FS9 not displaying correct resolution in Hardware Settings

[Michael Carter]

I have the engine stack panel integrated into the aircraft panel folder and it just needs some minor size adjustments. It looks good though after adjusting it on the screen.

When undocking the window and moving it to the smaller display monitor I'll be using behind the instrument panel and returning FS to full-screen mode, the panel disappears.

I checked hardware settings in FS in the options menu and the 800x600 resolution is gone for this monitor. Most of the resolution settings are for wide-screen such as 900x1400 and up. There is also 1280x1024 and up for normal aspect monitors. The lowest resolution is what it's set at and is some funky resolution I've never seen before. I'm not on that system now so I can't say what it is. 833x1140 sounds familiar, though that might not be it.

The resolution is set correctly on the video card settings, 800x600, and the monitor works normally for anything else rotated 90° to portrait mode.

Why isn't 800x600 showing up as an option to set the monitor in FS?

Could it be because the monitor orientation has been changed to portrait mode?

Is it because the monitor has been cloned from the main desktop monitor?
Stretching the main monitor to the smaller display had no effect.

Should I try reversing the video outputs for each monitor on the card?

After returning to full-screen mode, as I said the smaller monitor is black, and the main monitor displays FS but the mouse cursor flashes, rapidly changing between the pointer and the hourglass and never stops.

This is not on the FS computer, this is on my third computer in the shop and is the weakest one of the three. The video card is the ATI 9800Pro AGP.

I never had problems using a second monitor on this system when it was the FS computer, but now FS will not allow this resolution for some reason.

If anyone has a clue I'd sure be interested in hearing it.

[ak49er]

Mike, I use one out of my VGA card for the main view, and I "expand" my desktop onto another monitor using the DVI output into a XVGA adapter. I then configure them as "over-under" with the top view being my windscreen view, and the lower view has my FMC, Virtual radio stack and moving map program. Having said that, the only way to get the lower view items to display, is to hav the main view in "windowed" mode, this meaning that you can see the window frame and FS9 Selections at the top bar, if I switch to full view they dissaper. Maybe soemthing similar is happening for you?

[PDT 200]

How many monitors (video cards) are connected? FS9 limits the number to four outputs in full screen. I have 3 video cards with a total of 6 outputs with 5 connected. If I stay in windowed mode I can see everything when I undock the various panels. However when I change to full screen I lose one of the monitors. Now they (my video outputs) are all set up as extended desktops none are cloned. My understanding of cloned is it is going to show the same output as the other monitor that it is cloned to. In this case the higher resolution monitor is showing up but not the lower resolution. Try setting the other monitor to the same setting 800X600? and see what happens. Or set up the smaller one as an extended desktop.
If this helps great! If I'm way off in left field somewhere then I'm not sure what happened.
Regards,
Brian

[Michael Carter]

There is only one dual head card installed in the system. I tried swapping outputs and changing the larger monitor's resolution to 800x600, but neither of those actions made any difference.

When I get home later I'm going to try extended desktop instead of cloned mode at the lower resolution and see what happens.

I'm going to change the small monitor back to landscape mode and see if the correct resolutions will again show up in the FS display menu.

This may be the problem. FS may see this portrait orientation as a widescreen monitor.

I really don't understand why the 800x600 resolution selection has disappeared in FS.

[Rodney]

Michael,
The reason that you don't see the 800x600 in FS is that the monitor is in landscape and that resolution is not available in that mode. Any software application can only do what the hardware says it's capable of.

[Michael Carter]

Thank you Rodney. That was the exact problem.

The monitor will not support certain resolutions, and none that FS offers when in portrait mode.

So, I either have to find some different drivers for this monitor or start the panel all over again and alter the gauges 90°

After changing the monitor back to landscape, 800x600 appeared in the Hardware Settings options in FS. I opened the panel, undocked it and dragged it to the small monitor and it works fine in full screen mode...as long as it's in landscape orientation.

Hey, even the gauges were working. I must have shut down the sim on the old system before the engines stopped spooling down for the saved flight I used.

One more problem to overcome...