Problems with resolution, etc ..

[aislephive]

For the past month I've been using my 22" Westinghouse LCD monitor which was hooked up to my laptop. On it I could place 4 FTP tables with zero overlap whatsoever on 1680x1050 resolution. Today, I purchased a 20.1" Westinghouse LCD monitor and also a video card to support a dual monitor setup. I also hooked it all up to my Compaq Presario 6000 desktop computer.

Anyways, I got it all setup, but on my original 22" monitor now there is a little bit of overlap (top to bottom, not side to side). The resolution is still the same, what could be the deal? Possibly the video card? Any way to fix it?

Also, on my new 20.1" monitor the max resolution is 1400x1050, making me a complete idiot for buying it. Anyways, I might just make do with it. I see that under Properties < Settings < Advanced < Monitor there is a box I can uncheck that is labeled "Hide Modes that this monitor cannot display" and gives me a warning that it could damage the monitor and display incorrectly etc. If you uncheck that box you can then select the Adapter tab to the immediate left and select different screen resolutions that you didn't have access to before. For fear of ruining the monitor, I haven't tried it. I was wondering if anybody else has messed with trying to increase their resolution like this and what their results were. Is it too risky / stupid to consider?

Thanks in advance.

[SamIAm]

I don't think it'll do anything bad; it'll just look awful, trying to display 3 pixels in every 2 pixels.
-Sam

NOTE: I HAVE NO ACTUAL KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THIS.

[Dave I]

Actually, I believe you just will not get any display at all and Windows will revert back to the default.

[CORed]

Most likely it just won't work. The warning about damaging the monitor applies primarily to older CRT's. With some old CRT monitors, you could actually fry them by setting resolutions that they weren't designed for. With LCD's and most CRT's made in the last 5 years or so, they will either go black or display an "out of ramge" graphic if you try to use settings they don't support. Then the display will revert back to the prevuious setting because you didn't click the "yes" button on the dialog box asking if it's working.

[BiPolar_Nut]

I have a samsung 17" lcd/tv that I've run resolutions well beyond what the claimed "maximum" is. If I push too far, it just goes blank. I believe there is little danger in damagine a modern monitor by pushing too hot of a signal to it. Any modern monitor worth a flip will just go blank and/or display a "signal out of rabge" error if/when you pump it up too high.

10-15 years ago it was possible to explode monitors and/or vid cards by tweaking X config files on 'nix boxes...but I'd be *very* shocked, astonished, and other redundancies if a new monitor was damaged by selecting too hot of a setting (res and/or refresh rate too high). I'd say try it....and if/when it "doesn't do anything" just wait til windows times out it's 15 second "keep these settings" dialogue and reverts back to what you can see.

[BiPolar_Nut]

oops, basically the same thing CORed said...anyway, agreed.