New Studio XPS 16 (4670) - External Monitor Problems

I'm a fairly advanced computer user (CS degree, etc), but I've had a horrible time trying to find a reasonably priced laptop that will run a 30" external monitor at 2560x1600.

I finally decided if a an output other than DVI-D would work. I found the XPS 16 which looked like a really sexy laptop, and I checked to see that the the 4670 supports 2560x1600 in theory, and that the DisplayPort to DVI-D would work in theory. I found two other posters on a non-computer forum who said they ran 2560x1600 off an XPS 16.

I tried to verify with Dell that DisplayPort would support 2560x1600 with a DisplayPort to DVI-D adapter. I finally found a sales person that sounded reasonably intelligent, and had him contact tech support to verify that it would do so.

So, I started my XPS 16 a little over 24 hours ago, and the the reported resolution from the monitor is 1280x800, and I haven't found a way to override that in Catalyst. (and no, I wouldn't be happy with using a 1080p 12xx by xxxx resolution)

I've spent over an hour on the phone with tech support and can't get anyone that even seems to comprehend the issue (Are you sure your monitor supports that resolution? Is it turned on? Has it worked before at that resolution? etc.)

I THINK an issue is that the monitor is seeing the connection as single link DVI and so only reporting 1280x800, but I don't know.

Can anyone help me?

Parts:
(1) XPS 16 with 4670 DisplayPort
(2) DisplayPort to DVI-D
(3) Samsung 305T

Also, I can't get my LG 24" monitors to run at 1920x1200. They can run at 1900x1050 or whatever, but not at their native resolutions (methods tried: DisplayPort->DVI-D, VGA, HDMI).

(By the way, I apologize for making this my first post. I've been searching quite a bit, and anyone I ask has either been clueless or like "wow, why would need something that big?" This is the first competent looking forum I've found.)

 

I had this problem a while ago, you can fix it by right clicking on the catalyst icon on the system tray and setting the res through there

 

That was the first thing I did. I tried every setting I could. Any specific one?

The max reported from the monitor is 1280x800.

 

Try creating a custom resolution in catalyst control center.

 

I did; I also did the driver clearing and installing new modded driver per your post in your thread.

 

This sounds like it may be the answer, and if it is I'm so pissed at Dell. I spent a 36 hour period going back and forth with their sales people trying to get an official answer about whether it would support 2560x1600 on an external monitor.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19290558/19539568.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&s=dhs

My DisplayPort only has a D, not a D++, so... that means it can't support dual mode and therefore is limited to 1280x800 (or whatever the single link resolution is on the given monitor) on a HDMI or DVI-D device?

 

I guess it's a possibility that the port is not D++. If so, you could use HDMI to DVI. If you find a resolution to the problem, PM me so I can add it to the FAQ.

 

You can do HDMI to DVI, but you won't get 2560x1600 resolution AFAIK. I belive HDMI is limited to HD resolution (i.e. 1920x1200 max, or maybe 1900x1080).

I think the solutions are:
1) ship back to Dell; or, keep it and
2) Buy a ViDock2($300!!!)

 

what kind of Displayport adapter? I don't think any Displayport adapter can do DVI- dual link except for the Apple one, and it is MiniDisplayport. I think you'll need a Displayport monitor if you want to do 30 inches at this point.

 

Well it only has a D on the side, not a D++, so I'm assuming single mode.

Why can't Dell tell people this before I bought it? I told them that I had a DVI-D 30" monitor and I needed to run it at 2560x1600, and they sent me the adapter and told me it would work!

It seems like just a method to sell their overpriced 30" monitor to me. My Samsung 305t is perfectly fine.

I'm sending it back unless there' a solution that doesn't involve getting a ViDock.

 

Funny Monk, can you please confirm that you got this external monitor working on 1920x1200 resolution by setting res in the catalyst ?

On which port is you external display hooked on, dp or dvi ?

P.

 

um yeah, about that. Most of the time, they have no idea what they're talking about

 

Hello everyone...

Can someone please summarize and tell me what's finall answer:

Does Dell Studio XPS 16 (with ATI 4670) can provide 1920x120 resolution from
1) DVI
2) DisplayPort
3) Booth ?

Anyone tried or sucseeded, or I should return notebook before they send it to me ???

Thanks for prompt answer.

Petar

 

If you use an adapter, DVI should work at that resolution (it doesn't have a DVI port.) It can do that resolution from HDMI and Displayport.

