Dell 9400 driver problem

Gonzo

hi guys
I got my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop delivered today, its looks fine only problem is that the monitor doesnt seem to have the drivers installed and it comes up as 'default monitor' in the display section and 60hz is the only option because of that. I dont have a resource cd so I went to the support drivers site and put in all my details, then im presented with a list of display driver code names and Ive no idea what to pick.
the display is a 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Display with TrueLife™. Anyone know what driver this display uses? thanks

wingnut

Its not a driver problem, its a user problem lol! Its an LCD screen, refresh rates are not applicable. A refresh rate is the amount of time a CRT screen redraws the image. Laptops default to 60Hz because the pixels are on or off as needed and not redrawn. It is a redundant setting but needed to connect to a analogue monior.

What put it into to your head there was a driver problem? do you have any problems with your screen. I have a 9400 myself, nice machines.

Gonzo

my main problem is that the 'driver' for the lcd screen doesnt appear, under monitor devices is says 'default monitor', and not something like 'Dell M991'
Manufactuer = Dell.. but mine just says 'default monitor' and manufacturer = 'standard monitor types'.

the graphics card says 'default monitor on ati radion x1400'

Its like as if the actual driver for my lcd screen is not there, 'default monitor' is listed about 7 times. The driver date is listed as 06/06/2001 then I click on the driver details tab and it says no driver has been loaded for this device.

If a driver is required for the monitor do you know which one it is, whats the model number for the screen that comes with the Inspiron 9400?

Also the resolution seems very large, i have it set to 1024 x 768 and it looks like 640x480 on my desktop, to get all the icons and text looking good I have to set it to 1900x1200.

wingnut

Why are you so obsessed about getting a monitor driver???? you DONT need one for the LCD panel. It is normal for the driver to be default or plug and play monitor on a laptop. Monitor drivers exist for desktops so that the refresh rate isnt set beyond the capablity of the monitor, not an issue on LCDs.

LCD screens have a 'native resolution': i.e. one resolution that the display is designed for. Yours is 1900 X 1200. Setting it to any other resoltion causes fuzziness because pixels have to be combined to render an image. The 9400 has a high resolution because it is aimed at designers etc who need the extra resolution for multimedia authoring etc, where you need to see a 1024 X 768 and menus at the same time. The trade off is that icons can appear small but you can customise all that using windows display properties.

The 9400 was also avaiable with a WXGA+ screen which is 1440 X 900. This would have been a better option for you as you can play games at the screens native resolution this way. Pity you got X1400 with yours, early ones like mine had a geforce go 7800, which is the donkeys ******

TommyGun

Load the latest video driver, this should sort it.


http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/devices.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_9400&os=WW1&osl=EN

Gonzo

ok cool guys, thanks for help, everything seems to look fine now except when im on the internet anything thats image based text tends to look very pixilated while css text is really sharp! jpegs etc look quite pixilated too.

Games and dvds look great altho the graphics card is extremely weak, I can get Half Life 2 to run at 1280x800 or something like that and it looks great but is a bit slow framerate in places. Photoshop tho is very, very fast which is what I really wanted:)