Dell Inspiron 8500 to LG 37LB5D

[Guest Hugo]

Hi,

Here's my problem, I got a Dell laptop, Inspiron 8500 with nVidia GeForce 4200 Go that I want to connect through a VGA cable to a LG 37" LCD, model 37LB5D.

Anyway, the point is that like other people wrote on this forum, I am having a hard time getting a custom resolution out of my laptop.

I already have Powerstrip installed on my PC and was able to get a custom resolution of 1360x768 to display on another LCD TV. Now this resolution does not work with my new LG TV. I am trying to adjust the refresh rate with Powerstrip but it does not work.

I also tried adding a 1920x1080 resolution. It worked partially since I can set my laptop to this resolution and get something on the TV, but the image is squeezed as if the VGA cable was not sending the full 1920 pixels wide.

But the biggest problem I have is that I have to do all this in Clone mode. As soon as I close my laptop lid, hence use the TV as my main an only screen, I lose any custom resolution that I had set. I tried adding them with Powerstrip but it does not work. The only not too bad resolution I can get is 1600x1200 but the graphics are not that sharp and the ratio is not 16:9 wich is quite annoying.

Any suggestion on what I need to do to get the best out of this situation? with or without Powerstrip, whatever I want it to work :) Or in other words, how can I get a 16:9 resolution out of my laptop through the VGA cable up to the TV? and I want to use the TV as the main monitor since the laptop lags a bit when playing videos with both screens open...

Thanks a lot in advance!!

Hugo

[P4Power]

Have you tried RivaTuner? When you get it installed and run it, look at the bottom section where there should be a button to click next to ForceWare detected that says Customize. Then select the custom display modes wizard and put in what you want.

[Guest HUGO]

Thanks, I did install the program, it seems quite good.

However, on the custom display page, if I enter a resolution such as 1360x768, or any other 16:9 resolution, I get the message at the bottom saying : "Approximated refresh rate limit: N/A, EDID is not available".

What does that mean?

Another question by the way, would it be possible to simply add custom resolutions to the .inf file created by PowerStrip for my LG TV, or to add them in another .inf file related to my video card? What line would add 1360x768 or 1920x1080 resolution ?

Thanks!