Trying to Understand my 17" LCD monitor ...

[AnalogOldguy]

Hello fellow Trainzers,

I recently bought my first ever LCD monitor. I'm extremely happy with it even though it was used. It still has nice sharpness, brightness and contrast, and great colors. It is a Samsung SyncMaster 710n, which is a 17" monitor.

Now, this monitor is supposed to have a native resolution of 1280x1024. I am running it in 1024x768, which is the perfect resolution for running Trainz and web surfing using my current old AGP X800 XT graphics card. (the Catalyst setup I believe is 7.7) and has served me well for years.

Now, I must say that I don't have drivers installed for this new monitor. (don't have a disc for it). Every time I set it for 1280x1024, (using the ATI Catalyst) (whether for desktop or 3d graphics), the picture is to big and must be scrolled an inch or so each way to see it all.

I would like to find out the characteristics of these LCD monitors, do they need drivers installed in order for 1280x1024 to appear properly? Thanks for any help.

Bob P.

 

[mezzoprezzo]

Have you tried to Google your monitor model number followed by, “user manual”?

I got 297,000 of them!

Several sites seem to have a downloadable .pdf file which, hopefully, should give you the answer you’re looking for.

 

[fran1]

Look to the top right of the screen (not on here though) you'll see a + and a -. If it's to large use the - to reduce the screen size.

 

[AnalogOldguy]

Hello back to you fellows! I went to a site for downloading the manual and started it, but on dial-up the waiting time was 22 minutes, so decided against that. Perhaps I will do it at my local public library ..

I went and did a little more Googling (believe me, I have spent many hours trying to find the secret to this. So I came across a site which for the first time gave me an idea. 60mhz was mentioned...http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88724.0 (but I had never gotten a message about "not the optimum mode"). I went into my Catalyst Control Center and saw that the refresh rate was set at 70 for my old CRT monitor.

I set it to down to 60 and changed the screen sizes to 1280x1024 and behold, it fit the screen properly, including with Trainz (except that TRS2004 does not have a choice for 1280x1024).

So thanks for your replies fellows! Robert P.