DVI video port doesn't support same res as ADC port

battman · 04-02-2003, 08:12 PM

The DVI port on my nVidia GeForce4 MX video card refuses to support the same resolutions as the ADC port.
I've got a dual-867MHz, mirrored bay doors, running OS 10.2.4, and Viewsonics VP201m 20.1in LCD, which supports 1600x1200.
When plugged into the DVI port, I can only choose ONE resolution: 1280x1024, but if plugged into the ADC port through a DVI-ADC adapter, I can choose from 5 resolutions, including the 1600x1200.

I have TWO (identical) monitors, and so need both ports to support 1600x1200.
When I boot into OS 9.2.2, both monitors work at 1600x1200 @ millions-of-colors, so I know the card supports it! Why can't I get OS X to?

I've tried connecting just one monitor, changed ports, reduced #colors, reset PRAM (rebooting in between all these steps of course).
I've tried "SwitchRes X", to see other resolutions, but the DVI port will still only list 1280x1024.
I've looked for updated drivers from nVidia, but it appears that for OS X they have to be in the OS, and that's up to date.

HELP!

anthlover · 04-10-2003, 01:38 AM

LCD Panels being Digtal Devices vs. CRTs have only 1 True
Native Resolution that looks Sharp because it is a Native resoltuion.

When you put a Flat Panel Display at other resolutions the image is soft and often icky. If you use less Dots say Dropping from 1400x1200 to 1024x768 its soft but because everythign is bigger its not too horrible.... Can not go the other way, smaller then native.... for Same reason.

Anyway back to your ? and Answer. When you use a Digital Interface on a Digital Flat Panel Display I imagine it would limit you to only the Native Resoultion of the Display.

Not sure, as I had not heard of this limitation, but it makes logical sense. Perhaps other readers can further clarify.

PS. Under Sys Prefs General Controls there is an Option to Alter the OSX behavior of rendering text and such from Light, Medium, Standard and Heavy.. Check it out.

battman · 04-10-2003, 02:09 AM

Anthlover, both of my displays are digital (identical Viewsonics), and both DVI and ADC ports are digital, so there shouldn't be any difference. But the monitor plugged into the DVI port will only display 1280x1024. Since the native monitor resolution is 1600x1200, the 1280x1024 screen only fills part of the display, with a black frame. What a waste of good screen real-estate!

I've browsed some of the Plists in the System/Library folder, and there is one (can't remember now which one) that appears to have the current and allowable settings for monitors. But I'm really hesitant to start hacking into the system files, as Unix is completely unforgiving, and I can't afford any downtime (this is my work machine).

I hate to do it, but I'm considering purchasing a second video card just to get this problem solved. It makes me mad that Apple has basically left us high-and-dry with no technical support unless you want to pay for it. Maybe I'll just lug my whole desktop system down to an Apple store and make the Genius Bar figure it out!

Boy, I can't wait until OS X is mature and polished - like OS 9 finally was. :sigh:

anthlover · 04-10-2003, 10:16 PM

err Yeah but if the displays are identical you may have prooved my point sort of... As I had made a mistake

Did you try swapping connection movving which one has dvi and which has adc.... Does the problem move...

Also If memory serve me correct DVI and ADC are realtives....
DVI is Plain Jain Digital and ADC is Apple ADC with Intergrated power.

*************** Are you sure you have the option checked to show ALL resolutions ****************

********* NOt Just recommmended.
--------------------------------------------------------
P.S. I thought you had one Anallog connector and one Digital.

battman · 04-10-2003, 11:29 PM

No, both displays are Digital (identical). And as far as I know, the ADC is just a DVI with power and USB, which is why this is so frustrating...

Yes, I had tried swapping monitors to see if the problem followed, but the problem always stayed with the DVI port. Yes, I've tried to show other resolutions in the Monitor Prefs. Even SwitchRes X, which is supposed to show every option supported by the video card, only shows the ONE resolution.

And, again, I've been working in OS 9 with both displays at 1600x1200 (beautiful!), and then I lose that when I reboot into OS X.

anthlover · 04-11-2003, 12:55 AM

Is It Apple OEM, MAtrox Original version......

Did you Try Drivers for Card from Manufaturer?? or APPLE?

