Make my monitor WORK

[Summo]

'Ello peeps!

Following on from my last thread in here I've been given a 19" Sony Trinitron GDM-1950. It's old, it's h000ge but it's free.

The reason I've been given it is that no bugger has got it to work. On the back there are five BNC-style input sockets; red, green, blue, HD and VD (whatever they are). I have the cable which links it via standard 14-pin video plug into my GeForce2 MX (might be relevant).

There is a display there, but even in the BIOS screen it flickers exactly like a VCR that needs a bit of tuning. There's no dial, screw or menu system to adjust the refresh rate on the monitor and obviously changing the setting in Windows will have no effect.

Has anybody ever been able to get this five-connector type of monitor to work with a PC? I certainly don't want to downgrade my graphics card.



Bless you all.

 

[Summo]

Okay, I'm making progress and my question has changed.

I've worked out that this is a fixed-frequency monitor and effectively will only work at 1280x1024 running at 63.9kHz/60Hz.

It now seems that I have to find a way of forcing the horizontal and vertical refresh rates separately. The standard Windows interface doesn't let me do this (just increment both as disproportionate pairs, 60Hz, 65Hz, 70Hz, 74Hz etc).

Does anybody know of a utility (possibly part of a graphics card overclocking kit) which will allow me to do this? I've downloaded a couple, (including PowerStrip) neither of which work under WinXP/2000.

/edit It seems Elsa bundle SmartRefresh with some of their cards which does this. Just wish Creative did as well.

 

[Testin da Cable]

wasn't there a registry hack for this?
or was that for something totally different?

 

[Summo]

Um... thanks, TdC.

This is really pissing me off now. Tomorrow I might just fork out and buy a nice new one, ffs.

 

[Testin da Cable]

if you go to sony.com, there may be 'old stylee' monitor information files availible for download that contain exact time/frequency settings for your model.
you've prolly thought of that anyway I guess, but I'm only trying to help heh.
the file will be an *.INF, and you'll have to install it [a bit like a device driver]

good luck matey

 

[Testin da Cable]

btw, no offence dude but I believe you'll be a lot better off with a nice new model.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by SomeGuy
Um... thanks, TdC.

This is really pissing me off now. Tomorrow I might just fork out and buy a nice new one, ffs.

Even if you get it fixed just think what might happen in the future

 

[Summo]

Two excellent points, fellas.

I got the refresh frequency close enough to be able to see roughly what the display would be like. Not good. Seemed quite yellowy and dirty in patches, even though the screen is clean. Plus the RGB didn't line up properly which could be a result of the incorrect refresh rate, but at this rate I'll never know.

It may be free but if its crap then I just have a crap monitor. Plus it's the size of a small fridge and I doubt my desk would last. Still, I learnt a lot about old monitors tonight.

 

[SoWat]

If it's a fixed frequency monitor, it needs a fixed frequency video card...

...but you probably know that now anyway

 

[Summo]

Well, apparently not. It seems if I can set my display to the exact frequency the monitor needs then it should work (if only in Windows and only on that particular resolution), according to many webby bods.

That said... it don't work.

Fork it.