 

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06c/A10-51210-64265-3965876-64265-3929966-3929967-3929969.html

here it is. this should fix your problems (though expensive)

 

Thanks. I keep on reading. just ordered DisplayPort to DVI adapter that supports display resolutions of up to 1920x1200, which is much cheaper.

If that doesn't work I will go with some dual link adapter as you mentioned. Regarding that, I found also something similar at HP site:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06c/A1-329290-64265-3965876-3965876-3929966-3929969.html

Is this problem generic for all notebooks with displayport output or only some of them have it?

 

Euh... It's hard to believe that your notebook doesn't have D++. AFAI, D++ stands for standard 1.1 which dates 2007. Look at this article:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/04/vesa-approves-displayport-1-1-kiss-those-dvi-and-vga-ports-good/

Maybe your adapter isn't good enough.

I am only saying what I think, didn't test anything.

 

Hey petar,

I have a studio XP with the 4670 card and the displayport without the ++, and with the passive DisplayPort to DVI adapter from Dell I have 1920x1200 on a Dell monitor that is three years old. I can also get a 720p TV working at the same time, but I have to use the VGA connection.

The laptop does not seem to support both DisplayPort and HDMI connections simultaneously unless they are both at the same resolution and they mirror each other. If you use DisplayPort or HDMI and the VGA adapter - then you can use different resolutions on each monitor.

My monitor caps out at 1920x1200, so my DisplayPort to DVI converter might support that at the highest resolution. I can't speak to higher resolutions than that.

 

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10246&cs_id=1024608&p_id=6014&seq=1&format=2
Or you can pay $8...

May not necessarily be compatible though.

 

I seem to be having the same problem as you but my setup is with a HP HDX18t w/ Nvidia GeForce GT 130M that seems to have maxium resolution of 1920x1080 for both HDX display and external monitor.

I have both the Dell 30" and your Samsung 30" and both can only get resolution of 1280x800. No option to get it higher on them. From what I've found it a limitation of the GeForce GT 130M graphics card.

But when I hooked up a 24" Dell lcd, I was able to get atleast 1920x1080. I would be happy with that on the 30" monitors. Tried using vga to dv, and hdmi to dvi, to no luck.

Have you solved your problem as I'm in the same boat now. Wife is firm on using her 30" monitor. I'm thinking I may have to get a new laptop.

Thanks.

 

Been using DisplayPort hooked up directly with no adapter to my trusty ol' dell 2408wfp @ 1920x1200+1920x1080p from laptop. Love it, both wide gamut color and look superb.

 

Thanks, but our situation is w/ a 30" monitor....and my HP has no display point. Just VGA and HDMI. Have you tried getting your XPS 16 to run a 30" monitor in its native 2560x1600?

 

I've spent almost a week now w/ research to no success. The best I can achieve is probably 1920x1080 but with some sort of external adaper, but still no guarantee. Now I have to figure out which I want to try. Any suggestions?

1) ViDock 2 external graphics/video card thing - $300
http://gizmodo.com/5031028/lightnin...play-enhancer-adds-two-monitors-to-your-setup

1) Matrox DualHead2Go graphics expansion Modules - $239
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/

2) A Lenovo USB to DVI adaper that uses the BizLink's DisplayPort technlogy - $129
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...6&OID=:00000026:000027D1:&cid=cnetdf_45K5296&

 

There are DP to DVI-D (dual channel) "adapters"... Lenovo has one but there are others as well, (lenovo is only rebranding it....). I am not sure if I saw one from DELL.

I managed to connect 2 external displays each having 1920x1200. More that that isn't possible without above mentioned adapter.

There are also other options such as USB graphic card, which is fine for office applications.

DP port on XPS isnt d++, but it looks like D++ isn't the only way to go.

Good luck.

 

My HP HDX18t does not have a DP (display port). Only VGA and HDMI port.

 

I have a Dell 16" Studio XPS with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and I have a 2408WFP external monitor with 1920 x 1200 resolution.

When I hook up with the VGA cable it looks like CRAP. Totally fuzzy even though it says it's 1920 x 1200.

I then try the HDMI cable and I get nothing. Lapto pgoes black, and external monitor has a blue floating windw that says, "No VGA cable".

Also, as a side note when I hooked up my old D600 to the same monitor it was crisp and clear and the old laptop only went to 1024 x 768 so there is obviously a conversion problem on the new laptop.

And it won't even do anything with the HDMI cable.

help?

 

ok I fixed it. you press the left button on the monitor until it reads hdmi

 

ok it fixed the display but now when I have the monitor hooked up the speakers on the laptop don't work!

 

how do I have the speakers work when monitor hooked up?

