Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

Bolt473 · 2013-07-13 03:53:50

I've tried generating and adding modelines disabling ECID checks, using nvidia-settings, and xrandr. My ViewSonic VS12324 only displays 80% of the screen at 1920x1080 on 60Hz, and I simply cannot set any refresh rate except 60Hz. Am I missing something?

Max-P · 2013-07-13 23:45:29

You will need to describe your problem a bit better so we can understand what exactly doesn't work. I can't see any reason why setting 59 Hz instead of 60 would change anything to your problem; I don't even think it is possible to set such a mode without messing around.

What exacly is the 80%? Are there 2 or 4 cropped sides? If using HDMI, chances are that the screen is doing some overscan on the picture (see the 16:9 example, which is 80%) , in which case you might want to check the settings of the monitor itself first.

Bolt473 · 2013-08-09 05:39:45

Ok. I was previously using the nouveau drivers on my nvidia geforce 6150se nforce 430. These drivers displayed 1920x1080 properly. The only problems were the sluggish performance and the tendency to completely freeze my entire computer, meaning I had to force shutdown quite a lot.
So I followed the wiki's instructions and installed the nvidia-304xx drivers. Now, I have a completely different problem: At 1920x1080, and after automatically AND manually setting the monitor's display settings, I cannot make that fit properly. Here is a depiction of what I have stretched on my monitor. From the right of the red line onward is what I cannot see.

http://i.imgur.com/qbgWoli.jpg

This is totally intolerable. No setting in nvidia-settings remedies this. I've tried rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf followed by nvidia-xconfig, but none of this helps. I've tried and failed to add a 59Hz mode.

Here is my xorg.conf file as generated a few minutes ago, the only addition of mine being the addition of Option "Coolbits" "1" to enable overclocking:

http://pastebin.com/c42aHeG6

Oh, and I'm using a VGA connector. I would use DVI-D or HDMI, but this machine's crappy motherboard doesn't have it.

Last edited by Bolt473 (2013-08-09 05:59:00)

jasonwryan · 2013-08-09 05:53:12

Please read the Forum Etiquette and post appropriate sized images and use code tags:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … s_and_Code

Bolt473 · 2013-08-09 06:00:21

Sorry! Hope I didn't rustle any jimmies. I'm a bit of a forum n00b. Is that better?

Last edited by Bolt473 (2013-08-09 06:00:35)

mandog · 2013-08-11 00:44:36

you have answered your own question. you can not get true hd without a dvi hdmi card that is why your screen res is wrong your card is not capable of true hd 1920x1080 with the card you are using! vga is not capable hd let alone true HD

karol · 2013-08-11 00:58:49

mandog wrote:

you have answered your own question. you can not get true hd without a dvi hdmi card that is why your screen res is wrong your card is not capable of true hd 1920x1080 with the card you are using! vga is not capable hd let alone true HD

I don't understand what you mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector

The same VGA cable can be used with a variety of supported VGA resolutions, ranging from 640×400px @70 Hz (24 MHz of signal bandwidth) to 1280×1024px (SXGA) @85 Hz (160 MHz) and up to 2048×1536px (QXGA) @85 Hz (388 MHz).

Max-P · 2013-08-11 01:01:47

And OP mentionned it worked fine with nouveau too at this resolution, but not the nvidia-304xx driver. It should just work.

Have you tried pressing the "auto-set" key on your monitor just in case? Maybe it's working fine but since the timings aren't exactly the same for whatever reason the monitor may just display it differently. I just thought of that and I actually seen this for real on a machine after swapping some monitors.

karol · 2013-08-11 01:19:03

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_6_ … ifications

Maximum supported resolution is 1920 x 1440 pixels (@75 Hz) for RGB display and 1600 x 1200 pixels (@65 Hz) for DVI-D display.

+1 for using auto settings of your monitor. Unfortunately I found that they often do not stick and you have to do this after every reboot.

