WindowsXP and Cinema HD Display 23"

[peteag]

It's a torture. I've buyed the Apple Cinema HD Display 23" for my WindowsXP machine. In normale desktop-mode it works just fine but when I boot my machine, I don't see anything. It seems to doesn't support resolutions of 640x400? And:

- When I connect my normal monitor (19") to the graphics-card and my cinema display too, the nvidia driver detects my new display, as right, as the cinema hd display. But when I conncet just it, it is just a plug-and-play monitor with no support for other resolutions like 640x400, 1024x640, 1280x800 etc.

Is there any driver for it???

[Doom9]

basically, you should not require drivers for new displays.. using the plug&play architecture, the display should report all resolutions it's capable off.

I have a 23" widescreen TFT myself, that reports the resolutions just fine (but missed out on other supported 16:10 resolutions.. but HL2 has no problem switching to those).

As far as the booting phase goes, you don't have any drivers there anyway. So if the display doesn't cut it, you're out of luck. It turns out my ATI card doesn't like the DVI output and so when I install Windows (the non graphical part), I have to connect my display via analogue cable, then as soon as Windows goes graphic, the DVI input can be used. NVidia based cards don't have that problem with my display.

How about adding additional resolutions in the NVidia driver? I know you can do that.

[peteag]

Holy thank for your request, this helped me someway!

I read an article here (http://www.gubbe.ch/linux/dev-cinema23.php) and I was wondering because of:

- I have nearly the same graphics card geforce fx 5600xt
the guy said that there is any boot-screen visible but now at me. I just see anything on windows-startup. Or is it just normal for dvi?
Is there any way to set that the only output has to be DVI?

Yesterday night I've installed a new fresh xp and what was that? On the first startup I saw a picture on my new display - 640x480 or something equivalent (but not 800x600). I have no move the mouse for seeing anything (picture gots panned when reaching the corners with the mouse). It used a standard driver for displays and was simultausly with my vga monitor. After installing the newest nvidia-driver I didn't see anything of that resolution anyway. Curious is even: In the display-driver settings of nvidia it is called the cinema hd display (only when vga-monitor is connected, too) but otherwise it's just a plug and play monitor.

Another problem: When playing WMVHD or any other highres content in fullscreen the picture is realy noisy and semms to explode! I've tested some way's in the wmp10 so this is not the displays fault. It seems to be the graphics card. So I took out the use overlay in wmp10 and the video looked better but there's a diagonal line right trough the middle of the video. When switching to the hight quality mode the video looks beautiful - BUT to bright. Even the high-quality mode looks good, but the video stocks.

Oh dear.

What's the name of this cable: VGAtoDVI Adapter?

[Doom9]

hehe.. that guy has the exact same ATI card as I. It might even be that if he can connect the display via anlogue, things would work (but then again I have no clue if the Apple display also has an analogue input). I also had a TI4600 card (once again exact same make and model.. weird, isn't it?) and things would be fine on that card. The GF5700 (are you sure there's such a thing as the 5600? I can't remember that chipset model) would only go up to 1600x1200 so I had to exchange that for my ATI card.

Your DVI to ADC adapter (I presume you have one reading that page you linked), is it full fledged, so do you get DVI-D output or DVI-I? If it's the former, there are adapters that extract the analogue signal from a DVI-D (DVI-D has both signals.. the digital one and the analogue one.. imho it's the only connector that should be used on GFX cards and monitors as it fits both worlds perfectly) and connect it to your screen (but once again I'm not sure what kind of input it has)

I doubt you can force your GFX card to only use one output.. that would have to be done in the GFX Card bios and you don't have access to that. Normally the card checks which connector is used and sends the signal there.

[peteag]

Yes, my model is a 5600xt. I don't know if this model realy supports resolutions up to 1920x1200 because of my video-problems in fullscreen. Would a GF6 solve such problems?

ADC? Why this? ADC, is this the older connection of the older versions of the display? I mustn't connect ADC to DVI because my display-to-pc-input is just DVI (no idea of which one I or D). So there must be a cable which adapts VGA to DVI.

No access to my card in bios. Hm! Not good. Because I even have to conncet my old monitor to vga if I want to see any bootscreen. And my card doesn't check the dvi-output because I don't see anything. Just on windows-startup. It's realy no fault of the display? Isn't there any program to write anything to the card so the dvi-output works correctly on booting - even when I deinstall it?

Oh god, sometimes I hate technics ... ;-)

[peteag]

I've found some solutions at the time: I've deinstalled nvidias forceware driver 67.93 and installed microsofts own driver (from windows-update) and something more works great. I can set all resolutions from 800x600 up to 1920x1200 and the driver works just perfect and stable.

Now, there is just one problem left: bootscreen-text over dvi at startup! How to do????

My machine:
Pentium 4 HT 2.80GHz
512 DDR-Ram
GeForce FX 5600SE Card

Please help!