 

When you switch the cables, you also have to switch the input on the 2408WFP from VGA to HDMI. Keep hitting the left-most button until you see HDMI, and everything should be good to go.

 

I'm also using the same, with the $10 10 ft. Monoprice DP cable, no adapters.

I have a problem, though, even with the replacement cable from Monoprice, that the laptop will not boot if the DP cable is connected. If I hit power then immediately connect the DP cable, then once Windows loads, ATI CC tells me that it can't use the DP. At that point, if I unplug and replug the DP cable, then everything works perfectly, at the full 1920x1200, of course. But this is good only until next boot, at which point it will not boot nor even turn on, unless and until I remove the DP cable.

I tried the old cable on my friend's XPS 1640, and his had the same problem.

Anyone else have this issue? Any ideas? Any other cable I could try? Could it be the 2408WFP?

Thanks.

 

monitor is on hdmi now and it looks great, but now the speakers don't work. as soon as I unplug the hdmi cable, the speakers are back on as it's playing on winamp the whole time. but not when hdmi is plugged into laptop for external monitor.

 

help me to get speakers working with hdmi plugged in?

 

ATI has a driver supplement to enable HDMI audio, in case the video drivers you currently have don't have that. Mine switches seamlessly between integrated and HDMI, depending on if the HDMI is connected or not.

 

My own experience: XPS 1640 from January 2009 (when they had an ATI 3670), plus 2 external monitors, a 24" (Dell 2405, old but still in good condition) which does 1920x1200 and a 30" (LG W3000H) which does 2560x1600.

When connected to the 24", the 1640 is capable of 1920x1200 without any issues, regardless of HDMI (via an HDMI/DVI cable), Displayport (via a cheap DP/DVI adapter + DVI cable) or analog VGA (which of course looks worse, but works for the sake of testing).

When connected to the 30", the laptop not only can't reach the full 2560x1600 due to issues others described in earlier posts, but not even 1920x1200 (or 1920x1080). It shows 1280x800 as max resolution and no amount of fiddling managed to make any higher resolution available. I tried every sensible combination of HDMI/DVI cable, DP/DVI Adapter, HDMI/DVI Adapter, DVI-DVI cable (2 cables, one dual link and one single link) hooked to each of those adapters in turn. No analog VGA tests since the 30" has no analog connection at all.

I'd very much like to be able to *at least* see 1920x1200 (and even 2560x1600, if the refresh was lowered to 30Hz, would definitely be within the single-link bandwidth limits, but maybe it's not even in the standard so moot point. Still - for spreadsheets it'd be great since LCDs have no flicker.).

 

I'm having the exact same problem. Got a Dell 27" U2711 yesterday and it will not get over 1920x1200 via DisplayPort on my Dell Studio XPS 1640 with a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 graphics card (1x VGA, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort).

I recorded a clip with my iPhone showing what happens when I choose above 1920x1200: U2711.mov

I have tried every possible cable/connection and my max resolutions was:

VGA-VGA: 2048x1152 (looks really bad, blurry)
DVI-HDMI: 1920x1080
HDMI-HDMI: 1920x1080
DisplayPort-DisplayPort: 1920x1200

This issue needs to be adressed and fixed by Dell now. When I bought my Dell Studio XPS 16 I talked with a sales rep (which confirmed and looked at specification which clearly stated it would run an external monitor up to 2560x1600 via DisplayPort and was one of the reasons I bought it so I could get a 27"+ later on.

 

Any updates?

 

I spent 2h 20min on the phone. They escalated 3 times and eventually ended up talking to the team of engineers responsible for creating the XPS 1640 (because apparently this was an unheard of issue). The rep basically told me there is a firmware restriction on the output of the computer and will not support the monitor at full resolution regardless of upgrading the GPU. The restriction is applied for battery and performance issues.
I let them know that I recommend dell to my friends since I love my XPS16 and until finding this new issue out, have had no problems and have been extremely satisfied. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth and the only reason I'll keep the monitor is because i use a macbook pro for work (work from home, company laptop) and it works flawlessly.
Basically Dell is saying, don't buy Dell computers to work with Dell monitors by implementing this restriction at the firmware level.

 

Can anyone confirm this info from the last post? I am currently struggling with this same issue as I just bought a 30" 2560x1600 monitor. Am trying to get my XPS M1640 to output an image to it and am having a hard enough time with that. Currently it will only run at 1600x1200, anything above that and my monitor is staying black. I don't really know what to do. I have been told by reps before that I will be able to use this resolution.