Bolt473 · 2013-08-11 06:19:56

Max-P wrote:

And OP mentionned it worked fine with nouveau too at this resolution, but not the nvidia-304xx driver. It should just work.
Have you tried pressing the "auto-set" key on your monitor just in case? Maybe it's working fine but since the timings aren't exactly the same for whatever reason the monitor may just display it differently. I just thought of that and I actually seen this for real on a machine after swapping some monitors.

I've pressed auto-set, restored the monitor to factory settings, searched the internet for a firmware update (there isn't one), and manually adjusted the image. Nothing helps. And this is the only monitor I've ever used with this install.

I figured it was the refresh rate because I fixed this exact problem on Win7 (which I hate to use, because Arch uses waaaay less RAM) simply by creating a custom mode at 1920x1080x59Hz in Nvidia control center. I tried using Nvidia control center in Arch to do the same, but no dice.

Max-P · 2013-08-12 06:59:25

Erm, just for fun, can you make your monitor display the current resolution for you?

Something like this:

My idea is that maybe it just isn't sending the correct resolution to the monitor. Obviously the driver uses the correct resolution and can render it fine as you got a clean screenshot of it, so it must be something related to the way it outputs to the monitor.

You can always try to disable EDID checking (and why not entirely disable mode validation while at there, search the nvidia docs for that) and supply your modelines yourself in the Xorg.conf? Maybe nvidia simply refuses to use that mode because of mode validation. I had to do that on my laptop to get smaller resolutions (couldn't switch to 1280x720 for gaming, laptop native resolution is 1920x1080).

Another idea would be to downgrade to a ower version of the driver, like the 275.xx series. I know the 3xx drivers added lots of changes and broke a ton of stuff for me (now ok with 308.xx and upper, but I guess you use 304.xx because later drivers dropped support for your card so your only option is to go lower).

Hope this helps a bit with the issue, because I'm out of ideas after that.

Bolt473 · 2013-08-13 05:45:17

Max-P wrote:

Erm, just for fun, can you make your monitor display the current resolution for you?
Something like this:
https://support.gateway.com/s/Manuals/D … d-info.jpg
My idea is that maybe it just isn't sending the correct resolution to the monitor. Obviously the driver uses the correct resolution and can render it fine as you got a clean screenshot of it, so it must be something related to the way it outputs to the monitor.
You can always try to disable EDID checking (and why not entirely disable mode validation while at there, search the nvidia docs for that) and supply your modelines yourself in the Xorg.conf? Maybe nvidia simply refuses to use that mode because of mode validation. I had to do that on my laptop to get smaller resolutions (couldn't switch to 1280x720 for gaming, laptop native resolution is 1920x1080).
Another idea would be to downgrade to a ower version of the driver, like the 275.xx series. I know the 3xx drivers added lots of changes and broke a ton of stuff for me (now ok with 308.xx and upper, but I guess you use 304.xx because later drivers dropped support for your card so your only option is to go lower).

Hope this helps a bit with the issue, because I'm out of ideas after that.

I have this:

Resolution: 1920x1080
H. Frequency: 67.4 KHz
V. Frequency: 60.0 Hz
Pixel Clock: 173.6 MHz

Going to switch drivers and report my findings.

Shame on you Nvidia, for not open-sourcing your code and freely providing full documentation for your chipsets!

Arch Linux

#1 2013-07-13 03:53:50

Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#2 2013-07-13 23:45:29

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#3 2013-08-09 05:39:45

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#4 2013-08-09 05:53:12

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#5 2013-08-09 06:00:21

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#6 2013-08-11 00:44:36

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#7 2013-08-11 00:58:49

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#8 2013-08-11 01:01:47

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#9 2013-08-11 01:19:03

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#10 2013-08-11 06:19:56

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#11 2013-08-12 06:59:25

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

#12 2013-08-13 05:45:17

Re: Cannot set 59hz refresh rate with nvidia-304xx driver

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