Safely changing the monitor refresh rate

[martinfromdublin]

I have set up a 19" gateway 2000 Vivitron monitor on my machine and although Windows displays well, Linux only produces an 'Out of range' message. I posted about this before but though I might update in a new thread.

I've been told it's possibly not not a driver issue, more like the refresh rate is incompatiable and what I need to know is how do I change this without making Linux unusable on any monitor? I have both mandrake 10.1 and SuSE 9.2 and the result is the same on either. I'm afraid to change any settings in MCC in case I can't see anything on any monitor afterward.

P.S: the monitors are; Digital 15" (works with everything) and Gateway 2000 Vivitorn 19" (works only with Windows) . At the monent, I switch between the two but I wouldn't like to have to do that long term.

Martin,

Dublin, Ireland

[martinfromdublin]

Hi again,

Now have both monitors side by side and switch between them using a manual switch. I'd love to get Linux running on my 19" screen.......


Martin,

Dublin, Ireland

[bigtomrodney]

You need to edit xorg.conf (or if you're using pre x.org it's XF86Config-4). I'll see if I can scan out the modelines etc. and post again, I used to suffer with this a lot before on my laptop. I'll post again when I get them, but in the meantime make a backup or /etc/X11/xorg.conf and try to get comfortable with vim...

[bigtomrodney]

Hi again Martin,do you have a model number for the monitor,and if so have you seen mention of the vsync and hsync on the back of it?

[martinfromdublin]

Hi BigTom

The model is Gateway2000 Vivitron CPD GF200T. The only other info on the back deals with the voltage rating (220-240V) and what I presume is the power consumption, 50-60Hz. in the SuSE forum, Flatline gave me a link to a site that lists sync rates but I don't know if this data is right (it's a 17" monitor by the way, my mistake)

Gateway; Gateway Vivitron 17; vivitron17; 31.5-64; 50-120; 1

Unfortunately, I don't yet know how to edit or back up the xorg.conf files, still too much of a newbie, how do I access it safely?

Thanks,

Martin
Dublin, Ireland

[Fep]

Hi!
I'm a newbie, but I had To change the refresh rate because my monitor could only display a warped image when running under Linux Mandrake 10.1 Community.

I just used drakconf (the one similar to Windows configuration panel) and chose "Generic" for the monitor, which allowed for more freedom in the changes.

Dead easy to do, no command line needed.

Hope this can work in your case.