Find HorizSync VertRefresh rates to fix Linux display issue – Why my display is stuck at 640×480?

August 29, 2014 How to, Linux 2 Comments

I had this problem a few days back and it took me sometime to figure out what to do.

I have a NVIDIA GTX460 Graphics card on my current machine and a Acer 22" Monitor. After installing NVIDIA driver, my display was stuck at 640x480 and no matter what I do, nothing fixed it. This is an unusual problem with NVIDIA driver. I am assuming Intel and ATI driver might have similar issues.

Fix Linux display issue

So if you are having problem with your display or if your display is stuck at 640x480 then try the following:

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

root@kali:~# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You will see something like this

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X223W"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Now the lines that control display in monitor is the following two:

    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0

Depending on your monitor size, you have to find the correct HorizSync VertRefresh rates.

Find supported HorizSync VertRefresh rates in Linux

This took me quite some time to determine exactly what I am looking for. I obviously tried xrandr command like anyone would do..

root@kali:~# xrandr --query

This gave me an output like the following

root@kali:~# xrandr --query
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-2 connected 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
   1680x1050      60.0*+
   1600x1200      60.0  
   1440x900       75.0     59.9  
   1400x1050      60.0  
   1360x765       60.0  
   1280x1024      75.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     72.2     60.3     56.2  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     59.9  
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

Fix display issue in Linux - after installing NVIDIA driver, display stuck - blackMORE Ops -1

Bugger all, this doesn’t help me to find supported HorizSync VertRefresh rates. I went around looking for options and found this tool that will do exactly what you need to find.

Find monitor HorizSync VertRefresh rates with ddcprobe

First we need to install xresprobe which contains ddcprobe.

root@kali:~# apt-get install xresprobe

Fix display issue in Linux - after installing graphics driver, display stuck - Detect supported VertRefresh and HorizSync values - blackMORE Ops -2

Once xresprobe is installed, then we can run the following command to find all supported monitor HorizSync VertRefresh rates including supported Display Resolution … well the whole lot .. some even I wasn’t aware.

root@kali:~# ddcprobe 
vbe: VESA 3.0 detected.
oem: NVIDIA
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
product: GF104 Board - 10410001 Chip Rev
memory: 14336kb
mode: 640x400x256
mode: 640x480x256
mode: 800x600x16
mode: 800x600x256
mode: 1024x768x16
mode: 1024x768x256
mode: 1280x1024x16
mode: 1280x1024x256
mode: 320x200x64k
mode: 320x200x16m
mode: 640x480x64k
mode: 640x480x16m
mode: 800x600x64k
mode: 800x600x16m
mode: 1024x768x64k
mode: 1024x768x16m
mode: 1280x1024x64k
mode: 1280x1024x16m
edid: 
edid: 1 3
id: 000d
eisa: ACR000d
serial: 7430d0b5
manufacture: 43 2007
input: analog signal.
screensize: 47 30
gamma: 2.200000
dpms: RGB, active off, suspend, standby
timing: 720x400@70 Hz (VGA 640x400, IBM)
timing: 720x400@88 Hz (XGA2)
timing: 640x480@60 Hz (VGA)
timing: 640x480@67 Hz (Mac II, Apple)
timing: 640x480@72 Hz (VESA)
timing: 640x480@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@60 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@72 Hz (VESA)
timing: 800x600@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 832x624@75 Hz (Mac II)
timing: 1024x768@87 Hz Interlaced (8514A)
timing: 1024x768@70 Hz (VESA)
timing: 1024x768@75 Hz (VESA)
timing: 1280x1024@75 (VESA)
ctiming: 1600x1200@60
ctiming: 1152x864@75
ctiming: 1280x960@60
ctiming: 1360x850@60
ctiming: 1440x1440@60
ctiming: 1440x1440@75
ctiming: 1400x1050@60
dtiming: 1680x1050@77
monitorrange: 31-84, 56-77
monitorserial: LAV0C0484010
monitorname: X223W
root@kali:~#

Now  the line I am interested is this:

monitorrange: 31-84, 56-77

That’s the highest supported HorizSync VertRefresh rates for my monitor.

Fix display issue in Linux - after installing graphics driver, display stuck - Detect supported VertRefresh and HorizSync values with ddcprobe - blackMORE Ops -3

ddcprobe also gave me few more useful info, like MonitorName and Monitor Serial.

monitorserial: LAV0C0484010
monitorname: X223W

Now time to put it all together.

Edit xorg.conf file to with correct HorizSync VertRefresh rates

So now we know the exact values we need to know. We can now edit our /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with the values we want. So I’ve edited my xorg.conf file to look like the following:

root@kali:~# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And this is what you see:

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X223W"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 84.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 77.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Save and exit xorg.conf file, restart and I am now enjoying 1680x1050 display on my Monitor. Here’s the xorg.conf file I have right now:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 304.48  (pbuilder@cake)  Wed Sep 12 10:54:51 UTC 2012

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 304.88  (pbuilder@cake)  Wed Apr  3 08:58:25 UTC 2013

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Acer X223W"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 84.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 77.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GTX 460"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "Stereo" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

This fixed my problem quite well. It might be useful to someone else out there.

Reference Websites and posts

The biggest help is always X.org website for any display related issues.

http://www.x.org/wiki/FAQVideoModes

I also later realized the that Eddy posted a similar problem in one of my posts where he fixed this problem too in exactly similar way.

doh! I should’ve just searched my own posts and readers comments. Eddy’s post doesn’t outline how to find the HorizSync VertRefresh rates though. Either way, Eddy’s post was the most accurate I found related with my problem.

Here’s Eddy’s post and my comments for references:

Reply ↓
Eddy

Edit

Hi and thank you for your step by step tutorial ..After i done everything like you said everything appear exactly like you said ,just that my resolution is on 640X480 and i do not have any option ..Now how can i fix this ?
Thank you and R E S P E C T !

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2 comments

  1. Billy Gates
    September 11, 2014 at 12:54 pm

    Fuck your shitty little modal popup

    Reply
  2. janmadyasya
    December 14, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    It helped me to work out my problem with the display driver sis and Dell 2320L monitor. I also had another issues with sis clashing with EXA object file. So, I disabled in the Device section as follow:

    Section “Device”
    Identifier “Card0”
    Driver “sis”
    VendorName “XGI”
    BusID “PCI:1:0:0”
    Option “NoAccel” “true” # newly added to disable EXA
    EndSection

    Thanks

    Reply

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