Monitor detection not working on old laptop

polson136 · 2013-12-14 23:18:18

When I plug my laptop (Dell Inspiron 8600. Video card: GeForce FX Go5200 64M rev a1) into a monitor, it often detects the monitor resolution incorrectly. It is very consistent. (If it works once it will work every time. If it doesn't work, it will never work.) When it screwes up, it says that the available modes are 640x480 and 320x240, both of which are not very useful and certaintly aren't correct. Does anyone know why this is happening and if there is a way to fix it? Alternatively, does anyone know of a way to fake a different mode that is not "supported" by the monitor? I am using disper and nvidia-settings for my monitor configuration.

Lone_Wolf · 2013-12-15 12:49:01

Your card appears to be using the a chip form the NV30 family , guess you are using nivia-173xxx from AUR ?

Nividia drivers don't use KMS, and use their own detection method to determine resolutions.

Have you tried the xf86-video-nouveau driver ?

polson136 · 2013-12-15 18:38:37

You are correct in guessing that I am using nvidia-173xx (only 2 x's). I originally used the nouveau driver, and it had a multitude of problems as described in this post: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=143162. I managed to get rid of those problems by switching to the nvidia driver, and I am very happy that I made that change. Also, I forget what the status of harware acceleration on nouveau is, but I do need it because otherwise my CPU can't keep up.

Lone_Wolf · 2013-12-16 14:56:06

If the screen was your primary monitor, i'd suggest to use the boot vga= parameter to set a specific resolution.
But from your posts it's a secondary monitor where you got problems with resolution.

You could try postin gon the nvidia linux forum https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/board/98/linux/ about this problem.

As for nouveau : that driver has improved a lot since you posted that, you could try it again.
this page has info which features are supported by nouveau http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix/

polson136 · 2013-12-16 18:59:23

Thanks for the info.

I didn't know there was a nvidia linux forum. I'll take a look there, since this is definitely a more obscure problem.

I'll also reevaluate nouveau, since it would be nice to not have to gerry-rig everything regarding my monitor setup anymore.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-12-14 23:18:18

Monitor detection not working on old laptop

#2 2013-12-15 12:49:01

Re: Monitor detection not working on old laptop

#3 2013-12-15 18:38:37

Re: Monitor detection not working on old laptop

#4 2013-12-16 14:56:06

Re: Monitor detection not working on old laptop

#5 2013-12-16 18:59:23

Re: Monitor detection not working on old laptop

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