SiS 651 Non-standard Resolutions

by **kenbb_99** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 6:53 pm

I would like to use my PC with SiS 651 video to display 1360 x 768 resolution. This appears to be a VBIOS issue, not a driver issue, but I'm not sure.

CP was kind enough to update my VBIOS to 2.30 for my SiS 651 for Asus Digimatrix (P4SQ motherboard). I am able to get 1440 x 900 resolution on my 22" monitor. I tried hooking it up to my Sony LCD TV which supports resolutions of 1360 x 768, 1280 x 768, and 1024 x 768. TV will only display at 1024 x 768 with SiS 3.73 driver.

I used PowerStrip to create a custom driver for the Sony TV and updated the monitor driver to use this one. This did not help - display options still only went to 1024 x 768. Tried using Powerstrip to create custom timings for the display adapter but the custom timings button is grayed out so I can't change the available resolutions.

I used the generic Microsoft graphics driver to set resolution to 1440 x 900 (I was surprised that this driver listed 1440 x 900 as a choice when the SiS 3.73 did not, but oh well). TV went black and showed an "Unsupported Resolution" error message and returned to 1024 x 768. Other choices from this driver include 1280 x 1024 which causes the same error message on the TV and 1024 x 768.

This makes me think that the generic graphics driver is reading available resolutions from the VBIOS and that the available resolutions are limited by the VBIOS (no resolutions beyond 1024 horizontal while keeping 768 vertical) and not the driver.

The P4SQ has two mini-PCI slots and both are filled so a new graphics board in mini-PCI form factor (if such a thing even exists that will display non-standard resolutions) is not an option. I love the Digimatrix and do not want to get a new mini system just to get 1360 x 768 resolution.

I searched Google and this forum and looked at the SiS and Asus support sites but did not see anything to help.

Any thoughts on this one?

by cp » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:10 pm

blame it on the SIS drivers for windows. so you either write SIS and ask them to write proper drivers, get a pci vga and throw out one of the other cards or install linux which supports any resolution you want regardless of the video bios (or windows driver).
honestly, there is nothing anyone could do about it. except SIS and their driver writing hordes.

by **kenbb_99** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:33 pm

Thanks, this does help clarify my options. I'm looking into the Linux option now.