Just trying to help. Sorry I missed the OS9 part... Its the Drivers
for sure if it works under othr OS.

tlarkin · 04-11-2003, 12:38 PM

are you doing dual monitor display? or one at a time? if you are doing dual display on one mac i can see where one monitor may get higher resolutions than the other due to the nature of the chipset on the video card. if the video card was designed to limit one display and give the other higher resolution for perfomance issues or bottle necking or something of the sort. if you have access to an actual video card designed for dual head display it may work. if you are not using dual display disreguard this post

anthlover · 04-11-2003, 06:23 PM

Most of us are Guily of not Reading (including me**** ) the Orignal Post Carefully.

*********** Monitors are Idtentical and Both work fine @ 1600x1200 simultaniously in OS9.2.x

The monitors are not both suporting that same resoultions in OSX10.2x ******************

It has to be Drivers. Not Sure wether the Card is OEM Matrox or Straight Matrox.

tlarkin · 04-11-2003, 07:04 PM

heh sorry i never learned to read properly.....yeah i would say sounds like a driver issue. i guess contact matrox on it man, good luck let us know if you get it fixed incase we run into this in the future

ihafro · 04-11-2003, 09:16 PM

ADC is actually a subset of the DVI specification. Contrary to popular belief, the ADC connector isn't really propritary (maybe the plug design is), just nobody in the PC would has gone further than the DVI spec. ADC is just DVI with pins to add USB and power connections. (Feel free to correct me here if I'm off on anything)

As for your problem, have you tried switching cables? You may have a bad cable, and OSX is pick about stuff like this. I had a flaky VGA extension cable that would work under OS9 but not OSX. It had gotten twisted around and messed up one or more of the wires. OS9 didn't pay that much heed, but OSX couldn't detect the DCC signals from the monitor. Replacing the cable fixed the issue.

Otherwise, driver voodoo sounds as good a solution as any. In which case I would suggest that you get an old priest and a young priest and proceed with the exorcism...

-Rob

saint.duo · 04-11-2003, 10:29 PM

I'm going to take a leap of faith here and guess that both of your displays are DVI, and that you're using an ADC to DVI adapter on the ADC port to connect in. In doing this, the display on the ADC port is getting it's info stripped when going to the computer, so the computer doesn't know WHAT it is, and is giving you more resolutions. Where the DVI port is limiting you based on what it thinks the display can support.

Open "displays" in system preferences, and see if the titles of the windows say the same thing (for example, mine says "System Preferences", and then when i click on displays, it says "ENVISION EN-710e", which means the computer knows what display I have).

If the DVI one shows a title similar to what you have, and the ADC one shows a title more generic, than you need to find a way to make the computer not know what the DVI display is, or find a way to enable more resolutions. A quick and dirty way to do the first (usually), would be to turn on the display on the DVI port AFTER the machine is booted up.

edit
Also, you might want to look at this article.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30212065523164

battman · 04-13-2003, 08:15 PM

Thanks to all for your replies...

Anthlover - the card is an nVidia Geforce4 MX (Apple OEM in the Dual 867 MDD), and I've been to their website looking for drivers. They have them available for Windows, but none for Mac. They also do not have ANY customer support - they say that, since they do not sell direct to the customer, that all support must come from the PC vendor. Hello APPLE?... they don't seem to have a way to get support without paying for it!
Also, it seems that the drivers have to come with OS X. Is this true? That we have to wait for Apple to supply new drivers with an OS update? I don't like that idea... the Mac "community" has always stepped up to fill a void or need that Apple ignored. Please don't tell me we have to ask Big Brother for help, and pray that they hear!

Ihafro - I've tried swapping monitors (and cables with them), and the problem always stays with the DVI port, so the cable isn't the problem (unless both are bad!). Can you suggest any priests willing to perform the exorcism?

Saint.duo - Yes, you're right - I'm using an ADC-DVI adapter. But, I assume that the ADC passes through the info about the display. I don't think it is like the old analog port that needed a specific cable to tell what the display was.
Anyway, in the Displays Preference Panel, both displays are labelled as "vp201m", which is correct.
Thanks for the link, I looked at that early on, and it looked promising. However, I couldn't tell which file I needed to edit, and was reluctant to start hacking away. (I have already been stung once in OS X, where I had to completely reinstall the OS after installing some 'haxies'. So, until OS X gets more mature and there are better troubleshooting tools available to solve such problems, I'm reluctant to make any changes to the System). I also was reluctant to start hacking away when the problem seemed so "simple". I mean, I figured that the fix would turn out to be something that I had overlooked... Well, not so far !

