Tecra M3, nVidia and Dell 2005fpw?

Tuesday 10 January 2006 — This is close to 19 years old. Be careful.

I have a Tecra M3 laptop. It has an nVidia graphics adapter, “GeForce Go 6200 TE 64M/6600 TE 128M” to be exact. I have a Dell 2005fpw flat panel display, with a native resolution of 1680×1050. The graphics adapter does an ungodly number of tricks I don’t need (who needs software keystoning on an LCD?), but does not offer 1680×1050 as an option. It offers 1600×1200 and even higher, but not the one I need.

In a previous situation like this, I installed some scary hacked gamer video drivers, and they worked great. This time, I tried OmegaDrivers.net, which claims to provide nVidia drivers with more options for resolutions. No luck.

In fact, after installing the omega drivers, 1600×1200 wasn’t even an option, but now 1440×900 is. Huh? Uninstalling all the drivers and re-installing the official ones from Toshiba didn’t get me back my 1600×1200. Does anyone have any advice for how to get a supposedly high-end graphics adapter to do something simple like drive a very popular flat panel display?

Comments

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Nate Finch 1:31 PM on 10 Jan 2006
First, I would download the newest NVidia drivers from here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html

That should be a lot better than the Toshiba drivers, and should allow you to set your resolution to pretty much whatever you want.

If you're still having problems (doubtful), get Power Strip:
http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

It's shareware that allows you to set your graphics adapter to do *exactly* what you want. 1492 x 1812 at 73.8 Hz? Sure. Kinda overkill for what you need, and not free, but it'll definitely work.
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Jeff Atwood 2:35 PM on 10 Jan 2006
This should work using the default nVidia drivers linked above..

1) Install the "coolbits" registry hack that unlocks the hidden panels in the driver (for overclocking, etcetera). Downloadable from tons of places.

2) Once I do this, I go to Display, Advanced, GeForce (xxx) tab, then I have a "Screen Resolutions and Refresh rates" option from the slide out panel on the right.

3) There should be an "Add" button next to the "Custom resolutions and refresh rates" part of that tab.

4) Key in whatever refresh rate and resolution you desire
[gravatar]
Ned Batchelder 4:36 PM on 10 Jan 2006
Nate and Jeff: thanks so much for the advice. I tried Jeff's first, and it worked. Actually, first adding the custom resolution got me the message "Couldn't add custom resolution," but a reboot made it work, and now everything is fine.

Thanks a ton!
[gravatar]
mikey 7:41 PM on 10 Jan 2006
How is the speed of the Centrino? Cane we get a small review of the machine?

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