Resolution Assistance

[Kevin Morgan]

Hello everyone!

I'm not well versed enough in understanding how the SNAP or PANORAMA drivers function to get the most out of them. I feel like there might be a limitation incurred by my configuration of hardware.

I am using a Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P. Previously it was hooked up to VGA and running at 1680x1050; when I moved everything went into storage and the monitor left my possession. I reinstalled ArcaOS when I took everything out of storage, and I can't seem to get the resolution above 1024x768.

The only difference is the monitor and using DisplayPort vs. VGA as far as I can tell. I tried to set custom resolutions in Panorama and they simply do not take effect. In SNAP, I tried using gamon add - but it refuses with 'failed to add'.

Are there ways I can have it force the resolution? I know the card supports it, and the monitor (a 4k monitor) also supports many resolutions with an optimal of 3840x2160. Snap detects the monitor as an HP-ALL-IN-ONE which it is an Envy 32".

Any thoughts?

KC

[ivan]

What version of OS/2 are you using?   I have a Hanns-G 28 inch monitor running at 1920x1200 with the panorama version with ArcaOS, prior to that I got the same resolution with snap drivers and OS/2 warp 4.

[Dave Yeo]

Can you revert to VGA to test? I tried DisplayPort here, Intel Ivy Lake graphics and some things just didn't work so I reverted to VGA. Seems the video BIOS just didn't support DisplayPort the same as VGA.

[Kevin Morgan]

ivan: Running the latest version of ArcaOS, sorry for excluding that! The previous monitor was also an HP but maxed at 1680x1050.

Dave Yeo: I don't have a VGA Input on this monitor so I will have to possibly find an active VGA output to HDMI input? Currently using a DP->HDMI (which was rated up to 4k). Unless anyone can think of anything else, I think it is likely right that the Bios likely isn't handling the DP the same as the VGA.

KC

[ivan]

I see Dave has given you part of the answer but I have another question, what video output ports does your unit have and also what input ports does the monitor have?

I ask for the simple reason that my units have VGA, DVI  and HDMI output and the monitors have DVI and HDMI inputs and video works at full resolution of the monitors (1920x1200) without problems.  One thing I will say , all my computers have AMD Ryzen processors with inbuilt video and never had problems with OS/2 Warp 4 or ArcaOS.

[Dave Yeo]

Most current video bios's seem to support wide monitor resolutions now and even my 12 year old Intel does, before that, the bios needs patching for wide screens if like us using the bios instead of a native driver. Seems that some bios's don't allow it under some circumstances such as using DisplayPort.
X11 here works fine with VGA, tried it with DisplayPort and it couldn't even find the video bios, which was weird.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I don't have an M93p, but I'm using a lot of Lenovo machines with a 4K monitor with DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. With all the machines, I get 3840 x 2160 resolution for DisplayPort, and 1024 x 768 for HDMI.

I'm using Panorama. I think I tried SNAP, but it didn't do any better. I tried with ArcaOS 5.0.7 and ArcaOS 5.1 beta. Panorama offers what the monitor tells it to offer. Perhaps if you had a better DP-HDMI converter, things would work better. I plan to try the only VGA-DP converter on the market, and I'll report that when it arrives.

It would be nice to have a real video driver for monitors like this one. DisplayPort and HDMI carry Audio as well as Video, and we lack this capability. In practice, I can also use 1920 x 1440, which looks nicer than expected on the monitor.

[Kevin Morgan]

I see Dave has given you part of the answer but I have another question, what video output ports does your unit have and also what input ports does the monitor have?

The machine has DP and VGA outputs, the monitor purely HDMI.

X11 here works fine with VGA, tried it with DisplayPort and it couldn't even find the video bios, which was weird.

It was something either in DP or the cable itself converting to HDMI (non/active vs active?)

I don't have an M93p, but I'm using a lot of Lenovo machines with a 4K monitor with DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. With all the machines, I get 3840 x 2160 resolution for DisplayPort, and 1024 x 768 for HDMI.

