Apple 20" Cinema Display

[Anonymous]

The 20" Apple Cinema Display is a rather picky screen, its native resolution is 1680x1050 at 60hz.
I am running this monitor through a 3rd party conversion box (Gefen Extendit) to convert the ADC to VGA. From there, I am plugging that VGA cable into an IOGear KVM switch, to share the monitor between a PC and a MAC... and man, is this a headache.

It seems now that I've gotten to the point where I can get the MAC to use the full screen beautifully after some blank screens and partial screens, but i'm having a consistent problem of a partial screen for the PC. There is a 3 inch indent on the left, so the display is just on the right, with a half inch indent at the top too - so the screen is butted up in the bottom right portion of the screen. It almost fills it, but not quite.

The PC has an ATI FireGL Z1 card that is currently set to 1280x1024. It can do several variations of a 1600 resolution, then jumps to 17something, without being able to select the monitor's native resolution of 1680x1050! The problem is that this display adapter cannot get to that coveted 1680x1050 resolution!

I downloaded Powerstrip and installed it, and it detected the monitor's max resolution at 1680x1050 at 60hz, but using Powerstrip, I still can't select that! Powerstrip is still only letting me select the same settings I could select by going to my display properties. it seems to me that I'm not using Powerstrip to its full potential. Is there a way to get to this resolution?

Thank you very much, Entech seems to have a really great program with even better support. Thanks again.

Truly,
Kenny

Code:

[dakos]

Take a look here:

http://entechtaiwan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=197&sid=afe0cc1bdff10d99a0ae8338140bf0b1

[Kenny]

I started this thread because the Apple 20" Cinema Display has a different native resolution, though it seems the problems are parallel throughout their whole line of Cinema Displays. Judging by their native resolutions, my display adapter would be able to suit a 23" Cinema Display, but cannot support the 20" Display's native resolution of 1680x1050. Since I have the 20", this is where my problem resides.

I was under the impression that Powerstrip would allow customizable resolutions, but I may have misread the recommendations. Though, Powerstrip was able to detect the monitor's "Max. Resolution" at 1680x1050, and I was able to create a driver according to these findings, I still am unable to select 1680x1050 in the display settings, through Powerstrip or not.

It seems to me that since Apple felt they could forego the creation of a driver to install their monitor, PC users are left hanging dry. Instead of allowing a potentially great product to be used regardless of platform, they seem to be adopting a "no PCs allowed" doctrine, whether they want to admit it or not.
But then again, some people are getting their Cinema Displays to work on PCs, with and possibly without Powerstrip and 3rd party converters like the Gefen Extendit converter... These just don't seem to be the solution for me.

I suppose that my graphics card, an ATI FireGL Z1, could be the weak link here, since it is unable to get that coveted resolution of 1680x1050, but it is able to exceed that resolution several times, even capable of reaching the 23" Cinema Display's native resolution of 1920x1200, and resolutions even higher than that. It's just this awkward resolution of 1680x1050 that seems out of reach for me since I happen to be in the unfortunate situation of having the 20" model.

I realize that this may very well be out of Powerstrip's domain of control, but this forum seems to be as good a place as any to ask about it since Powerstrip seems to be playing such a vital role in the CinemaDisplay-to-PC solution for so many people.

Any further insights to any of this would be appreciated. Thank you much.

Truly,
Kenny

[Rik Wang]

I'm afraid this is not so simple a problem. I can run *any* NVidia or ATI Radeon card at 1680x1050, with any timing.

Have you tried 1680x1048?