit and reboot and Bob's your uncle.

    If not, you can restore the old bios because you have it saved on the floppy.
    Last edited by CCT; January 20th, 2008 at 02:54 PM.
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  15. January 21st, 2008, 04:43 AM #15
    NooNoo
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    Once the bios update is done, boot to safe mode and back again, it should show up. If it doesn't reload the chipset drivers and the video drivers. If it still doesn't show up, look for the box that prevents unsupported modes being shown and show them... it should be there.

    Depending on the age of the Asus board, you can use the windows flash program to save mucking about with booting from DOS.
    Never, ever approach a computer saying or even thinking "I will just do this quickly."
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