External monitor on MacBook Pro

[Freyqq]

Double-posting for new developments:
Fiddling in the 'Video and Televison' settings area of the Nvidia control panel, I tried using the various DVI output settings available there.
1080p: Squished image filling close to, but not exactly, entire height of the screen (as it should be, 1080 vs 1200), but only about half the width (display set to 1:1 pixel mapping)
1080i: Full screen output, but interlaced (it's 1080i, of course it'll be interlaced)
720p: Box in centre of screen (1:1 pixel mapping).

So, I can definitely output a signal in the correct range for the monitor to receive, and the monitor definitely functions under DVI input.

Also, for some reason, resolutions of 1600x1200 and below have suddenly begun to display correctly over DVI (set under the 'display' settings area)! 1920x1080 is horizontally squished, and 1920x1200 still gives an 'input signal out of range' error on the display.

Looking through the manual (specifically, page B-4), I noticed the following:



Unfortuately, I have no way to tell, but I strongly suspect that the MBP defaults to outputting 1920x1200 with too high a horizontal frequency and pixel clock. Unfortunately, there are no options for fine-tuning the output anywhere in the Nvidia control panel.

i don't know if this will help, but ntune will give you a few more options in the nvidia control panel. Honestly, it shouldn't be this hard. Vista should detect everything automatically for you. Try reinstalling the drivers?

 

[EdZ]

i don't know if this will help, but ntune will give you a few more options in the nvidia control panel. Honestly, it shouldn't be this hard. Vista should detect everything automatically for you. Try reinstalling the drivers?

This is after several driver re-installs, with 3 different driver versions. Thanks for the tip about nTune, downloading it now.
::EDIT:: Ntune didn't provide any custom timing options. I also tried Rviatuer, but I could not set custom timings more precisely than to the nearest Hz, and any changes seemed to have no effect on the output.

 

[EdZ]

Now this is REALLY getting weird: I noticed using Rivatuner that I was unable to read the EDID data from the monitor. I downloaded moninfo, and read the EDID successfully using it:

Monitor
  Windows description......... hp L2335 flat panel monitor
  Manufacturer description.... hp L2335
  Manufacturer................ HP
  ————————————————————————————
  Plug and Play ID............ HWP2614
  Serial number............... CNP407Z0SS
  EDID data source............ Registry (stored)
  ————————————————————————————
  Manufacture date............ 2004, ISO week 11
  EDID revision............... 1.3
  Display type and signal..... Digital
  Sync input support.......... n/a
  Screen size................. 500 x 310 mm (~25")
  Power management............ Standby, Suspend, Active off/sleep

Color characteristics
  Display gamma............... 2.20
  Red chromaticity............ Rx 0.640 - Ry 0.332
  Green chromaticity.......... Gx 0.288 - Gy 0.601
  Blue chromaticity........... Bx 0.146 - By 0.065
  White point (default)....... Wx 0.313 - Wy 0.329

Timing characteristics
  VESA GTF support............ Not supported
  Horizontal scan range....... 30-94kHz
  Vertical scan range......... 48-85Hz
  Video bandwidth............. 210MHz
  Extension blocks............ n/a
  Timing recommendation #1.... 1920x1200 at 60Hz
      Modeline................ "1920x1200" 193.160 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242 -hsync +vsync

Standard timings supported
   640 x  480 at  60Hz - IBM VGA
   640 x  480 at  75Hz - VESA
   720 x  400 at  70Hz - IBM VGA
   800 x  600 at  60Hz - VESA
   800 x  600 at  75Hz - VESA
   832 x  624 at  75Hz - Mac II
  1024 x  768 at  60Hz - VESA
  1024 x  768 at  70Hz - VESA
  1024 x  768 at  75Hz - VESA
  1024 x  768 at  85Hz - VESA
  1152 x  870 at  75Hz - Mac II
  1280 x  960 at  60Hz - VESA
  1280 x 1024 at  60Hz - VESA
  1280 x 1024 at  75Hz - VESA
  1280 x 1024 at  85Hz - VESA
  1600 x 1200 at  60Hz - VESA
  1600 x 1200 at  75Hz - VESA
  1920 x 1080 at  60Hz - VESA
  1920 x 1200 at  60Hz - HP
  1920 x 1920 at  60Hz - VESA

