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Very recently my desktop decided to suddenly downgrade my lovely 1680x1050 resolution to a paltry 1024x768.

The monitor in question is a 22" Digimate L-2280WD. I'm currently using it on a Windows 7 x64 Pro build with 8GB RAM and a 1GB GTX 460. Monitor is connected to GPU via DVI-I cable.

Now while I boot instead of the fancy Windows 7 loading screen (the one with part of the Microsoft logo flying into the centre) I get a green loading bar akin to Windows Vista's. Upon login I am unable to increase resolution beyond 1024x768. Can't do it on Windows Control Panal nor on nVidia Control Panel.

Device Manager lists the Monitor as a 'Generic Non PnP display', but the Display Adapter lists a GTX 460, which means my GPU is ok. I know this because I can still play Steam games fine without a hitch, only everything looks magnified because of the resolution downscale.

I've TRAWLED the web in search of a solution. One was to clean reinstall GPU drivers. Driver Sweeper- nope. Latest nVidia drivers - NOPE.

Another suggestion was to System restore before the monitor conked out. I remembered the day before I installed some Microsoft Keyboard/Mouse macro software, as well as an update to the Intel Management Interface Engine, both via Windows Update. Inevitably, System Restore didn't solve ANYTHING.

Before you ask, my motherboard doesn't have an IGP, nor an option to enable the GPU in my Intel i3-2100. So no need to delve into the BIOS for that then.

Next, I got out of my way to replace the DVI-I cable with another one, freshly bought from Amazon. Still showing 1024x768.

I was going to update the monitor drivers, but the official Digimate manufacturer's website doesn't even HAVE the drivers for it.

In addition, I've read up on causes of Windows reporting Generic non PnP, and found out that it MAY be a courrupted EDID. Again, I WAS going to reflash the EDID (being aware of the risks), but upon looking at the registry via Phoenix EDID Designer, it came up with the following 3 hardware IDs

  • ACR009D
  • CVT2200
  • NVD000

ACR refers to a different monitor I used with the PC, NVD presumably refers to the nVidia display drivers, and CVT weirdly lists as some random monitor.

You’d think that DGM would be somewhere in the list. But no, not a single mention of my monitor. So without an EDID to flash with, I am pretty much out of ideas.

So, could anyone suggest some different ideas before I have to break out the tweezers to clip off a couple of pins on the DVI cable, or before I decide maybe it’s better to buy a new monitor?

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  • I think there's some problem with your video driver. You should uninstall it and install it again.
    – billc.cn
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 23:14

1 Answer 1

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The communication link between your monitor and display card has failed. This could be a fault in the monitor (test by plugging in monitor to another computer) or the DVI cable or the graphics card (test by plugging in different monitor to same port).

There might be an app in your NVIDIA driver software, or downloadable from NV, that lets you set a custom resolution for your monitor. You might need the detailed specs for that from your monitor documentation (there are actually lots of different 1680x1050 resolutions, video signal timing-wise).

Open Device Manager, and from the View menu check Show Hidden Devices. Expand the Monitors branch in the device tree and you will likely see an entry (faded to show not currently connected) for your monitor, the Properties of which will include a -hardwareid- matching one in the list from the Phoenix app.

Look in the Registry for the key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Display-hardwareid-\ -bunch-of-numbers-and-ampersands-\DeviceParameters. There should be a value named EDID with a long binary value. That should be the EDID your monitor was previously transmitting to your graphics card. If you learn how to decipher it, there's a lotta info in there.

I don't know why you think you should destroy your DVI cable, clipping off pins was done on VGA connectors only when the monitor was sending the WRONG EDID.

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  • Backslash goes after "Display" in reg key name above, can't get the site software to insert it.
    – kreemoweet
    Commented Sep 22, 2012 at 0:14
  • Checked out Regedit, the entry for my monitor is giving me BAD_EDID, so I guess you may be correct on the monitor failing to send EDID to my PC. I had a go playing with Custom Resolutions on nVidia control panel, which funnily enough managed to restore native resolution, using your advice! That said, I'm still going to do some more tests to verify monitor failure. On a side note, dunno if it's just me getting used to 4:3 resolution or does everything look really sharp and that the text looks slighly squashed and very sharp? The Windows icons look about right though :P
    – user140542
    Commented Sep 22, 2012 at 9:19
  • Don't know what you mean about 4:3 a.r., 1680x1050 is a 16:10 aspect
    – kreemoweet
    Commented Sep 22, 2012 at 19:04
  • well I mean the change from 1024x768 back up to my native resolution. At the time I wasnt used to the sharpness of the text
    – user140542
    Commented Sep 23, 2012 at 14:11

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