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Author Topic: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts  (Read 6853 times)

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fart pants

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No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« on: January 04, 2010, 06:00:26 PM »
Sorry guys this may have been discussed before but i cannot find it for love nor money.

My 8800gts 640mb will not display chameleon at 1900x1200. Video info says 1024x745 32(or something similar) max, but the limited info i have found indicates that 8 and 9 series cards can do it. video info in chameleon also states Vesa mode 3.0 14mb (nvidia). Tried apple.boot.plist but still nothing above 1024x735, when the os starts all is good. Graphic injector kicks in and i get 1900x1200. I have  a 24" hp monitor.

thanks for reading

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2010, 06:30:34 PM »
Which resolutions the card can display once the drivers have loaded has nothing to do with VESA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_Extensions

Chameleon reads available VESA modes directly from the video card BIOS. If your video card doesn't report 1900x1200 among its supported VESA modes, it won't be available for use as boot resolution.

Unless there really is a bug in Chameleon of course.

If you could prove that 1900x1200 is in fact a valid VESA mode for your video card I'm sure someone would follow up on it eventually.

There are tools for Windows that will allow you to extract and manipulate your video card BIOS which are normally used to alter clock- and fan speeds, but maybe you can see something about VESA resolutions too. Or maybe you could use a Linux live distribution with some VESA mode reporting utility or something (see link above).

It's up to you to deliver the evidence!  :)

I get the "14MB video memory" too by the way, I don't think that has ever displayed correctly in any version of Chameleon that I've used (including pre-2.0) with my current video card. I don't think it's important, I doubt Chameleon itself is using anything close to 14MB video memory anyway.

I'm using my displays native resolution at boot, 1280x1024, which works fine. Your 1024x745 maximum does seem strange fwiw.
Have you checked if there's a BIOS update available for your video card?
« Last Edit: January 04, 2010, 08:00:22 PM by Gringo Vermelho »
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

fart pants

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2010, 07:47:44 PM »
thanks for the info gringo, i'll collect as much info as i can about my card and do as you suggest

rzooff

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2010, 05:52:03 PM »
MacOS X 10.6.1 (Retail)  + Chameleon 2 | ASUS P5B-V | C2D E4600 | GF 8400GS | Asus WL-138g v2
MacOS X 10 10.5.8 (Retail) + Chameleon 2 | Toshiba L40-R17 |

fart pants

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2010, 09:14:03 PM »
cheers for the info guys but it looks like the 8800gts 640mb with the firmware i have has not got any hi res vesa modes. I am unable to update firmware because of the incompatibility of the "update" .exe files on windows 7 64bit.

never mind.

thanks again.

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2010, 05:05:26 AM »
Are you sure you got the right file? What is the exact brand and model name of your card?

I'm asking because BIOS updates for Nvidia video cards are normally delivered as .bin files and you're supposed to flash from a DOS-bootable floppy/USB drive using NVFlash.

« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 03:15:20 AM by Gringo Vermelho »
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

frnzk

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2010, 12:20:16 AM »
8800gts (640mb), trying to get chameleon play nice at 1680x1050.

video info from chameleon (2 RC4) reports a 1680x1050 resolution as one of it's modes, however it is not 32bit (er, 24bit) color.  Setting to 1680x1050x32 in com.apple.boot.plist, chameleon picks 1280x1024x32; setting it to 1680x1050x8 (might have been 4, which ever the one from video info mode was) causes flickering and doesn't display anything till osx is booted.

Gringo Vermelho

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2010, 03:14:36 AM »
Sounds like there could be a VESA mode selection bug in Chameleon after all.

What happens if you don't set a bitdepth? (I've never had to set one)

Are you using analog or digital output?

Your primary display should be plugged in to the output that's closest to the motherboard - use an adapter if you have to. OS X likes it better that way - not sure if this could affect Chameleon in any way but try it, if your monitor isn't plugged in there already.

Another thing that is kind of grasping at straws and probably has nothing to do with your issue but have you adjusted the theme plist files properly to match your resolution? You have to change it in two places in the plist. Look inside the themes folder.
10.9.5 - ASUS P8Z77-V Pro - i5 3570K - GTX 660 - Chameleon 2.3 svn-r2xxx
How to...
Install Chameleon: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,649
Make your own Chameleon boot CD: http://forum.voodooprojects.org/index.php/topic,484.msg2131.html#msg2131

frnzk

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2010, 11:56:42 PM »
Just "1680x1050" operated the same way 1680x1050x32 does—it picks (as best I can tell) 1280x1024x32. The monitor is connected via DVI to the first (closest to the motherboard) port.  The theme I'm using is set to 1680x1050 in both places.

Chameleon reports (among all the others) a mode 168: 1680x1050x8 mm:4.



Possibly, but probably not, relevant specs:
monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 226bw
mobo: nforce 680i spec board
cpu: some 65nm C2D
ram: 2x1Gb OCZ, 2x1GB G.Skill, both 800MHz 4-4-4-12

fart pants

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Re: No 1900x1200 res in chameleon with 8800gts
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2010, 08:59:28 PM »
Sorry i have not replied sooner.

I purchased a 9800gtx of ebay and there is no problem. chameleon boots in 1920x1200 and i now enjoy my games at that res to :). For some reason my old card(asus 8800gts 640mb) has very little info about bios files, and it turns out that nvflash has problems with windows 7.

any how its all good now.

once again thanks for the input all