wendersfan

Hey gang - obviously I don't post here a lot but hopefully y'all know me from the other fora... I have what I hope is a fairly simple question about swapping graphics cards between two desktop computers. Allow me to explain the situation:

In addition to my personal laptop and work laptop, I have a desktop computer that I use as a Plex server and for other basic needs. For space and practicality considerations I have been using my 40" Sony 1080p TV as this computer's monitor, connecting the two with a nine pin video cable. I am using a resolution of 1360/768. This has worked flawlessly for quite awhile. But I had to go and mess with everything...

Last week I purchased a much more powerful (refurbished) desktop from Amazon, connecting it, with the same cable to the same tv/monitor. While the newer computer is, well, newer, apparently the graphics options are not, and it will not allow me the option of any widescreen (16/9) resolution. My working assumption is that the graphics card in the newer computer is somehow inferior to that in the older one. Working on that assumption, my questions are, how feasible would it be to swap them and use the (I'm assuming) better card in the newer computer? How will I know that are compatible? Also, what is the possibility the the preferred card is actually connected directly to that computer's motherboard, meaning I can't remove it? And, I guess, to fully answer this question, what more information would anyone need?

Thanks to any or all who can help with this.

X

There are several things going on here. Your new graphics card may be seeing the TV as a non-16x9 display. It appears you're using a VGA connection and that may not tell the OS the available parameters for your TV.

There may be settings you can change in the display settings or you may need to find a manufacturer's driver for the card, if you can figure out what the card is.

Depending on the type of slots the cards use, if they're the same you should be able to swap out cards. If the card is on the motherboard you could disable it and add the old card. You can tell if it's on the motherboard by where the output is. Is it among the network/keyboard/USB device outputs or is it on a separate card?

If you tell us the model of the desktop it could be looked up.

wendersfan

X, thanks. I'll check out these things later this evening and report back.

RichC2

I'm sorry to ask this, but are you sure your TV's Aspect Ratio hasn't been changed? (That 4:3, 16:9, Stretch, Zoom, button)



I've never seen a PC card that cannot handle 1360x768

wendersfan

It hasn't. I thought that might be a quick and easily solution, but no dice. For all my other inputs (Roku, satellite) I run "full pixel" mode, including my old computer. That setting completely "overscanned" to the point I couldn't see the Windows tray, etc. I tried to rescale and the best I could get was a 16x9 window with tons of black space around the desktop. Until convinced otherwise I think it's a hardware issue.
This is encouraging, although the Windows interface doesn't believe you.

RichC2

It's definitely unusual. What graphic card is in it?

TheBang

You really should be using HDMI. Your new computer and Sony TV both have HDMI ports, yes?