P.S.: Beta-drivers from nVidia didn't help, too. Sorry for me being wrong with my definition of the card (5600xt <- wrong)

[Doom9]

I'm not sure if somebody makes a VGA to DVI adapter.. it would be quite involved I guess because you actually need an A/D adapter. But, doesn't Apple's ADC input (does your display have one or just a DVI?) support analogue as well? If so, I think you're more likely to find a VGA to ADC adapter. Though obviously I cannot guarantee that this will work for you. And the thing is that during boot-up, the resolution is 640x480. But, you were able to install windows so that means you can get a picture at 640x480.. so what exactly don't you get to see? I mean, if DOS boots for a Windows installation, it means the display can handle that mode, so couldn't it be that you don't get to see the BIOS messages because the display is too slow to switch to that mode (I noticed on many TFT displays that unlike analogue displays, it takes a while until you get to see a picture from the PC booting up). What happens if you press Del to enter the BIOS when you start your PC, and then just wait a couple of seconds? Do you get a picture then?

Or, did you install Windows using your old display? Please note that if you connect both analogue and digital output on the GFX card, you're more than likely to only get a picture on the VGA output. This has happened to me for all my GFX cards that had dual output. And, if I booted with the VGA cable connected, I'd never get a picture on the DVI and had to reboot with the VGA capble disconnected.

[peteag]

I was recently in a technical-store near me and bought an vga/dvi-adapter for analoge use - and what's happen? nothing! You're right. If I would, I have to bought a A/D adapter for this. But I won't. It's just some boot screen I want to see and some Windows installation - it's important for me, but not >50€ important. Isn't there any other way?

My display just handles DVI-D. It's single-link. Now I've found out what's the differences. It looks just like this:

http://www.cs1.net/img/Gefen_DVI-D_single_link_connector_pins_600.jpg

For me it's important to see what's happen on the screen when I boot it, so if there are any mistakes or issues I don't want to conncet another monitor to it - I wanna find an easy way to see my boot-screen of this dammned display! After I've found the right driver last night I claim that the display can handle all these resolutions, even 640x400. The problem is, the dvi-driver is loaded when booting is finished ;-)
So how to turn it on when booting. That's the problem. And I've seen, that I can't install xp right from booting because I don't see anything.

And at the moment there is no other monitor connected to the vga or even other outputs - just this. Under windows it works just okay (except the silly overlay-problems when watching videos in fullscreen) but I cannot see any boot-text.

[Doom9]

an vga/dvi-adapter for analoge useThat's what extracts the VGA part from a DVI-D signal. If you do a search on my username and dual link DVI you'll find a link to the official DVI site that gives a detailed explanation of the different DVI types.

And I've seen, that I can't install xp right from booting because I don't see anything.So how did you install Windows if you can't see anything in DOS mode?

[peteag]

I've installed it with my old monitor! For now my windows just works fine and I don't need to reinstall it - but maybe some time. What's then? In a few days the monitor is selled and then I don't have any way to see my bootscreen. And I just don't want to keep the monitor because I just want to find a solution for that problem. I considered to update my bios but it's to risk for me.
And for my overlay-problems when watching movies in fullscreen??? Maybe a driver-bug.

[Doom9]

And for my overlay-problems when watching movies in fullscreen??? Maybe a driver-bug.
Looks like you've removed it from your first post. The GF5700 I've had for a few days in my new computer exhibited overlay problems in fullscreen mode as well (beside not supporting the 16:10 resolution) .. it went back to the shop and I got another model. It seems I'm far from being the only one with that problem.. perhaps the 5600, being a close cousin to the 5700 has the same problems.

Does your screen have a VGA input, or an ADC input for which you could get a VGA to ADC adapter?

[peteag]

Just a vga-connection for using with a crt-monitor (regular today) and dvi-connection. Nothing else. ADC isn't supported by this card. Em, what I wanted to say: Maybe some users reported their problems with the boot screen were solved because they used the older version of the display because it supported analoge and digital dvi signals. And in my opinion the boot screen and anything before windows-startup is an analog signal - just after that dvi is rocking! pity!

When I hear GFX5xxx I hear overlay problems, even in 4:3 mode of my old crt. Does this problem only happen on GFX5xxx? What about a GF6600 GT with fully purevideo (WMV hardware decoding) support. Did you test it? I hope the overlay problems are solved by this card - so I would buy it.

But back to my main problem: Very pity for not seeing any boot-text. But there must be a way to send out the boot-process over dvi-d ...

[Doom9]

Just a vga-connection for using with a crt-monitor (regular today) and dvi-connection. Uhh.. I asked if your screen (the 23" apple) has another input than the DVI ;) Now I checked the specs and the answer is no. Interestingly enough, the tech specs only mention 3 supported resolutions.

I don't have a 6600GT.. it wasn't out when I got my last PC. But google is your friend, I found about the overlay issues with my 5700 card on google.

Maybe some users reported their problems with the boot screen were solved because they used the older version of the display because it supported analoge and digital dvi signals. And in my opinion the boot screen and anything before windows-startup is an analog signal - just after that dvi is rocking! pity!This is absolutely incorrect. You do not need a driver for VGA resolution (640x480) output.. every card is still compatible to the VGA standard meaning you can display a 640x480 picture without requiring a driver. Now if you want hardware acceleration and higher resolutions, that's another thing. Where do you think a driver would come from when you're in the BIOS screen? You can access that even without having an operating system installed after all ;)

You know what, get another flatscreen (just loan one from a friend) and check if it displays the boot process via DVI. If so, your display is to be blamed (at least partially, perhaps it's a display/card combo problem), if not, the card is to be fully blamed.