I've also considered buying another graphics card (for the second monitor, keeping the first on the ADC port), but how do I know it won't do the same thing!?

rtfm · 04-28-2003, 11:13 PM

Even worse...

With a VGA monitor on that nVidia GForce card, you can not get better than 1280*1024@60hz!

anthlover · 04-29-2003, 12:45 AM

Video Heck easist way out even if you should not have to...

*For Around $150 ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition 64mb DDR AGP dual display

*Flexible dual monitor support, including ADC connector port, DVI-I connector port, and DVI-I to VGA adapter
Lets you take full advantage of OpenGL Quartz, QuickTime and display features of Mac OS X

*Operate two digital flat panels simultaneously at resolutions up to 1920 X 1280

--------------------------------------
Apple oem Card Should work but this seems like the easy way to go.

At least you return it if it does not solve your grief....

Hell you could Ebay the old one

------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. I checked on Apples Offical site (Nothing But use OS10.15 or later) and Nvidas discalmer below: ATi was always a lot friendlier you could always use apple or their software....
-----------------------------------------------------------------

NVIDIA provides superior 3D graphics processors to the computer industry's leading add-in card manufacturers and PC OEMs. We do not sell any products directly to end users so we do not have a staff dedicated to end-user technical support. If you are having a problem with any NVIDIA-based product, please contact either the PC or board manufacturer of your product.
PC Manufacturers:

e.g. Apple, dell etc.

etc.....

04-02-2003, 08:12 PM	#1
battman Prospect Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5	DVI video port doesn't support same res as ADC port The DVI port on my nVidia GeForce4 MX video card refuses to support the same resolutions as the ADC port. I've got a dual-867MHz, mirrored bay doors, running OS 10.2.4, and Viewsonics VP201m 20.1in LCD, which supports 1600x1200. When plugged into the DVI port, I can only choose ONE resolution: 1280x1024, but if plugged into the ADC port through a DVI-ADC adapter, I can choose from 5 resolutions, including the 1600x1200. I have TWO (identical) monitors, and so need both ports to support 1600x1200. When I boot into OS 9.2.2, both monitors work at 1600x1200 @ millions-of-colors, so I know the card supports it! Why can't I get OS X to? I've tried connecting just one monitor, changed ports, reduced #colors, reset PRAM (rebooting in between all these steps of course). I've tried "SwitchRes X", to see other resolutions, but the DVI port will still only list 1280x1024. I've looked for updated drivers from nVidia, but it appears that for OS X they have to be in the OS, and that's up to date. HELP!

04-10-2003, 01:38 AM	#2
anthlover Hall of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,620	Digital vs. Emulation Intersting LCD Panels being Digtal Devices vs. CRTs have only 1 True Native Resolution that looks Sharp because it is a Native resoltuion. When you put a Flat Panel Display at other resolutions the image is soft and often icky. If you use less Dots say Dropping from 1400x1200 to 1024x768 its soft but because everythign is bigger its not too horrible.... Can not go the other way, smaller then native.... for Same reason. Anyway back to your ? and Answer. When you use a Digital Interface on a Digital Flat Panel Display I imagine it would limit you to only the Native Resoultion of the Display. Not sure, as I had not heard of this limitation, but it makes logical sense. Perhaps other readers can further clarify. PS. Under Sys Prefs General Controls there is an Option to Alter the OSX behavior of rendering text and such from Light, Medium, Standard and Heavy.. Check it out.

