m1530 HDMI>DIV 1600x1200 issue - not supported?

Hi all,

I've got a Dell XPS m1530 with a internal display that shows 1680x1050. My graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce 8600m GT with 256mb ram.
I have a ViewSonic VP201b 20" 1600x1200 display that I'd like to use from time to time with the laptop. So I connect it via the laptops HDMI port to the external monitors DVI using a High Quality HDMI > DVI cable.

The external screen is detected correctly by the m1530 Nvidia card and I'm able to get a picture with 1600x1200.

But after a while the external screen will show errors in the form of 1cm wide, 1px high, white/grey horizontal lines. The lines will show up in a mili second and disappear again. Not massively, but enough to be really annoying.

So I called Dell XPS premium support, waited 20 min. and got connected to a support person. We spent 2 hours on the phone going through all the settings, re-installing drives, booting and running diagnostics and etc. Finally he gave up and was about to order a motherboard replacement. He then comes back on the line and tells me that a mb replacement will not help. The issue is that I should not expect to be able to get a perfect picture over HDMI unless I use a 1920x1080p display. I tell him I think he's confused with watch HiDef movies on the display and that I'm just using Windows and I should surely be able to get a display without artifacts in 1600x1200 over HDMI.

So long story short - shouldn't I be able to get 1600x1200 over HDMI to an external monitor?
- Chr

 

Just my two cents: it sounds like your graphics card is overheating, because in my experience, that's when those little white lines show up.

Otherwise, I have no idea how to help. I've hooked up my laptop to my 1080p telly, but that's a different scenario altogether. Good luck fixing the problem.

 

The weird thing is though that it only happens on the ext display over HDMI. If the card is overheating I would expect to see the artifacts also on the internal display and over analog VGA connection to the screen and I do not see any errors.

And I've of course used the monitor with other PCs and never had an issue with it.

 

i have almost the same problem... when i'm hooking my 2408wfp with the HDMI... whatever what resolution... i have some red artifacts on my screen and the screen is all f*cked loll i cant see anything... but the same screen via VGA is perfect...

i have also test my 360 /w HDMI hooked to the same screen and by the same cable and it's amazing!

so i'm guessing that my HDMI port on the M1530 is broken =(

are we putting the new motherboard ourselves ?!?!?

i have already did change my hard drive... but a mb :| dell support is weird... lol

 

red artifacts:
check ur nVidia Control panel setings..

remember seeing somewhere about the inconsistencies in the cable or something, that nVidia is pushing the red color info into a different pin for hdmi vs dvi or something

 

I can see my screen, but I noticed yesterday that the lines are the same as whatever background I happen to have. So when I had a very red backgroound the lines looked red. It's very easy to see the noise in the picture when I for example make a powerpoint with black background and make it full screen.

And the problem definately get's worse as the m1530 get's warmer.

I also noticed yesterday that the Dell site had a new Nvidia driver from 18-Aug-2008. I installed it, but it didn't make a difference, I still have the issue.

I will test with some other displays to rule out that it's not my monitor that's faulty. I'm 99,9% sure its the m1530 HDMI port that is causing the issue.

 

Try using laptopvideo2go.com drivers

 

just to follow my problem... it was the HDMI cable finaly... Maybe the 360 was eable to manage to show a picture with a weak cable than my laptop... but anyway, i bought another cable on Monoprice and it's amazing now!

=)