Raw EDID base
  00: 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00  22 F0 14 26 00 00 00 00 
  10: 0B 0E 01 03 80 32 1F 78  EA CF B5 A3 55 49 99 25 
  20: 10 50 54 A5 6F 80 61 59  81 40 81 80 81 99 A9 40 
  30: A9 4F D1 C0 D1 00 74 4B  80 A0 72 B0 2A 40 80 D0 
  40: 13 00 EF 36 11 00 00 1C  00 00 00 FD 00 30 55 1E 
  50: 5E 15 00 0A 20 20 20 20  20 20 00 00 00 FC 00 68 
  60: 70 20 4C 32 33 33 35 0A  20 20 20 20 00 00 00 FF 
  70: 00 43 4E 50 34 30 37 5A  30 53 53 0A 20 20 00 3D 

Display adapter
  Adapter description......... NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
  Adapter device ID........... 0x040710DE
  Display settings............ 1600x1200, 32bpp

User/computer information
  Registered user name........ Edward
  Registered organization..... n/a
  Network user name........... Edward
  Network computer name....... EDMBP
  Windows version ............ Windows 2000
  Windows build .............. 6.00.6000 
  Installation date .......... 22/08/2007 12:00:00

Note:

Modeline................ "1920x1200" 193.160 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242 -hsync +vsync

The monitor's EDID itself is reporting the incorrect pixel clock (192.160 instead of 154.000).

 

[EdZ]

After several hours of fiddling with various EDID editors and with powerstrip being somewhat buggy under vista, it turns out that the EDID data for the l2335 is write-protected. As for it reporting the incorect pixel-clock, I can only guess that for some reason either the MBP is incorrectly requesting, or the monitor is incorrectly supplying, the analogue EDID data rather than the digital EDID data.

 

[EdZ]

Tried it on my desktop, and all I got was an 'out of range' error. Even on the BIOS screen! Looks like the problem lies ether with the monitor or the cable. Unfortunately, I got the monitor second-hand, so I doubt it'll be covered under any sort of warranty.

 

[Sniperbob]

External monitor on MBP and Vista solved?

Hi, i just had a quick question concerning external monitors in vista + bootcamp is it now possible to get the native resolution of the monitor in Vista or is it only able to reach 1024 x 768? the monitor i was looking at getting was the Dell E248WFP 24''

Thanks.

 

[Wolfpup]

I could be wrong, but I'm thinking people's problems with issues like that were fixed when they switched to updated drivers from Nvidia.

Also personally I'd want to go with Dell's better 24" monitor, as like most cheaper monitors that one listed only has a 6-bits per pixel panel...although I think people like it fine (and probably most monitors sold are only 6-bit now).

 

[metropolitim]

In most cases, it's not Vista. I have the HP w2480h -- a lovely HDMI monitor for a sweet price. It says very plainly in the documentation that if you have a 1440x900 res input, you're stuck with 1024x768 until you download new drivers from nVidia.

Went to laptopvideo2go, got the latest driver, a BREEZE to install (seconds, honestly), problem solved. I don't even put my MBP to sleep when I connect the external monitor -- connect the HDMI-DVI cable, and it pops right up at 1920x1200, first time, every time.

This was HP. I have no idea if that's true for other mfrs. But given how easily and thoroughly the laptopvideo2go solution was, I can't imagine any other solution working as well.

I confess that I wasn't able to exactly tell from other posts in the thread -- has anybody gone this route and had it NOT work?

 

[EdZ]

I confess that I wasn't able to exactly tell from other posts in the thread -- has anybody gone this route and had it NOT work?

Me, though admittedly I haven't tried with the very latest drivers. I gave up and switched to VGA.

 

[Wolfpup]

You shouldn't even need Laptopvideo2go. I installed the regular Nvidia reference drivers no problem.

 

[Cyntech]

I can confirm that the updated drivers from Apple posted by Freyqq work, at least for me anyway.

However, I'm now restricted to only having the Laptop as the primary display in DualView mode. In other driver versions I tried, I was able to change the external monitor to the primary, but not with this set.

*sigh*

I agree with the sentiment that it shouldn't be this hard...

 

[Freyqq]

the newest version of bootcamp comes with good nvidia drivers that allow for the full range of resolutions..at least in my case. I'd try that.

 

[DoFoT9]

everything works fine for me, both under bootcamp and osx... whats the actual issue here haha?

 

[Wolfpup]

You shouldn't even need to do all that though-like I said, you should just be able to install Nvidia's regular drivers.

ATi's drivers aren't nearly as good, but I've still had people report to me that the same basic process works.