working in 1280x960 instead of 1280x1024

any utilities to force the correct 4:3 ratio?

[amznVibe]

Ever since I upgraded my motherboard I have been using 1280x1024 since 960 was not available.

Of course since most visitors use 1024x768 or 800x600 which is 4:3 ratio,
1280x1024 makes graphics a little squished and unrealistic and bad for webpage development.

I vaguely remember reading registry hacks for changing resolutions, even in windows2000 but I can't find them now.
And I also read somewhere that Powerstrip can make custom video modes but it doesn't seem to on mine.

Probably a graphics chip issue. But I thought I'd ask if anyone knows of other utilities to do this. Unfortuantely its not a super popular graphics chip like TNT or 3dfx chips, but SIS650 is installed on a huge number of motherboards and video cards so maybe I have a chance.

I figured FOO was the only place for this type of question before I look elsewhere, thanks for any help!

[TheDave]

The only thing I can suggest is to actually change the horizontal or vertical size of your monitors display area until a square looks square again. You'll have some black edge on your monitor but at least it will look right. If powerstrip can't do it I cant think of anything else to suggest.

[RussellC]

What motherboard are you using. You can usually modify the drivers .inf file to enable other resolutions. I have done this with nvidia's nforce drivers before. I ran the setup for the install and when it gets to the ELUA screen, minimize the window and go find where the installshield extracted the temp files. Copy them to a temp directory and find the driver file (.inf) Open it in notepad and look through it for the resolution info, there will be lines that look somewhat like this:

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "8 640 480 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "16 640 480 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "32 640 480 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

You need to add a lines that looks similar to this but has different res in it. like this:

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "8 1280 960 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "8 1280 960 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

HKR,, CRUSH11_Modes, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, "8 1280 960 60 70 72 75 85 100 0"

Then install the driver like normal. Thats how I did it with the nvidia nforce drivers, I'm not sure this will help you with yours but it is a start.

<added> I reread your post and saw about the SiS650, i'll d/l the driver and see if i can make any sense of it</added>

Hope that helps
-Russell

[amznVibe]

Ah interesting... I will go tinker with the inf files and see what I can do. Meanwhile I updated the latest bios and drivers for the video with no change in options. I was impressed with this setup until I hit this resolution problem.

According to some people who have attempted linux drivers for this chipset they were not too successful with getting the 1280x960 mode to work (they had interlacing) but maybe I can fix that with powerstrip.

If you really want to play with the driver, its hard to find from SIS and their servers are badly overloaded, here's the direct url [driver2.sis.com]

[RussellC]

Look slike that .inf file for the sis drivers only has this type of line:

HKR,, 2D_BI01, %REG_MULTI_SZ%, 60.72.75.85.100.120.160.200

refresh rates but no resolutions. I don't know what to tell ya. Sorry :( That res must not be supported.

-Russell

[amznVibe]

Yeah it looks like the end part is refresh rates, and the 2D_BI part is the hardware video mode. You'll notice there are alot of gaps in the numbers. I am trying to logically deduce some numbers to insert with trial and error.

[caine]

As much as i am sure you would really enjoy tinkering with the resolution on the SIS 650, why not get an offboard pcb that will allow you to customise your wants.

Along the lines of GeForce, ATI, etc.

Taking it from another angle, the dimensions, that you've talked off are standardised, hence, if you unstandardise them, how exactly will that help you create better websites, the only conclusion i can see is the image/resolution you would be working with would be alien to the majority of Joe surfer's.

So anything that is close to the various browser limitations, certainly in a real world environment would be lost, because of the breaking away from standardisation.

[amznVibe]

1280x960 is a long time standard, VESA, opengl and directdraw list it as modes. Here is it in a 1996 test by VESA [vesa.org...]

Well I don't play computer games, ever (I am just weird that way go figure) so I don't have a heavy need for an expensive 3D video card. I normally would never go for an integrated motherboard but for the money ($50) I figured it would be a throw-away if I ever got tired of it. This board with a 1.7ghz Athlon is $100 and it's faster in all cpu/video benchmarks than my friend's much more expensive P4 northwood with his ATI Radeon 9000, except for 3D.

Ultra stable too, only time I have to reboot with win2k is when I do some upgrade that forces a reboot. Oh it also runs my old PC100 dimms at 133mhz without a hickup (ddr is optional)

This is the first time its disappointed me, and its really my fault because I didn't review the video modes which were publically available beforehand. Who knows, someone may come up with a tweak for it, its becoming very popular for OEMs because of the low cost with high performance.