2405 fpw, garbled video - help!

Question

I had a computer custom built, and got the ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB PCI-E video card. The video worked fine until I installed the new monitor and its drivers.

I've updated BOTH the ATI and the Dell monitor driver. But nothing I do will save me from choppy/garbled video images. The Dell driver I've been using is Model 2405FPW.

I don't even use advanced settings on the monitor, my favorite setting is 1024 x 768.

I've tried lowering all the settings to fix this but it doesn't make any difference. I'm at 60 hz refresh rate, with 32 bit color. I've tried 16 - doesn't matter. I've tried the highest and the lowest hz refresh settings - doesn't matter.

Can you tell me how can I get this fixed? All the tech support online from both ATI and Dell isn't helping me get anywhere. What's the point of a great monitor if I can't watch DVD or movies on it?

Thanks!

Dufflover · Answer

I'm not too sure what you mean by garbled/choppy images. Well I do, but when you mention running the monitor at 1024x768 I'm not sure anymore cos you should always try to run LCDs at native resolution.

mw89 · Answer

the default (preferred) resolution posted within settings and in dell documentation is 1920 x 1200 I believe (that's from a quick look at the resolution options), and I distinctly remember the setup and guides preferring the setting that will take best advantage of the wide-screen size of this monitor. i personally have no real use for the wide-screen size other than getting a richer, better view (ie, i'm not using this for a television or dual-screens). this was a gift, and i'm not a hard core techie, i'm just trying to enjoy what i've been given.   when I first installed the monitor and everything the refresh rate was higher and the monitor defaulted to the widescreen resolution. i didn't like it, so I shrank it, which should not be a problem (because doesn't that make LESS work for the monitor/video card?).   when i was troubleshooting and trying to get my images to work (there are documented cases of garbled video across Dell and ATI's troubleshooting cases), the online steps to fix it I found online kept saying to lower the resolution and the refresh rate. i did both, to the bare minimum (800 x 600, 16 bit, 60 hz) and still no change with the garbled video.

Dufflover · Answer

when I first installed the monitor and everything the refresh rate was higher and the monitor defaulted to the widescreen resolution. i didn't like it, so I shrank it, which should not be a problem (because doesn't that make LESS work for the monitor/video card?).

Yes it would mean less work for the video card but still, if you run it lower than native it will look ~~cra...~~ poorer (stupid word filter) which would fit the "garbled" part of it. As for the choppyness thing, not sure.

So you're running 1024x768. are you running it in 1:1, stretched 4:3 or stretched full?

Maybe just take a photo of your setup.

mw89 · Answer

thanks for helping ... so here's a screenshot, don't have a program installed so it's a print-screen, a wee bit blurry.

i haven't changed the aspect ratio at all, so i'm assuming this is 1:1 ... you've got to do more advanced changes from the ATI program or the monitor's panel itself, none of which i've done.

i should say that i find the video choppy but it's more garbled ... it seems to flow in proper time, and the sound is fine, the video is just all kinds of crazy pyschedelic rainbow colors, and beneath it you can see the shapes of things but they're all pixelated, blocky, and weird.

i had checked to make sure i had the last windows update, and the latest version of wmplayer, and have quicktime and direct x installed. again, this is a pretty new build (march, 06).

i'm starting to think maybe I should uninstall all media players and reinstall. maybe good ol' windows crossed some wires and it's got nothing to do with the monitor/video card? i paid good money for the card so i could do some proper gaming so it'd better not be the card ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/miriamwynn/Desktop/photo#4949670248818671634

Dufflover · Answer

Screenshot looks really blurry. Is that what it really looks like or is it just re-sized/compressed?   Screenshots don't show much because a print-screen screenshot captures doesn't show what it looks like on the screen (what you see with your eyes).   So playing games is completely fine; like nice good graphics, no display artifacts like you just described?

andocrates · Answer

Well, you have to run the monitor at native resolution, your trying to run the poor thing at half speed the picture will never even approach good. But that makes everything too small so you have to scale everything (in windows) back up. You do this under windows display properties, turn the dpi from 96 to 140. 140 is pretty big but you can turn it down later.

It may be the ati card can't scale down that much, or you have the wrong type monitor scaling selected run it at speed and you'll be loving it. You ought to see this puppy play a 1440 x 1080 video, the fleshtones are breathtaking.

I don't normally suggest codec packs but in your case I suggest k-lite codec pack http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm
but first use this player http://www.videolan.org/ because all the codecs are built in. Microsoft media player 10 is a real dog, the new one 11 is pretty good, but I have no use for MS logging my moves, plus I need 4 or 5 video windows open at once so I use media player classic (a hack of the earlier Microsoft player) To make all my video's double sized I use bi-cubic resizing and haali's renderer (both in the k-lite pack) This is a cutting edge monitor, you can't tack it onto an old system and expect it to work, it's a hassle but that's life in computers. The vicious upgrade circle.

mw89 · Answer

thanks ...   i should reiterate that when I first got the monitor I DID use the default settings - I still got choppy video. I just switced the resolutions to lower settings to try and fix it.   It's not an issue of an old computer - it's a brand new build, new MB, new CPU, new everything.   i'll try the codec thing ...

andocrates · Answer

yes, it sounds like a codec issue, Messed up codecs chains will call for 9 different filters when you only need three. That's why I suggested k-lite because it will disable the codecs (change the merit) For fun download this program http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=GraphEdit

Then render a media file and it should render perfectly. This is Microsoft's graph-edit program. After that, come back with any questions. Another problem lately is PC's are being optimized for 3D games and you have to fix things to make them run video. Example, I had to turn SLI off and go into my bios and change the way my CPU handles requests (relating to duel cpu chip function, I already forgot)

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2405 fpw, garbled video - help!

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