Widescreen Gaming Forum

[quote]The windows registry?

Unfortunately it's not there. Not that I could find.

Obviously the dang thing almost works - probably a programmer could fix it in an afternoon.

Matrox?

An alternate registry fix:

Stopping Powerdesk SE (Matrox GXM utility) from removing modes on every boot

Goto to your Powerdesk SE install folder, default (on x64) is C:Program Files (x86)Matrox Graphics IncPowerDesk SE. Open up file DeviceInfo.ini and find the entries "Name=CUST_MODE" and "Name=CustomDisplay". Rename these to something else, something more than just adding "bak" the end however as there are sometimes registry entries named that too.
In the picture below I added "bak3" to the end.

Close and reboot, GXM will give you a warning about reverting or keeping current display setup, select keep. Reboot. It will come up again and may ask for another reboot, do it as required.

It should no longer overwrite your custom resolution as its no longer overwriting your "CUST_MODE" and "CustomDisplay" settings. GXM utility otherwise continues to work as normal, no need to uninstall or move to other folders and no more error messages.

Brilliant!

I'm off to check it out.

Many thanks mattsimis, your previous trick (of copying the install dir) didn't work for me, but this does :)

I think I'm right in saying now all that is left are the borked bezel management on the left screen (I assume this would take a firmware flash), and the 57Hz/dX10 stuff (that I assume is beyond anyone non-MS/Matrox to fix).

Many thanks mattsimis, your previous trick (of copying the install dir) didn't work for me, but this does :)

Blame Kondor for that, wasnt mine! :)
Let me know if this works for you guys.

My mistake, good effort all round though...lets hope it's infectious and Matrox try and fix up 5040 to the same functionality as 3840 has :D

Afaik this is needed only on Vista and the new nVidia drivers. There seems to still be lots of confusion, it is very possible to get 5040x1050 Triplehead support on the newest drivers. If this doesnt work, IMO you have a monitor problem. I have tested this on 2 entirely separate and quite different systems.

Well you may think it is a monitor problem, but it is not..you're just lucky twice! ;). My system works fine in XP @5040..automatically. But even following your guide I cannot get it to work so any help would be appreciated.

So on my system I get failed test when I try to set 1680x1050@57; EDIT: however I also get the failed test error at 59 and 60Hz as well even though I can select those under normal settings.

When I use the GXM installed 5040 res the outer 2 monitors work but the middle one (which is admittedly a different version Dell that the outers) gets an out of range error. EDIT1: The settings on this res are exactly as your example apart from the Hor scan res is 60.88 and the pixel clock is 273.45- this must be why the centre screen gets out of range. EDIT2: I cannot bring up the centre OSD when it gives the out of range error but the outer monitors show @48Hz!!??!!

When I try manually setting the res using your technique the bizarre thing is when I hit test the screens go blank for a second then I get a 'test failed message'. However the desktop INCLUDING the centre monitor is at 5040x1050@57 and working fine! As soon as I hit the OK on the test failed message the screens blank and go back to 1680x1050. I can recreate this using 55Hz, 59Hz, 60Hz etc. (I have noticed that at 57Hz the Hor scan rate shows at 61.49, other than that it is the same as yours.)

Rather frustrating! Especially as I have installed Vista just to check if I have a deep glitch in XP (games keep crashing on load or freezing) or a hardware error.

So how do I get past this weird 'test failed' but it is actually working error? If there was someway to bypass the test and just set it FFS!

I am using the new (DEC) GXM and 181.20 which both work fine in XP
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I am using the new (DEC) GXM and 181.20 which both work fine in XP.

Try downgrading to the 180xx driver and repeat.

I have had this problem with the new GXM since the 178 series when matrox sent me an early trial. Going back to 180 won't make a difference, I reckon

Edit for a laugh I installed 177.35 driver and the new GXM..just fails to set 5040 on the wizard however I am running 5040 fiem right now using the old GXM and 177.35...exactly as I was when I ditched Vista for XP for this very issue months ago!

For interest sake the OSD's show 57 hz now. So it is still a Matrox problem...I'll start up ANOTHER ticket for this see if they can sort it :)

Well success, I got it to work with 180.84 and the OLD powerdesk SE and a custom res, so thanks for the tips. Dunno why it won't work with the newer PDSE?

I might try 181.20 latter, if I am feeling brave!

EDIT: however even following the instructions it still deletes on re-start! Ah well not a biggie as I am getting my game freezing error in Vista as well as XP :( So it is not OS, Vid driver or vid card (tried 4!) but something else DAGNAMMIT! more dull testing to be done.

Thank you mattsimis and all others that figured out how to beat the box*! :D

I had almost given up when I read this thread. My monitors refused to work in 1680x1050 until I did the manual settings in nVidia.

*TripleHead2Go