04-10-2003, 02:09 AM	#3
battman Prospect Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5	Thanks, but still stumped... Anthlover, both of my displays are digital (identical Viewsonics), and both DVI and ADC ports are digital, so there shouldn't be any difference. But the monitor plugged into the DVI port will only display 1280x1024. Since the native monitor resolution is 1600x1200, the 1280x1024 screen only fills part of the display, with a black frame. What a waste of good screen real-estate! I've browsed some of the Plists in the System/Library folder, and there is one (can't remember now which one) that appears to have the current and allowable settings for monitors. But I'm really hesitant to start hacking into the system files, as Unix is completely unforgiving, and I can't afford any downtime (this is my work machine). I hate to do it, but I'm considering purchasing a second video card just to get this problem solved. It makes me mad that Apple has basically left us high-and-dry with no technical support unless you want to pay for it. Maybe I'll just lug my whole desktop system down to an Apple store and make the Genius Bar figure it out! Boy, I can't wait until OS X is mature and polished - like OS 9 finally was. :sigh:

04-10-2003, 10:16 PM	#4
anthlover Hall of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,620	err Yeah but if the displays are identical err Yeah but if the displays are identical you may have prooved my point sort of... As I had made a mistake Did you try swapping connection movving which one has dvi and which has adc.... Does the problem move... Also If memory serve me correct DVI and ADC are realtives.... DVI is Plain Jain Digital and ADC is Apple ADC with Intergrated power. ************* Are you sure you have the option checked to show ALL resolutions ************ ******* NOt Just recommmended. -------------------------------------------------------- P.S. I thought you had one Anallog connector and one Digital.

04-11-2003, 12:55 AM	#6
anthlover Hall of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,620	Did you Try Drivers for Card Is It Apple OEM, MAtrox Original version...... Did you Try Drivers for Card from Manufaturer?? or APPLE? Just trying to help. Sorry I missed the OS9 part... Its the Drivers for sure if it works under othr OS.

04-10-2003, 11:29 PM	#5
battman Prospect Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5	No, both displays are Digital (identical). And as far as I know, the ADC is just a DVI with power and USB, which is why this is so frustrating... Yes, I had tried swapping monitors to see if the problem followed, but the problem always stayed with the DVI port. Yes, I've tried to show other resolutions in the Monitor Prefs. Even SwitchRes X, which is supposed to show every option supported by the video card, only shows the ONE resolution. And, again, I've been working in OS 9 with both displays at 1600x1200 (beautiful!), and then I lose that when I reboot into OS X.

04-11-2003, 12:38 PM	#7
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 11,352	are you doing dual monitor display? or one at a time? if you are doing dual display on one mac i can see where one monitor may get higher resolutions than the other due to the nature of the chipset on the video card. if the video card was designed to limit one display and give the other higher resolution for perfomance issues or bottle necking or something of the sort. if you have access to an actual video card designed for dual head display it may work. if you are not using dual display disreguard this post

04-11-2003, 06:23 PM	#8
anthlover Hall of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,620	Most of us are Guily of not Reading Most of us are Guily of not Reading (including me** ) the Orignal Post Carefully. ******* Monitors are Idtentical and Both work fine @ 1600x1200 simultaniously in OS9.2.x The monitors are not both suporting that same resoultions in OSX10.2x **************** It has to be Drivers. Not Sure wether the Card is OEM Matrox or Straight Matrox.

04-11-2003, 07:04 PM	#9
tlarkin League Commissioner Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 11,352	heh sorry i never learned to read properly.....yeah i would say sounds like a driver issue. i guess contact matrox on it man, good luck let us know if you get it fixed incase we run into this in the future

04-11-2003, 09:16 PM	#10
ihafro Prospect Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Champaign, IL Posts: 16	ADC vs. DVI ADC is actually a subset of the DVI specification. Contrary to popular belief, the ADC connector isn't really propritary (maybe the plug design is), just nobody in the PC would has gone further than the DVI spec. ADC is just DVI with pins to add USB and power connections. (Feel free to correct me here if I'm off on anything) As for your problem, have you tried switching cables? You may have a bad cable, and OSX is pick about stuff like this. I had a flaky VGA extension cable that would work under OS9 but not OSX. It had gotten twisted around and messed up one or more of the wires. OS9 didn't pay that much heed, but OSX couldn't detect the DCC signals from the monitor. Replacing the cable fixed the issue. Otherwise, driver voodoo sounds as good a solution as any. In which case I would suggest that you get an old priest and a young priest and proceed with the exorcism... -Rob

