Dell 2209WA - Did I make a mistake??

Bilsen

Hi all,

I've heard on various fora that the Dell 2209WA is the cat's nuts for photography processing. So I bought one.

Got it last night, fired it up and oh my god, my images are distorted to death. I do model shoots and every image looks fat and short.

I probably should have expected this on a 16:9 monitor but there are no manual screen adjustments so I can't narrow the view.

Before I decide I blew it, can anyone tell me how to adjust the settings or do anything else to give me correct views of images?

Thanks in advance.

Pupator

There's nothing wrong with your monitor. A 16x9 monitor doesn't distort your images if the resolution is set correctly.

It sounds like your resolution is set incorrectly. What OS are you using? Do you know how to change the screen resolution? Do you know what the native resolution of the screen is?

Newsy

JohnGalt_ny wrote:

Got it last night, fired it up and oh my god, my images are distorted to death. I do model shoots and every image looks fat and short.

I probably should have expected this on a 16:9 monitor but there are no manual screen adjustments so I can't narrow the view.

Before I decide I blew it, can anyone tell me how to adjust the settings or do anything else to give me correct views of images?

Thanks in advance.

The Dell 2209WA is a 16:10 ratio widescreen with a native resolution of 1680x1050.

You likely were using a 4:3 ratio 1600x1200 or 1280x960 CRT/LCD monitor before. Your OS should have auto detected the new monitor and adjusted the resolution to 1680x1050.

FYI... with LCD monitors ALWAYS display at the native resolution otherwise you will not have the sharpest possible image and you will possibly see anomalies like jagged edges.

It could be your video driver needs to be updated if our system is really old and this has not be done for several years.

I'd start with the graphics settings and adjust the resolution as Pupator suggested.

Can you tell us more about your hardware - make, model, age, OS, etc. ?

Do you have a hardware calibrator? make, model ?

.

Bilsen

Thanks guys.

The motherboard is an AMD with single core processor about 4 years old. I'm using XP SP2 totally updated.

The onboard video supports 1680 x 1050 and that's where it's set. It'[s calibrated with a Huey Pro. Colors look just fine.

However, reading over the manual it appears there's another setting I need to find. If the monitor itself isn't set to 16:10 (never mind the windows resolution) than I could see the distortion problem occurring. I'll try that tonight and hope it helps.

Thanks again.

Newsy

JohnGalt_ny wrote:

Thanks guys.

The motherboard is an AMD with single core processor about 4 years old. I'm using XP SP2 totally updated.

The onboard video supports 1680 x 1050 and that's where it's set. It'[s calibrated with a Huey Pro. Colors look just fine.

However, reading over the manual it appears there's another setting I need to find. If the monitor itself isn't set to 16:10 (never mind the windows resolution) than I could see the distortion problem occurring. I'll try that tonight and hope it helps.

Thanks again.

There is a service menu that is available that may have the setting in it or at least an option to reset to factory default.

Power off.
Hold Brightness and Menu buttons down.
Press power button when holding those buttons down.
Press brightness button to access service menu RGB gain/offsets etc.

Make sure you record the default for any setting before changing else you may be get to a place from which you cannot recover.

.

Bilsen

To all who responded THANK YOU for your help.<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/clap.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" > <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/clap.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >

I went into the OSD menu, changed the display setting to 4:3 and voila, my images look correct. Since my 450D shoots 4:3 I'll stay there for PS work.
<!-- / message -->

Bilsen

FOLLOWUP

I think I found my answer. It actually makes me feel pretty much like an .

In dxdiag, I ID'd the video set as an S3 Unichrome IGP. It has a max of 1280x1024 and that's what's displayed in "settings" under the desktop properties. (I must have hallucinated the 1680 x 1250 last night). Since it's a legacy, they appear to not update drivers for it and I guess I can't blame them.

So at this point it appears likely that it's a hardware issue and I'll be taking a look at video cards. I'm a photographer, not a gamer, so it shouldn't cost me all that much to get 1680 x 1250. Any suggestions.

I'm pretty tech savvy on the box itself and the software but I've never had much cause to play with the monitors. Now I do.

Thanks again.<!-- / message -->

Newsy

JohnGalt_ny wrote:

In dxdiag, I ID'd the video set as an S3 Unichrome IGP. It has a max of 1280x1024 and that's what's displayed in "settings" under the desktop properties. (I must have hallucinated the 1680 x 1250 last night). Since it's a legacy, they appear to not update drivers for it and I guess I can't blame them.<!-- / message -->

Did you load the Dell driver for the monitor?

From what you've stated it sounds to me like you have a system with the GPU built in to the motherboard and it is only about 4 years old. If it is that young... it should support 1680x1050 without need for a driver update.

Installing the Dell driver may force XP to recognize the monitor.

As to video cards, if you have an empty AGP slot, those cards are getting few and far between. You may even find one in the junk bin of your local computer repair shop.

For a PCI-E slot you'll be able to find something for $50 or less that should work fine but I worry that the BIOS of the motherboard may need an update to support some of the newer cards.

.

Pupator

It's very unlikely that your output cannot support that resolution. Google it and double-check, but it's not like that resolution is particularly high.

Bilsen

News, I took the driver right off the Dell site. Windows recognizes the monitor just fine but doesn't offer 1680x1050 in Properties.

Pupator - Will do. Thanks.


FOLLOWUP TO PUPATOR: It appears from all forums I saw that VIA S3 Unichrome IGP cannot be upgraded to support 1680 x 1050. I'll take a look at the BIOS tonight as a final shot but I doubt that will solve anything. I'm working at 4:3 right now but since I'm upgrading the computer as soon as Win7 goes RTM in October, I'll probably just settle for that for now since I'd need an AGP interface which would immediately become useless in a PCIe machine.