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Question

Odd combination of PC and display - drivers?

Mar 3, 2014 7:51PM PST

The PC is 2004 vintage Packard bell IMEDIA 3051. s/n 034924220050.

Display is Dell S2309W display.

Is there a driver I can install that will enable these to talk to each-other sensibly? For example, recognise the 1920x1080 format of the screen?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: screen
Mar 3, 2014 8:01PM PST

The driver comes with the video card, not with the monitor.
The settings (a monitor.inf file) come with the monitor (if they come), not with the video card.

The video card only will display on 1920x1080 if
a) The hardware (and the driver) support that format. That's mentioned in the documentation that came with the computer.
b) The monitor is recognised as allowing 1920x1080. That''s info either built in or coming from the monitor.inf file,

Kees

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Odd combination - continued
Mar 3, 2014 9:26PM PST

Kees,

Thanks for that.

My problem is that I have lost the original monitor.inf file since I rebuilt the PC's Win XP. The current monitor.inf does not mention Dell 2309.

Where or how can I find what video interface hardwareI have on this PB desktop? So that i can look for its drivers.

Thanks,

peter

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It doesn't matter
Mar 3, 2014 10:16PM PST

It doesn't matter. There are no monitor drivers, period. The INF file is just some custom modelines and sometimes there's an associated color profile file to tweak the way colors are displayed. The video card probes the monitor and gets the EDID from it and uses that to match up against what the video card is capable of.

Focus on the video card, because that is where the problem exists if you're unable to get 1080p resolutions on the monitor. The video card may simply not be able to handle widescreen resolutions. You can look until the end of time for a monitor driver for that thing and you'll never find one because one never existed to begin with.

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Answer
Looks like unsupported XP (it's over folks.)
Mar 3, 2014 11:33PM PST
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=1378W does not list Windows XP. Besides there has never been a hard requirement that monitor.inf list your display.

On top of that it's just a text file with tomes of web documents on how to create or modify another one to work with your monitor. However I find that more and more computer owners no longer want to do more than use the PC. It's not programming but it is work. A little work never hurt anyone.
Bob
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ok - so...
Mar 4, 2014 6:30AM PST

How can I find out what video board/chipset I have on this computer?

Thanks,

peter

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I use google, and apps like SPECCY.
Mar 4, 2014 7:39AM PST
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Mo good, unfortunately...
Mar 5, 2014 7:57PM PST

I ran speccy on the PC and it came back with unhelpful general description. I suspect the video card is really basic and will never cope with my display.

Thanks anyway, guys...

peter

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Those unhelpful description may mean something to someone.
Mar 5, 2014 10:30PM PST

Example. i845G would be meaningless to most. But it's a clue I can use.
Bob

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You could also
Mar 4, 2014 8:38AM PST

You could also ask Acer (who owns the Packard Bell brand) in addition to what Bob suggested.