I'm using Panorama. I think I tried SNAP, but it didn't do any better. I tried with ArcaOS 5.0.7 and ArcaOS 5.1 beta. Panorama offers what the monitor tells it to offer. Perhaps if you had a better DP-HDMI converter, things would work better. I plan to try the only VGA-DP converter on the market, and I'll report that when it arrives.

It would be nice to have a real video driver for monitors like this one. DisplayPort and HDMI carry Audio as well as Video, and we lack this capability. In practice, I can also use 1920 x 1440, which looks nicer than expected on the monitor.

Thanks for the update, I used your site in configuring it.  It may be the adapter itself then // it looks wider on the HDMI (monitor side) so I probably have an active conversion going the wrong way and failing back to passive? Not sure, probably could try some others.

I ended up using a VGA to HDMI converter that has a USB to carry sound as well, have not tested the sound yet.

My resolution now can get up to 1920x1080 but fails when I try the full 4K.

Do you have a link to the DP to HDMI cables you are using? I would love to return this $50 cable and get one that supports 4K.

KC

[Dave Yeo]

X11 here works fine with VGA, tried it with DisplayPort and it couldn't even find the video bios, which was weird.

It was something either in DP or the cable itself converting to HDMI (non/active vs active?)

Actually it was a DisplayPort to DVI converter, which might have been the problem. Old monitor (1920x1200) only supports VGA and DVI.

[Neil Waldhauer]

I don't have an M93p, but I'm using a lot of Lenovo machines with a 4K monitor with DisplayPort and HDMI inputs. With all the machines, I get 3840 x 2160 resolution for DisplayPort, and 1024 x 768 for HDMI.

I'm using Panorama. I think I tried SNAP, but it didn't do any better. I tried with ArcaOS 5.0.7 and ArcaOS 5.1 beta. Panorama offers what the monitor tells it to offer. Perhaps if you had a better DP-HDMI converter, things would work better. I plan to try the only VGA-DP converter on the market, and I'll report that when it arrives.

It would be nice to have a real video driver for monitors like this one. DisplayPort and HDMI carry Audio as well as Video, and we lack this capability. In practice, I can also use 1920 x 1440, which looks nicer than expected on the monitor.

Thanks for the update, I used your site in configuring it.  It may be the adapter itself then // it looks wider on the HDMI (monitor side) so I probably have an active conversion going the wrong way and failing back to passive? Not sure, probably could try some others.

I ended up using a VGA to HDMI converter that has a USB to carry sound as well, have not tested the sound yet.

My resolution now can get up to 1920x1080 but fails when I try the full 4K.

Do you have a link to the DP to HDMI cables you are using? I would love to return this $50 cable and get one that supports 4K.

KC

My Monitor has a DisplayPort input. I use that. I have not found a real working VGA to HDMI converter, but I'm more focused on getting VGA to DisplayPort to work.

My other find, which may or may not be helpful was a Lenovo branded USB-C to DisplayPort adapter. This makes my Lenovo and Dell laptops work well with the monitor.

Sound is also an issue. Without a driver that combines audio and video, I suspect I need a real mixer to do the job.

[Andi B.]

Not sure if someone else stated this above but, whenever you've such problem then -
- power off the system completely (main switch, or disconnect power cord for 20-30 seconds)
- disconnect all video cables but the one you wanna use/test (in your case disconnect VGA cable from motherboard/system, only connect DP)
- power up monitor at the same time as the system or before (maybe this is even more important if you use some adapter in between so better test with monitor powered up before. But adapters are a bad choice anyway. Bad luck if you're really need one :-( )
- power up system and recheck what resolutions Panorama can see and handle (testlog generic)

Reason - today's BIOSes scans monitors on all interfaces at boot up and selects some interface/resolution it thinks is working and necessary. Sometimes BIOS switches off DP completely when it finds a monitor on another connector, sometimes it honors the selection in BIOS settings (or not). YMMV.