Refresh rate problem A7N8X & all Radeons

  • Thread starter Thread starter Judge
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Judge

I just tried two Radeons (9200 & 9600 Pro) in two different
motherboards (MSI KT3 Ultra and Asus A7N8X) and had the same problem -

refresh rate is locked at 60hz in Windows enviroment.

I've heard of this problem in games, but never in desktop level. It
seems it's the monitor sensing that's the problem - the ATI stuff wont
see the Viewsonic P-815. Even if I hard install the driver, it doesnt
do any good.

I tried a newer monitor and it works fine.. but that's not an option.

Besides Powerstrip, is there any fixes for this? Has anyone else had
this problem?
 
I just tried two Radeons (9200 & 9600 Pro) in two different
motherboards (MSI KT3 Ultra and Asus A7N8X) and had the same problem -

refresh rate is locked at 60hz in Windows enviroment.

I've heard of this problem in games, but never in desktop level. It
seems it's the monitor sensing that's the problem - the ATI stuff wont
see the Viewsonic P-815. Even if I hard install the driver, it doesnt
do any good.

I tried a newer monitor and it works fine.. but that's not an option.

Besides Powerstrip, is there any fixes for this? Has anyone else had
this problem?
Click to expand...

Try on here,
alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati

HTH :)



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I just tried two Radeons (9200 & 9600 Pro) in two different
motherboards (MSI KT3 Ultra and Asus A7N8X) and had the same problem -

refresh rate is locked at 60hz in Windows enviroment.

I've heard of this problem in games, but never in desktop level. It
seems it's the monitor sensing that's the problem - the ATI stuff wont
see the Viewsonic P-815. Even if I hard install the driver, it doesnt
do any good.

I tried a newer monitor and it works fine.. but that's not an option.

Besides Powerstrip, is there any fixes for this? Has anyone else had
this problem?
Click to expand...

Usually there is a graphics engine driver setting that ignores whatever
Windows believes is the max refresh rate for the monitor. And if Windows can't
determine what kind of monitor you're using, it defaults to a maximum refresh
frequency of 60hz. Which is where you are now.

Once you've toggled that setting, you can then go change the refresh rate for
the graphics engine and Windows will give it a 15 second try before coming
back to the original, working refresh rate, to ask if you want to keep the new
setting or not.

Which is a good thing, as you'll likely be experimenting with the rate and may
easily exceed the maximum refresh frequency of the monitor.

Having many older, non-DCI monitors around, I've come to find that switch
often ;-)

/daytripper
 
Agreed - but the only info I can find on getting to that switch, is in
the displays > monitor setting within the ati control panel - and
because it's not seeing it (the monitor) it's of course greyed out.
So, it's a catch 22 from that angle. Do you have any other backdoors
into that switch?

(I suddenly feel like I'm talking to the keymaker lol)
 
I thought of that first, but didnt know that group existed. My carrier
(giganews) doesnt carry that one.. I guess I better put in a request!
 
Agreed - but the only info I can find on getting to that switch, is in
the displays > monitor setting within the ati control panel - and
because it's not seeing it (the monitor) it's of course greyed out.
So, it's a catch 22 from that angle. Do you have any other backdoors
into that switch?

(I suddenly feel like I'm talking to the keymaker lol)
Click to expand...


Ah - a Megamonitor, circa Q2 1999.
That explains why you're dealing with this ;-)

Have you tried installing Viewsonic's PnP drivers yet?
http://www.viewsonic.com/drivers/vs_winxp.exe

If that doesn't work....I haven't had an ATI graphics widget for years now, so
I don't have any first-hand insight into their driver/configuration. I don't
know any magic incantations offhand, but I'd start looking for an .ini file
(or the moral equivalent thereof) and hope it was legible enough to hardwire
the appropriate monitor data...

