Further screen resolution question

[The Mole]

I am trying to set my laptop to the screen resolution 1600 X 1200 i have found out the the screen with my laptop can support upto this.

However i can't get any options to set the resolution bigger than 1200 x 800 but i know my laptop monitor can support bigger. Is it my graphics card (ati radeon x1300) proventing me from displaying bigger resolutions or do you think it is just me not having the laptop configured correctly.

I installed powerstrip on the advice of another forum member and again that says i can display a resolution of upto 1600 x 1200 but i do not know about how to set it up and looking on the powerstrip forum but to no joy and the admin knows limited English

[VR46]

Sounds like it's the graphics card holding you back, but then why build in a monitor of that spec if it can't be used fully ?

[briareos_kerensky]

First, are you really sure that the monitor can support that resolution? LCD screens have a native resolution, which is usually the maximum resolution they can display. They can go lower, but not higher.
The graphic card should be connected to the monitor via an embedded DVI link, so the monitor itself is providing the GPU and its drivers with the maximum resolution, and it can be further enforced by modified .INF files done by the laptop manufacturer.
You can try to download universal drivers from AMD's website or to install Powerstrip or Ati Tray Tools to force a custom resolution, but you have to be really sure that the monitor can support an higher resolution than its native matrix, warranty won't cover such damages.

[The Mole]

I am trying to locate a new driver for my graphics card (ATI Radeon X1300) Acer (my laptop maker) do not have any downloads and ATI will not let me download from their website pointing me to Acer oh what a tangled web i weave.

[EvilBoris]

What model of laptop is it?

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

The drivers are here under mobility Radeon

[smouty]

The card will support higher resolutions but not on the laptop screen
The higher resolutions are only for external monitors which if your laptop screen is set @ 1280x800 which is a widescreen resolution (16:10) it is unlikely to support 1600x1200 which is regular 4:3.

[elkatas]

What model of laptop is it?

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

The drivers are here under mobility Radeon

You can't install ATI's own Mobility Radeon drivers into Acer laptop. Acer has its own, specialized Mobility Radeon drivers that are ****ing horrible, and bog performance down. I was wrestling with this problem about month ago, when I promised to set my little brother's friends Acer laptop up.

I am trying to locate a new driver for my graphics card (ATI Radeon X1300) Acer (my laptop maker) do not have any downloads and ATI will not let me download from their website pointing me to Acer

Download Omega's unofficial drivers from link below:

XP drivers
Microsoft Framework 2.0 (you need to install this before Omega drivers)*

These drivers are for XP, but they also work with 32-bit Vista. No 64-bit Vista drivers so far. Omega Drivers are actually performance wise much better than official ones, and can be installed even on Acer laptops.

Hope this helps.

* I'm linking to Filefront because it can be little problematic getting these files out from Microsoft's own webpages.

[The Mole]

Cheers big help,

I have a few questions...

1) How do i know if i have 32bit or 64bit vista?

2) I assume from your reply i will be able to get my monitor to support 1600 x 1200 as i said i am quite sure its the graphics card that is stopping me from setting this display. The reason i think this is i installed powerstrip and under monitor settings it says i can go as high as 1600 x 1200

3) The link you gave me for the drivers leads me to omega drivers, i assume these are the same as radeon drivers, do i need to install a special one or will the one you linked to do me fine?

[elkatas]

Cheers big help,

I have a few questions...

1) How do i know if i have 32bit or 64bit vista?

2) I assume from your reply i will be able to get my monitor to support 1600 x 1200 as i said i am quite sure its the graphics card that is stopping me from setting this display. The reason i think this is i installed powerstrip and under monitor settings it says i can go as high as 1600 x 1200

3) The link you gave me for the drivers leads me to omega drivers, i assume these are the same as radeon drivers, do i need to install a special one or will the one you linked to do me fine?

1) I don't have any experience about Vista, so I can't unfortunately help you with this.

2) I'm not actually sure, but from what I understood, your laptop does currently run with ATI drivers that came with Vista's installation. These drivers always made so that they are compatible with so many different models as possible, at the expense of performance and various options*. Think them as a universal drivers that guarantee that at least something shows at the screen.

* Such as higher resolutions, gamma adjustment, etc.

3) Omega Drivers are unofficial (read: hacked) version of official ATI Radeon drivers. They just give little improvement on performance side, but otherwise they are pretty identical to ATI's own drivers. But like I said, they are unofficial, meaning that it isn't 99 percent guaranteed that they work with your laptop. You can Acer's own ATI drivers from link below (I don't know your model's number, so I can't give you direct link):

http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads.html

Good luck.

[sj33]

Cheers big help,

I have a few questions...

1) How do i know if i have 32bit or 64bit vista?

If you don't know, then it's probably 32-bit. All the manufacturer preinstalls I've seen have been 32-bit.

But it will tell you if you press Windows Key + Break/Pause.