04-11-2003, 10:29 PM	#11
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	adapter ADC -> DVI I'm going to take a leap of faith here and guess that both of your displays are DVI, and that you're using an ADC to DVI adapter on the ADC port to connect in. In doing this, the display on the ADC port is getting it's info stripped when going to the computer, so the computer doesn't know WHAT it is, and is giving you more resolutions. Where the DVI port is limiting you based on what it thinks the display can support. Open "displays" in system preferences, and see if the titles of the windows say the same thing (for example, mine says "System Preferences", and then when i click on displays, it says "ENVISION EN-710e", which means the computer knows what display I have). If the DVI one shows a title similar to what you have, and the ADC one shows a title more generic, than you need to find a way to make the computer not know what the DVI display is, or find a way to enable more resolutions. A quick and dirty way to do the first (usually), would be to turn on the display on the DVI port AFTER the machine is booted up. edit Also, you might want to look at this article. http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...30212065523164 Last edited by saint.duo; 04-11-2003 at 10:36 PM.

04-13-2003, 08:15 PM	#12
battman Prospect Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5	Drivers for OS X? Thanks to all for your replies... Anthlover - the card is an nVidia Geforce4 MX (Apple OEM in the Dual 867 MDD), and I've been to their website looking for drivers. They have them available for Windows, but none for Mac. They also do not have ANY customer support - they say that, since they do not sell direct to the customer, that all support must come from the PC vendor. Hello APPLE?... they don't seem to have a way to get support without paying for it! Also, it seems that the drivers have to come with OS X. Is this true? That we have to wait for Apple to supply new drivers with an OS update? I don't like that idea... the Mac "community" has always stepped up to fill a void or need that Apple ignored. Please don't tell me we have to ask Big Brother for help, and pray that they hear! Ihafro - I've tried swapping monitors (and cables with them), and the problem always stays with the DVI port, so the cable isn't the problem (unless both are bad!). Can you suggest any priests willing to perform the exorcism? Saint.duo - Yes, you're right - I'm using an ADC-DVI adapter. But, I assume that the ADC passes through the info about the display. I don't think it is like the old analog port that needed a specific cable to tell what the display was. Anyway, in the Displays Preference Panel, both displays are labelled as "vp201m", which is correct. Thanks for the link, I looked at that early on, and it looked promising. However, I couldn't tell which file I needed to edit, and was reluctant to start hacking away. (I have already been stung once in OS X, where I had to completely reinstall the OS after installing some 'haxies'. So, until OS X gets more mature and there are better troubleshooting tools available to solve such problems, I'm reluctant to make any changes to the System). I also was reluctant to start hacking away when the problem seemed so "simple". I mean, I figured that the fix would turn out to be something that I had overlooked... Well, not so far ! I've also considered buying another graphics card (for the second monitor, keeping the first on the ADC port), but how do I know it won't do the same thing!?

04-28-2003, 11:13 PM	#13
rtfm Major Leaguer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 367	Even worse... With a VGA monitor on that nVidia GForce card, you can not get better than 1280*1024@60hz!

04-29-2003, 12:45 AM	#14
anthlover Hall of Famer Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 3,620	Video heck easiest way out Video Heck easist way out even if you should not have to... For Around $150 ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition 64mb DDR AGP dual display Flexible dual monitor support, including ADC connector port, DVI-I connector port, and DVI-I to VGA adapter Lets you take full advantage of OpenGL Quartz, QuickTime and display features of Mac OS X Operate two digital flat panels simultaneously at resolutions up to 1920 X 1280 -------------------------------------- Apple oem Card Should work but this seems like the easy way to go. At least you return it if it does not solve your grief.... Hell you could Ebay the old one ------------------------------------------------------------------------ P.S. I checked on Apples Offical site (Nothing But use OS10.15 or later) and Nvidas discalmer below: ATi was always a lot friendlier you could always use apple or their software.... ----------------------------------------------------------------- NVIDIA provides superior 3D graphics processors to the computer industry's leading add-in card manufacturers and PC OEMs. We do not sell any products directly to end users so we do not have a staff dedicated to end-user technical support. If you are having a problem with any NVIDIA-based product, please contact either the PC or board manufacturer of your product. PC Manufacturers: e.g. Apple, dell etc. etc..... Last edited by anthlover; 04-29-2003 at 01:16 AM.*