/daytripper
 
Did you try the "ADAPTER" tab ? It appears to be the regular Windows tab
stuck into the ATI Properties window. If that wont work and the PNP
drivers as suggested by day tripper dont help, there are some registry
tweak the may help out. I have an old Gateway monitor that give me a
simular problem when I try to do 800x600.
 
daytripper said:
Ah - a Megamonitor, circa Q2 1999.
That explains why you're dealing with this ;-)

Have you tried installing Viewsonic's PnP drivers yet?
http://www.viewsonic.com/drivers/vs_winxp.exe

If that doesn't work....I haven't had an ATI graphics widget for years now, so
I don't have any first-hand insight into their driver/configuration. I don't
know any magic incantations offhand, but I'd start looking for an .ini file
(or the moral equivalent thereof) and hope it was legible enough to hardwire
the appropriate monitor data...

/daytripper
Click to expand...

In windows 9x, you need regedit to enable other refresh rates if you use
Catalyst drivers (warning, somewhere around 3.1 or 3.2 this does not
work, but older and newer drivers accept that setting). Search for
"IDCRegOptionDontUseOSMonitorInfo" (if you have multiple entries, make
sure you change the right one - if in doubt change all), it will be set
to 00 00 00 00, change to 00 00 00 01). Additionally, you will need to
install the monitor .inf drivers.
In W2k/WXP this should not be necessary, you should be able to just
switch off DDC somewhere in the control panel (though for some people
the driver tab is not accessible, not sure what causes this, maybe
reinstalling of monitor .inf file or driver could help). settings ->
advanced -> displays, click the monitor and you should be able to
disable DDC and manually entering the highest supported
resolution/refresh rate.

Roland
 
Judge said:
I thought of that first, but didnt know that group existed. My carrier
(giganews) doesnt carry that one.. I guess I better put in a request!
Click to expand...

I use giganews and I have that group!
 
Judge said:
I just tried two Radeons (9200 & 9600 Pro) in two different
motherboards (MSI KT3 Ultra and Asus A7N8X) and had the same problem -

refresh rate is locked at 60hz in Windows enviroment.

I've heard of this problem in games, but never in desktop level. It
seems it's the monitor sensing that's the problem - the ATI stuff wont
see the Viewsonic P-815. Even if I hard install the driver, it doesnt
do any good.

I tried a newer monitor and it works fine.. but that's not an option.

Besides Powerstrip, is there any fixes for this? Has anyone else had
this problem?
Click to expand...

Have you tried this... Go into Display Properties, click Advanced
button, select Attributes tab, uncheck the Use DDC information button,
set the max resolution and max refresh rate. Go back to the Monitor
tab and see if you can now set the refresh rate you want. On my ATI
cards, this allows me to pick just about any refresh rate, and it also
makes Windows use it. Otherwise, I pick a refresh rate other than 60
Hz and Windows just uses 60 Hz anyway.

Frank
 
Thanks, I'll DL that and give it a go, but I doubt it will fix the
problem. I can load the monitor inf, and windows 'sees' it but the ATI
cards will not. If I connect another monitor (an optiquest Q41 for
this example) it works fine - Windows auto-sees it and the ATI control
panel shows it as connected on the displays tab.

As you can imagine - it's hard to give up the 21" megamonitor for the
14" cheapo!

And for the record, I got this monitor (The P815) in 1997 I think, a
refurb from tigerdirect.com for about $800. New was $1300 back then..
it's been a GREAT monitor with no signs of decay whatsoever. (as
opposed to my Sony 17" that looks like it's candle was blown out lol)

Judge
 
Let this be a lesson to myself as well as anyone else - Agent doesnt
always get ALL the new groups when you do a new groups scan. You have
to repopulate occassionally. I did that and found 37,000 groups I was
missing, including the ATI one!
 
Actually that was the first thing I tried as per Omega's site (a great
resource and drivers for both ATI and Nvidia). But, since the card
wont see my monitor, it says 'not connected' in the displays window.
So no, I can NOT get to the DCC info button. You'd be amazed at how
many people have copied and pasted this answer to me though!
 
Actually that was the first thing I tried as per Omega's site (a great
resource and drivers for both ATI and Nvidia). But, since the card
wont see my monitor, it says 'not connected' in the displays window.
So no, I can NOT get to the DCC info button. You'd be amazed at how
many people have copied and pasted this answer to me though!
Click to expand...
Did you try the refresh over-ride in the DX diagnostic panel?
go to Run, type dxdiag, enter. Under More Help, Override, enter the value
that you want. Apologies, if this has been suggested before.
 
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