Dual Monitor problem under Windows XP

On 15 Apr 2002 23:47:28 -0700, hotis @hotmail.com (T.T. Lee) wrote:

The video card uses one of the "extra" pins of the 16 available in  a
"VGA cable," to communicate with the monitor via a protocol referred
to as DDC. The graphics chip uses this communication channel to
determine the display's manufacturer, model number, supported
resolutions, max refresh, etc.

A BNC cable only uses 5 pins, and they are ALL dedicated to active
video signals. Thus, when you use a BNC cable there is no DDC
communication pin the graphics chip can use to query the monitor for
it's information.

A BNC cable does provide a better quality signal though, and a
monitor's BNC inputs usually have greater bandwidth. But, if you use a
BNC cable and you feel you must see your monitor's information
displayed in the various information dialogs, then you will have to
manually install the proper .inf file for the monitor.

As to the "just don't look right," that's probably more illusion than
anything else. If the monitor has BNC connectors, it almost certainly
has a way to display the horizontal and vertical frequencies present
on it's inputs...Check and see if it's receiving the refresh rate
you've set.

--
Cheers
Bob Young
Sr. Software Engineer
NuCore Technology
WWW.NuCoreTech.Com
*********************

Thanks Bob for your reply.

Bob was right, after I switched back to the regular VGA cable, XP can
recognize the SONY 19" monitor correctly again, the thing is, it was
NOT a illusion that when I use BNC cable on this 19" SONY monitor
(G420), I tried it again and the actual refresh rate was ONLY 60hz..
:(

Anyway, the really annoying thing is that I search on the Web and
really can't find the proper .inf file (FOR WIN XP pro) for this new
SONY monitor G420, this is kinda rediculous.. any people happen to
know where I could download the proper .inf file for this monitor so
that I could use BNC cable on this monitor? Thanks!

On 19 Apr 2002 21:27:55 -0700, hotis @hotmail.com (T.T. Lee) wrote:

Ahh... now I understand, you're allowing it to use the default refresh
rate. I thought you were actively selecting a resolution, color depth,
*and* refresh rate. You *can* do that even with the "plug & play
monitor."

Why not just select the refresh rate you want, regardless of the
monitor the OS believes is attached?

Just un check the box that says "Hide modes this monitor cannot
display" under Display Properties->Settings->Advanced­->Monitor. I
think XP still has this, or the equivalent.

If you absolutely must see the correct description of your monitor
then Windows 2000 includes a .inf for a "Sony CPD-420GS," I'd be
surprised if WinXP didn't include the same file.

--
Cheers
Bob Young
Sr. Software Engineer
NuCore Technology
WWW.NuCoreTech.Com
*********************