800x480 on intel 945GM/GMA950 - is it possible?

**Giuliano** · 04-26-2007, 06:39 PM

See, the whole .INF setup tweak is supposed to have been made FOR the G965 / X3000 chipset..

That's how Intel lets their OEMs add custom resolutions to the driver set.

I suspect that I have something major wrong with the 18-byte EDID string.

On the one hand, the EDID string kind of works by showing the 800 x 480 resolution in the list.

However, it's the wrong refresh - 601 Mhz instead of 61 Mhz.

This is something I won't really be able to test until I get a Xenarc to test it on, and I won't be able to do that for at least another two weeks.

I'm going to be out of town basically for the next 4 weeks, so I won't be able to work much further on this subject until around May 28th (Memorial Day).

I am resolved to make this work, so I'm not giving up. It just may take a little while..

Also, Nvidia cards can set custom resolutions.. the least expensive Nvidia card I could find is about $40, for a 6200 PCI-E version.

However, if you're going to spend $40 on a different video card, it's probably better just to spend the $30 on PowerStrip instead.

According to the release notes, they added support for Intel GMA graphics on 4/06/2007:

04/06/2007 - 3.74.584
- Added preliminary R6xx support
- Improved R5xx timing support
- Added Intel GMA custom resolution support
- Improved EDID write routines

Try the latest demo version and see if it does anything for you.

The Xenarc timings are here if you need them:
http://www.xenarc.com/faq.html#QA1

**JuniorGeezer** · 04-27-2007, 08:52 PM

Hi folks, here's my sob story:

Intel 945GT chip set in an MSI 945GT Speedster mainboard. Lilliput 7 inch monitor in the MP3car transflective version. The display driver says 945GM/GU.

I don't worry about the 30 USD for Powerstrip but the first problem is that the advanced timing options only appear for the DVI port but not for the VGA port. The second problem is that I can apply 800x480 for the DVI port but the display driver will not eat it. Of course I rebooted.

I tried installing the Intel embedded drivers according to this thread
http://mp3car.org/vbulletin/lcd-disp...m-drivers.html
but when I did the display output shut off upon the login screen. Had to use last known good configuration which saved me many times.

I also tried the igxp32.inf hack earlier in this thread to no avail.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks

**Giuliano** · 04-29-2007, 11:43 AM

I don't know if the Liliput timings are different from the Xenarc timings.

My board is a 945GM and I have the add-on DVI card.

As soon as I get back after Memorial Day (May 28th), I'm going to start testing the tweak(s) with a 7" Xenarc.

It's very possible that the IEGD drivers only (easily) work for those with only analog VGA, and that I got the encoding wrong in the .INF tweak.

Unfortunately I'll be out of town for the next few weeks, and won't be able to do any testing until later this month.

The drivers you mentioned in the older thread may not work.

You can try these, which was the first driver package I built, which worked for the thread starter:

http://moschini.org/945GM-800x480.zip

-G

**Chamberlin** · 04-29-2007, 02:08 PM

Wow, it is amazing you are really taking this to heart fo us Giuliano!

This isn't a sob story so much as a quick rundown and one simple question.
I hope I am not interfering with the direction of this thread.

I have a CARPC running for about a 9 months now, EPIA M1200 MINI ITX board yadayadayada.... Of course everone knows this board doesn't do 800x480.... so I got a 90 deg riser card for a NVidia FX5200 and all was good....until the EPIA PCI slot fried (along with the FX5200, which I am getting warrantied).

I am now prepared to just buy a new MiniITX MB, that has built in 800x480 support.... I notice some are stating LVDS compatibility etc... BUT, I just run the Xenarc 700 analog VGA and all I want to know: what newest release MB can I buy right now, to avoid driver issues and not need a video card, and be able to play DVDs etc....??? Price is not really a factor $200-$300 is OK.

HAVE FUN ON YOUR VACATION 'G'!

thanks
-Chamberlin
old pics:

**JuniorGeezer** · 05-01-2007, 11:32 AM

Thanks Guiliano!

I forgot to mention that I had tried the http://moschini.org/945GM-800x480.zip driver before. I get the dreaded "All components are not installed correctly. Please try installing again" message.

