DVI v VGA

Trying to find out the differences between VGA and DVI settings on a 22" wide LCD.
At present I am using VGA and I seem to have a very sharp picture, but my mouse courser can run off the screen on the right hand side and the bottom of the screen, is this geometry, associated with VGA.
I would like to know if changing to DVI is worth while as I am using a VGA KVM switch.

 

I photographed my monitor both ways close up and can't tell which photo is which now, even with maximum enlargement. However, I use a DVI KVM switch.

 

ok, now can anyone tell me what happened here, never seen that before.
I changed cables disconnected VGA on both ends PC and Monitor and connected DVI cable resolution was set at 1680 x 1050 , my desktop does not fit onto the screen, the mouse courser scrolls the screen up down and sideways I can not work this one out. I let the Monitor detect Automatic same thing as when I set Monitor manual from VGA to DVI.
Any Ideas.

 

Hi Hawk,

You don't say the make and model of the monitor. In the manual it should tell you about making adjustments to the screen, some have buttons on the side. You should be able to adjust the height and width.

The other side is the Display Settings in Windows. There may be two methods of setting the display...one is the traditional way of Control Panel -> Display, this may actually be the wrong way if you have the display adapter's "manager" installed.
Using an nVidia display adapter, try right-clicking on the desktop and see if there is an nVidia selection (also check in Start -> All Programs).
An ATI adapter may (I don't have their recent software/manager/controller) have an icon in the Notification area.

Adjust your settings using the display adapter's software, not Window's.

Matt

 

hi mattman, I did try that no go NVIDIA control center, has no function for that in digital only VGA and my settings on the Monitor won't allow me to do that, nothing like on my CRT Monitor now I don't know if that is normal or not as I haven't had a LCD before in VGA mode all I have to do is press the Auto button and it will center the display automatically.
Now I don't know if this makes any difference or not the Monitor is DVI-D and my Video out connection on the PC is DVI-I the cable that came with the Monitor is DVI-D.
The Monitor I am trying out is the Medion from Aldi I have 60 day return satisfaction, this gives me plenty of time only had it one week.

 

Mmmm...let's investigate the improbable before we investigate the probable (heard that somewhere before ). My cursor goes almost off the screen on the right-hand side. I can just see the edge of the cursor. If it seemed to disappear onto another screen, I would think that the display settings were set for a second or "dual" monitor and it was using "Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor" for the second screen (even though it is not connected). Check the settings for a second monitor in the display settings.

My cursor disappears off the bottom of my screen, although it does not seem to go very far

Drivers and software? I update chipset drivers for the motherboard/computer before I update any graphics drivers.

Update or back-date the graphics? You may have graphics drivers or software that is too advanced or too old for your hardware. I find any updates for my graphics at the manufacturer of the graphics hardware (nVidia only supply the chipset for the graphics, not the graphics themselves).

Just running an "update" of drivers/software may not work. You may need to uninstall before you reinstall.

Matt

 

Matt I have to point out that this only happens in DVI mode VGA is perfect except the curser going off the screen, but my display is dead center. I had to download the new NVIDIA drivers to be able to get the 1680 x 1050 resolution, thats why I figured that it is not the drivers now as I have the same drivers for VGA thats what I thought anyway.
The weird thing is in VGA the curser disappears of the screen on the right hand side, in DVI mode putting the curser on the right hand side moves the screen to the left just like scrolling without the arrows and the same up and down just not as much.

 

Did you get the drivers from nVidia or the manufacturer of graphics hardware?

As I said, it may depend on removing the old software/drivers before installing the new ones.

Your graphics system can (apparently) run the correct resolution for the screen, but you seem to have needed an update to run that resolution...was it the correct update?

I would not find the updates for my graphics drivers/software from nVidia, I would find them from the graphics manufacturer, for me, that is MSI (the manufacturer of my graphics card) . Uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers/software, I will leave that up to you.

Matt

 

I got the drivers from NVIDIA, but I actually did uninstall the old drivers first. It is a Gigabyte FX 5200 128 MB card.
I will have a look if I can find the drivers on the Gigabyte site.

 

This is a driver issue, it's not setting the resolution correctly. I had the same problem a while ago. I've since reinstalled Windows without the problem returning, so my guess is that it's been fixed with the newer drivers. There was a simple fix, but I can't remember the setting used. Install the latest drivers from NVidia - 169.21WHQL. Nvidia is the best source for the drivers as the manufacturer of the card is usually way behind. If that doesn't work I'll try and find where I saw the solution.

 

OK, let's look at how to uninstall the old drivers and software.

My suggestion/method is to boot into Safe Mode, go to Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs and uninstall the nVidia listing there. Go to Device Manager and check that there is no Display Adapter listed, otherwise uninstall it. Edit: check for any listings of previous graphics in Add/Remove Programs if you upgraded.

When you reboot the Add New Hardware wizard will run. If you let the wizard select a set of drivers you will probably be back where you started, so click Cancel, this will run standard drivers like those in Safe Mode. You can also boot to the Startup Options screen (F8) and select VGA Mode, this will allow you to run in normal mode and run the installer for the updated drivers.

Matt

 

ok thanks matt and peterdiva, I uninstalled the drivers as you suggested Matt and installed the newest ones that peterdiva posted. I am using VGA at the moment I have not tried the DVI yet. There is one problem now when I rebooted after NVIDIA finished installing I have now about 50 windows Icons on my desktop that I have never seen before, names like: NvCpl, nviewx, nview nvshell, TOSGFX, NVCPL HL-, nvGames, all this sort of icons I don't know what to do with them any idea??

 

When you ran the installation it would have asked where to install. The default location is C:\NVIDIA, you must have set it to install to the Desktop.

I don't think you should delete or move those files. Run the uninstaller, the file nvuninst.exe.

You will need to run the installation again (reboot in between uninstalling and installing again). Be careful when the installer asks for the location path.

Oh well, it is all experience.

Matt

 

I have now done it twice uninstalled reinstalled made sure it installed to C:\NVIDIA but still the same I rolled back to the previous driver and all this files are still on the desktop.
This has become a real problem now, don't know how to get rid of them.
I also connected to DVI but the screen did not change desktop still will not fit onto the screen.

 

well I have gone through it again including using driver cleaner installed my previous drivers that I had installed but the windows icons are still on my desktop.
I did not install them onto the desktop, but what I could have done was extracted them there.
As they are the drivers from the newer version it should be ok now to delete them I would imagine, but not sure.

 

You can safely delete those files off your desktop. They're not needed after the drivers have been installed.

I think the following is the solution I was looking for. The Timing Standard was the setting I couldn't remember. Just substitute 1680 for 1440 and 1050 for 900.

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=235044&highlight=timing+standard

 

ok thanks for that, one thing regarding the resolutions is that situation on that post was referring to a 19" Monitor mine is 22" would that not be different.

 

The monitor size isn't important. It's the native resolution and the refresh rate that goes with your monitor that is. In your case it's 1680x1050@60Hz. So change the two settings below as indicated. They may already be filled in correctly and all you have to do is set the timing standard.

Horizontal desktop pixels: 1440 --> Set to 1680.
Vertical desktop lines: 900 --> Set to 1050.

 

Hi Peter, at long last after many tries, I have had success in getting DVI onto my screen.
It came about in the NVIDIA Control Panel Custom Resolutions but in the lower Advanced Settings section, by changing numerous settings eventually it stayed in Manual and not Auto, and this was the trigger Manual.
The Monitor Manual states that it will detect automatically VGA or DVI, so much for the Manual.
Thanks again for your help.
hawk22