PROBLEM: SONY GDM-FW900 on ATi 4670

[Googer]

I am having issues with my ATi 4670 connected to a Sony GDM-FW900 CRT. The Driver pans and scans my normal 1920*1200 desktop. The problem is, i set the resolution to 1920*1200@85hz and all I get is an annoying pan and scan. The monitor reports 640*480 resolution its control menu.

I have the Sony GDM-FW900 driver installed and it shows up in the device manager but Catalyst Control Center refuses to recognize it and instead gives me a display resolution of 640*480 and a desktop reolution of 1920*1200.

I just switched out my dead nVIDIA 7600gs for this new card and did not have this issue before.


How can I fix this?
How do I force catalyst control center to stop panning and scanning?
How do I force it to run the native resolution?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Installed the monitor's INF file into Windows?

 

[Googer]

Installed the monitor's INF file into Windows?

Yep, with both windows open. The Control panel said "GDM-FW900" while at the same time CCC would report "Default Monitor" and send only a 640*480 signal through the cable but a virtual 1920*1200 desktop was rendered in a "scrolling window". It's Kind of like looking at a 5 megapixel image on an SVGA display. It's all there but you can only look at a small corner of it at a time.




I even switched over to a medium quality 15pin vga cable to see if I could get the card to detect the monitor info and that didn't resolve anything.

INF Files here and can also be found on your WINDOWS XP CD. The ones from sony have a newer date so those are what I used. But I did try the MS version with no results.

Sony Monitor Page:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=GDMFW900

Sony Downloads for the GDM-FW900:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=GDMFW900

 

[Digital Man]

Did you ever get this fixed? My Radeon X1950 and Sony GDM-FW900 just started doing this about a week, or two, ago and it's driving me nuts. It's a lot like your issue, where the Windows Display Manager can see that it's the Sony monitor and the ATI CCC shows "default" monitor, but with mine it still allows me to use the same res I was at, it just acts really odd when switching refresh rates. It really only shows three, which is odd, but when I switch between them, nothing really happens. Going from 60hz to 85hz doesn't seem to make any difference.

I don't know what could have happened. As I have an old AGP card, I haven't updated drivers in a long while(since ATI cut support) so I doubt that's the issue. I've tried uninstalling the monitor, the ATI drivers, CCC, I've gone back to previous versions of the ATI drivers and CCC, etc.

DM

 

[Googer]

Did you ever get this fixed? My Radeon X1950 and Sony GDM-FW900 just started doing this about a week, or two, ago and it's driving me nuts. It's a lot like your issue, where the Windows Display Manager can see that it's the Sony monitor and the ATI CCC shows "default" monitor, but with mine it still allows me to use the same res I was at, it just acts really odd when switching refresh rates. It really only shows three, which is odd, but when I switch between them, nothing really happens. Going from 60hz to 85hz doesn't seem to make any difference.

I don't know what could have happened. As I have an old AGP card, I haven't updated drivers in a long while(since ATI cut support) so I doubt that's the issue. I've tried uninstalling the monitor, the ATI drivers, CCC, I've gone back to previous versions of the ATI drivers and CCC, etc.

DM

I also noticed everything was fine in safemode and vga (safe) mode at 1600*1200

Are you using BNC or the VGA input? Using the VGA allows for CCC to autodetect your monitor, BNC does not.

I'd suggest removing all ATi software except the driver. Let windows manage the resolutions. I gave up before trying this and went back to an older and Slower 7800GS and all is well again. I no longer own an ATi card.

Second Suggestion: Since you have an older ATi Card, chances are the actual driver file inside these unified driver downloads hasn't been updated for a few years. I'd suggest finding an older version with out the crummy CCC. Perhaps a pre-amd driver might work well for you.

On the main AMD homepage they no longer list drivers for AGP. But you can still find them at: game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

 

[Digital Man]

I haven't tried Safe Mode yet, but that was my next stop.

I'm using the VGA input.

I've tried removing the drivers, and leaving the CCC(why, I don't know) and it does the exact same thing.

The thing with older drivers is that the one I'm using is already older. The latest drivers for AGP cards is 10-2(Catalyst 10.2). It's been there for a while, with ATI making smaller changes inside that package(but not changing the number).

AGP drivers are still on the site, you just get to them via the same method you'd use to get to any other set of drivers. Now, the newer AGP cards(like the 2400 and higher) may require you to go to whoever made the card to get those drivers, but for my card they are still available at ATI.

What kills me is that I have no idea what happened. I haven't updated the video drivers in a while, I haven't messed any of the monitor drivers. It makes me wonder if I accidentally grabbed something off Windows Update as they will, sometimes, try to push older drivers off on people with cards like mine(a buddy of mine has an older Nvidia and WU offers him these old-ass drivers every time he runs it).

I will keep messing with it, see what I can come up with and will post the results.

DM

 

[Googer]

I haven't tried Safe Mode yet, but that was my next stop.

I'm using the VGA input.

I've tried removing the drivers, and leaving the CCC(why, I don't know) and it does the exact same thing.

The thing with older drivers is that the one I'm using is already older. The latest drivers for AGP cards is 10-2(Catalyst 10.2). It's been there for a while, with ATI making smaller changes inside that package(but not changing the number).

AGP drivers are still on the site, you just get to them via the same method you'd use to get to any other set of drivers. Now, the newer AGP cards(like the 2400 and higher) may require you to go to whoever made the card to get those drivers, but for my card they are still available at ATI.

What kills me is that I have no idea what happened. I haven't updated the video drivers in a while, I haven't messed any of the monitor drivers. It makes me wonder if I accidentally grabbed something off Windows Update as they will, sometimes, try to push older drivers off on people with cards like mine(a buddy of mine has an older Nvidia and WU offers him these old-ass drivers every time he runs it).

I will keep messing with it, see what I can come up with and will post the results.

DM

Leaving the catalyst control center intact while removing the driver is the opposite of what you want. It appears that CCC is the problem. CCC is used to adjust your anti-aliasing settings and the like. Leave the driver installed and use the Windows Display Properties to adjust your resolution. Then use your application to adjust the AA.

Save mode and VGA mode are about the same thing. Except VGA mode is safe mode with higher resolution. USE VGA mode when troubleshooting most video issues.

(I gave up on this, because I wanted a refund before it was too late)

 

[tweakboy]

Weird, Ive never had a problem with my old x800 then with my current rig. I would think clean uninstall of drivers from safe mode then driver sweeper then reboot,, then install latest WHQL and reboot and install mon driver. Let us know what happens..

 

[Digital Man]

You won't believe this: I found what the issue was.

Somehow, on my KVM switch, someone had loosened the VGA cable to that point where it was just barely making a connection. This is exactly why I screw that stuff in, and tight. I don't know who would have done it, but I suspect the wife. Anyway, now that's it's tightened the ATI CCC sees the monitor for what it is, as does the Windows Display Manager(basically everything is back to normal). Thank God, it would have killed me to have that monitor die.

DM