I did unzip the archive before installing.

Also, I am pretty sure that the chipset drivers are installed. It apperas that the inf update utility serves this purpose although it is named ambiguously. Does it only install inf files that someone has to run or does it install and execute the inf files? I think it does the latter but it is still a funky name for a set of chipset drivers. If I look in the device manager a whole bunch of Intel devices appear which makes me think that the chipset drivers are nstalled.

EDIT:
Maybe not. Quote from:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipset...psets+infmain&
---
Note: The Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility only informs the operating system how to identify components; it DOES NOT INSTALL ANY DRIVERS for your system.
---
Well, OK, but WHO DOES??

Are you folks aware of the 800x480 driver on cartft.com? These are for the 945GM.
http://cartft.com/support/drivers/Commell-Series/
I tried these as well and got the "All components are not installed correctly. Please try installing again" message.

So at least for me, the first hurdle to overcome is the ability to install any of these drivers. I even sometimes de-installed the Intel Express driver before installing any of these embedded drivers to no avail.

By the way offtopic, the Express video driver has a fantastic video acceleration. When playing a 1080p HDTV movie with AC3 sound the CPU usage stays below 10% average.

**jaivimal** · 05-09-2007, 04:56 PM

hi Giuliano,
iam new to this forum. i got a problem . iam not good at comp hardware. please do clarify my doubt.
i have a 15" TFT monitor and in that i try to st the resolution for 1280x800 but its not there. my monitor is horizontally longer that the normal 15" CRT monitor.
iam using D945GCCR Intel chipset.
can u please tell me how can i get 1280x800 resolution in my display settings

**hithere** · 05-11-2007, 01:16 PM

Some interesting stuff on the Intel 945GM, it apparently doesn't have a mode capable of running the same display info (clone mode) to separate monitors at different resolutions (which may block any attempt to run a non-standard res on an attached monitor on a laptop without the laptop being able to operate its own screen at that res)...you have to have it in "extended desktop" mode to run different rez's, according to Intel's documentation. I tried this in all past attempts, however, and the non-standard rez's wouldn't work on my VGA out in any case.

**chdude3** · 05-25-2007, 04:01 PM

Originally Posted by Giuliano

I don't know if the Liliput timings are different from the Xenarc timings.

I don't think they are. I've got a Lilliput EBY701; I tried to use some of the drivers posted in this thread. The best I could get was after a reboot, the output was forced to 800x480, but the colours were all screwed up. So close, and yet so far!

Sorry, edit to say this is with 945GM on an Aopen MiniPC.

**JuniorGeezer** · 07-03-2007, 01:31 PM

I postponed the CarPC for two months and messed around with my audio in my car. I finally built a subwoofer that satisfies me but this took a lot of tinkering.

So today I procured and installed an inexpensive Nvidia based graphics card, the Asus EN6200TC.

I was able to dial in 800x480 as a custom setting and for all I know it is displayed correctly.

Before I installed the Nvidia graphics card, my computer based on the Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T5500 consumed 26 W with the Windows XP desktip idling, which was very good.

After installing the Nvidia graphics card, the idle power consumption went up to 40 W which is very disappointing. The graphics card adds 14 W and gets quite hot.

And the graphics card would make the computer enclosure a lot taller.

So, this totally sucks! Had I known all this, I would not have gone with the expensive Intel mobile processor and mainboard. Instead I would have taken an Athlon X2 EE CPU, saved a lot of money and achieved 800x480 with not a lot more power consumption.

But maybe Giuliano or someone else can come up with more things to try to get the 800x480 working on the Intel mainboard graphics?

This whole mess bothers me so much that I'm serously considering getting a Commell LV-677DC mainboard. This would do 800x480 with the driver from cartft.com. It would obsolete my M2-ATX power supply, my MSI mainboard and the graphics card.

**Chamberlin** · 07-03-2007, 01:46 PM

yea, but by using the Nvidia card, you get a good amount of graphics processing, good dvd playback and as you can see from my above post, you can get a 90 deg riser card to save space. If you already have a giant subwoofer system, whats another 14 watts... get the Yellow top Optima battery and call it a day. Cooling should be your greatest concern at this point.

-C