Unofficial Dell 2405FPW FAQ / INFO page 2405

[goodstuff]

Yes, the 2405 comes with a DVI & VGA cable. My DVD is all wrppaed and tucked but it was about 5-6 feet long.

Originally posted by: L00PY

Originally posted by: goodstuff
For some reason I can't get the aspect ratio controls for smaller resolution to become available in the Image Settings menu. I'd like to play non-widescreen games without them being automatically stretched to fill the screen, but i can't seem to find a way to do this?

Assuming you're using DVI, it's because Fill/Aspect/1:1 (like most IQ settings) are set on the computer. The option to use a centered image (1:1) is available in the latest version of the Cats. I assume there's one for the Dets.

Yep, I see that now. My 5200's DVI port was dead so I couldn't test it. My new 6800 has the Scaling controls in the software and it works great. God, this monitor scales games unbelievably! Almost like native resolution! Or is that the 6800 doing that? Either way I'm a happy camper

 

[Ackmed]

For many, many more pics of the 2405FPW compared to the 2005FPW, check here to see mine.

 

[darkswordsman17]

:thumbsup:

I know there have been many people to find that helpful, Ackmed.

 

[Ackmed]

I hate to link it, but there is no way Im going to format all those pics for this forum...

 

[hubelau]

My new 2405FPW arrived today and its beautiful.
My only frustration is that my video card's DVI wont go high enough or support wide resolutions. So I'm stuck with VGA which the refresh rate for is horrible.

Recommendations on a new video card to drive this baby in DVI? (mostly i read documents and write code, very little gaming)

 

[sirfergy]

What video card do you have?

 

[hubelau]

Currently I have a GeForce FX5200. And i couldnt get it to do 1920X1200 in DVI, so i had to swap over to VGA for now.

 

[sirfergy]

There should be an option to use lower DVI frequency. I'm running DVI on an old geforce4mx.

 

[hubelau]

I tried going back to DVI and setting the resolution to 1920X1200 at 52Hz, which works. But it scrolls the desktop left to right, not showing you all of it at once. It does this for any of the widescreen resolutions.

 

[sirfergy]

That's the virtual desktop functionality. I'm actually using the microsoft nvidia drivers since they support 1920x1200 without any setting changes.

 

[hubelau]

so i swapped over to the microsoft driver (5.6.7.3 dated 4/7/04) but it doesnt have any of the widescreen resolutions as options even.

Am i doing something wrong? i couldnt seem to find a newer version of that driver. am i missing something?

 

[sirfergy]

Where did you find the MS driver? Did you install the 2405FPW driver from Dell?

 

[Ronin]

I've got 3 coming in, and will be hooking them up to my Parhelia (and using the center one as a main for 3 other computers).

I'll take pics when they arrive.

 

[sirfergy]

I thought the parhelia could only do 1280x1024 for triple head?

 

[hubelau]

ok. So first i had the nvidia driver installed... but i the screen scrolled
then i did an update driver and it showed a microsoft option, so i installed that one... which doesnt have 1920 as an option
then i uninstalled the driver completely
now it cant even FIND a driver that it says is appropriate to install,a nd i cant seem to find the microsoft driver either.

can anyone point me to a driver that would work?? (i have the nvidia one, but again, it scrolls the screen left right)

 

[Ronin]

Depends on which Parhelia you have. The 128MB version was limited due to VRAM. I'm using the 256MB version (but only triple head..I haven't gotten the quad head yet).

I've been able to do 1920x1200 on 3 21" CRTs, so I'm fairly confident that I won't have a problem with the LCDs.

 

[Bmott]

Anyone have any more reviews that i can add?

 

[Bmott]

Another Question anyone having problems gaming at 1920x1200. I tried playing half life 2 at that resolution and it was just too big for how close it is to me. I wasn't performing as well online compared to my 2001FP since i had to look left and right, i ended up getting killed a lot.

 

[sirfergy]

I am arms length away from my monitor.

 

[L00PY]

For those of you concerned about the size of the base or how high the stand is or have any mounting questions, keep in mind that it uses a VESA standard mounting system. This means that it's pretty easy to swap in a LCD arm or even wall mount it. I have mine on an Ergotron arm that's clamped to my entertainment system right now.

 

[hubelau]

this driver issue has driven me nuts. I've been unable to locate a WinXP Pro driver for the GeForce FX5200 that will properly give me the wide aspect resolutions in DVI. So for now everything is stretched wide *yuck*
I guess i'm just going to have to cave and buy a new video card to fully enjoy this new monitor i have here

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: hubelau
this driver issue has driven me nuts. I've been unable to locate a WinXP Pro driver for the GeForce FX5200 that will properly give me the wide aspect resolutions in DVI. So for now everything is stretched wide *yuck*
I guess i'm just going to have to cave and buy a new video card to fully enjoy this new monitor i have here

Have you tried setting custom resolutions with PowerStrip?

 

[hubelau]

I just installed PowerString and started working with it. Does anyone have a set of custom settings for powerstrip that work with this monitor??
i still cant seem to get it to properly display 1920X1200 without scrolling right to left

 

[fenderbender001]

Originally posted by: goodstuff
For some reason I can't get the aspect ratio controls for smaller resolution to become available in the Image Settings menu. I'd like to play non-widescreen games without them being automatically stretched to fill the screen, but i can't seem to find a way to do this?

I just got my 2405 yesterday. I found that I could only get the aspect ratio setting available on the monitor's OSD when I was using one of the monitor's preset display modes, like 1600x1200 or 1280x1024 for example. If I used a resoluton that wasn't one of the preset modes, like 1280x960 or 1360x768, the monitor scaled the image to fit the screen, and the aspect ratio setting was greyed out.

When not in native resolution, or in 1:1 scale, there is a sizable drop in visual quality. For the desktop, it's ok, but for a detailed game like The Sims 2, the loss in detail was a shock. You would never play a game that looked that bad on a monitor that costs this much. At 1600x1200 and 1:1 scale, TS2 looks awesome, but the in-game text and control panel is very small - a trade off I guess. UT2004 looks phenomenal at 1920x1200, and I got playable frame rates (for me). I've forgotten what I had AA and AF set to when I was playing last night. And UT2004 scales the HUD/text up at higher resolutions, which is great.

I wasn't aware there was a 1:1/center setting in the latest Catalyst drivers as mentioned earlier. I'll look for that tonight when I get home. But I am a bit disappointed in the lack of resolution flexibility with this monitor. I expected (naively) that 1:1 scale would work with more resolutions. But I can live with it's limitations. For web surfing/email/etc, the widescreen is great, and UT2004 was quite immersive but certainly not too big for me. My previous monitor was a 20" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060U, that had about the same height screen, but obviously was not as wide. I haven't tried any other games on the 2405 yet.

Specs: Athlon64 3800+, 1 GB RAM, and a Radeon X800 Pro using Dell's DVI-D cable.

 

[Cheesetogo]

DOes anyone have a picture of the inputs on the bottom of the screen? I've seen them before, but when I searched I couldn't find them.