Trouble with installing drivers for new monitor

Factual Questions
1

I have been using a monitor with resolution of 1680 x 1050. I just replaced it with a monitor with resolution of 1920 x 1080. However, Vista did not recognize the new monitor and is still identifying it as the old one, with the old driver. I cannot change the resolution to 1920 x 1080. It doesn’t look bad but the aspect ratio is wrong.

When I try to do a driver update it tells me the installed driver is already the best driver. I tried uninstalling the monitor but after I reboot it still shows the old one. I try to redetect hardware but it doesn’t find it. I am wondering if I caused a problem by plugging in the monitor before installing the drivers, but it seems a chicken-and-egg problem; the monitor CD just has .inf files, no executables to install the driver.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT graphics card that allows a custom resolution and when I use the graphics card utility it does change the resolution but it looks terrible. I think the way that NVIDIA does custom resolution is different than if you use the native resolution.

Is there any way I can force Vista to install this monitor and get the correct resolution?

2

There really aren’t any drivers anymore. The .inf files tell Windows the possible resolutions and color depths the monitor can run at.

If you can identify the old .inf files, remove them, reboot and with any luck, Windows will be able to handle things on its own. If not, give it the new config file and then all should be well.

3

I tried uninstalling the monitor, but next time I restarted it came up with the same old monitor even though the new one was the one plugged in. I can’t figure out how to delete it. I am looking at a list of every .inf file on my C drive and can’t seem to find one for the old monitor. I’ll look at the install disk and see if that will give me a clue, if I can find it.

4

Aha! You gave me the idea I needed. When you uninstall a driver there is also a checkbox to remove the driver from the system, which I missed the first time. I couldn’t find the driver anywhere on my C drive but when I did the uninstall with the “remove” option, the machine booted up into the correct, crisp resolution.

Thanks for your help.