Computer / LCD Monitor question

[Mesa]

So I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about computers, but apparently not.

The 1990's called the other day, and it wanted it's monitor back, so I had to turn in my CRT and get an LCD. I went with a Dell SP2309 because it was on sale for $200 (regularly $300).

I try to hook it up tonight and after disconnecting and moving my 20" CRT and setting up the new 23" LCD, i get an error message of the screen (this is native to the monitor, no signal from computer was received/displayed), something like "The input timing is incorrect, please set to 2048x1152, 60 Hz."

So I then have to hook the old 40 lb. monitor back up, just so I can change the resolution, except my display adapter maxed at 1920 x something and when I tried the maximum setting, I still got the same error message.

So I make sure I have the latest display adapter from Dell installed, reboot, and no difference in resolution options, except I do find under "advanced" a "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver." This allowed me to change the resolution to something a little closer 2048x1536. Then I swapped back to new LCD and I could at least get a picture. I ended up having to back it down to 1920x1200 to get a full screen and no black margins, after having to play with the aspect ratio options.



So here are my question(s):

Can you use onboard video adapter (Dell Dimension E520, 5+ years old) to source a signal on a HD LCD? Or is it time to finally invest in a graphics card?

Can you damage a monitor by feeding it a resolution below the recommended rating?

Are all/most LCD's recommended at 2048x1152 resolution?





Thanks for any info.

 

[praxitas]

1. I believe "some" onboard video supports HD and some does not. If its a 5+ yr old dell I think you know the answer. I'm not the best hardware guy out there, but if your pc has onboard video there may not be a slot for a video card if you wanted to upgrade it. Which means its either new computer time or new a new motherboard and video card.

2. I don't think you can harm a computer by using lower resolution. Sometimes going higher can cause problems (while gaming), but I don't think going lower would have any impact.

3. 1920 X 1200 is what my two 24" LCD's at work are set to. I don't know if there's really a suggested or standard its what you are comfortable with looking at.

Hope this helps

 

[Bodie The Cursed]

crt?.. lol

 

[Mesa]

1. I believe "some" onboard video supports HD and some does not. If its a 5+ yr old dell I think you know the answer. I'm not the best hardware guy out there, but if your pc has onboard video there may not be a slot for a video card if you wanted to upgrade it. Which means its either new computer time or new a new motherboard and video card.

2. I don't think you can harm a computer by using lower resolution. Sometimes going higher can cause problems (while gaming), but I don't think going lower would have any impact.

3. 1920 X 1200 is what my two 24" LCD's at work are set to. I don't know if there's really a suggested or standard its what you are comfortable with looking at.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the input. I know the E520 has some pci-x video graphics card slot, it's just not populated. After spending $500 on an AGP video card on my previous computer, only to have it obsolete less then a year later when pci-x was announced, I stopped trying to keep up with video cards. Gaming on a console also contributed to that decision.







Oddly enough, after finally getting a picture to come up on the new LCD display, some more resolution options became available under the options, and now everything seems to be working fine. Gotta love plug and play.

 

[cokebabies]

You can pick up a video card that will more than do the job at high resolutions for less than $50 on newegg.

I have this care in my work computer:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125250

$30 after rebate, and it runs two widescreens very well. Granted, it won't play brand new FPS games at max detail very well, but like you said, you've got a console. I greatly prefer to play games on the computer, but the hassle and cost of upgrades has made me (fairly) happily settle into consoles.

 

[darthviper107]

Yeah, you might want to get a new card, but it really depends on what your computer supports, it's either AGP or PCI-Express, but realize there's a PCI-Express 2.0 now so don't get the wrong one.

1920x1200 (or 1920x1080) is the standard resolution for monitors that size so that's the highest it will display. It won't cause any problems to go to a smaller resolution and may in fact increase performance.

 

[Mesa]

Thanks for the info. Shopping online, waiting for a deal.

It's definitely pci-x 1.0 16x. I guess there's a difference if memory chips now too (ddr2, ddr3, ddr5).

Looking to spend 100-ish.

 

[darthviper107]

Yeah, you should be able to get a pretty good card for that.