Dell LCD monitor won't play CMBB

[Count D'Ten]

Screen blanks, music plays, and I get a "Cannot Display This Video Mode" message whenever I try to play CMBB or CMAK on the Dell 17" LCD monitor. (Dell E173FP)

Tried upgrading my old 3dfx graphics card to a nVidia FX5500 so that I could use newer drivers. Same result.

Trying to contact Dell. Has anyone had similar problems? Has anyone solved them?

thanks,

jimk

[junk2drive]

I will assume this happened, you had the computer with the game installed and resolution set in preferences, then you installed a new monitor with a different resolution.

If that is the case, delete the preference file in your CMBB folder. When you start the game you should get the accept this screen.

If not the case, ignore me.

[Count D'Ten]

Good guess as to circumstances. But deleting the preference file didn't help. Thank you for trying.

--jimk

[junk2drive]

Anything to do with CRT vs DVI connections? Dual monitors? Just guessing until someone else shows up.

[Count D'Ten]

Hi Junk(?), nothing that rich. Both the monitor and the new card have standard analog connections.

Your preference idea has me thinking, perhaps I should try to remove and reintstall the game. I can live without the 2 GB's of lovingly selected mods (I'm too lazy to back anything that big up). Hopefully it won't dump the web scenarios....

[Count D'Ten]

You were right! I just hadn't waited long enough for the 3D test to cycle to something it could read, (and then couldn't figure out was I was seeing until the second go round -- but why admit I'm an idiot?).

Short story,I finally FULLY understood and followed your advice. Not only does it work, but it looks GREAT! (Which means I can see myself losing in much greater detail than ever before). 8^)

[Redwolf]

Before you start next time, reduce your screen resolution to something low, like 800x600.

Start CM and see whether it works.

If it does, restart CM with higher resolutions, each time nuking the CM preferences file.

That way you can figure out what the max for CM is.

Then you can set your desktop higher again, as long as you don't nuke the preferences file CM remembers the last resolution it had.

[Schrullenhaft]

Just to further clarify things if they aren't clear already...

If no Prefs file is present CM assumes that you need to select a resolution to play at (using a DirectX routine to select a resolution). It will start at your current desktop resolution, but it will use a vertical refresh rate that is the highest supported at that resolution by the videocard and not the monitor profile. Thus if you were running your desktop at 1024x768 @75Hz vertical refresh, CM's first attempt would be at 1024x768, but at a vertical refresh that is the maximum for the videocard, which could be 120Hz or higher - something few, if any, LCD displays support.

CM will automatically try the next lower vertical refresh rate that the videocard supports until it reaches 60Hz. At that point it will switch to the next lower resolution, but again at the highest refresh rate offered by the videocard at that resolution. Monitors handle signals that are out of range differently. Some will go completely black, others will put up an OSD message about being out of range, while other displays will attempt to display the signal (if their electronics can handle it without frying) with results similar to a bad TV signal (shredded or multiple images, etc.).

[Count D'Ten]

My thanks to both Redwolf and Schrullenhaft for their advice. As a writer/explainer myself I especially admire Schrullenhaft's explanation of the phenomena. It confirms what I had guessed at through tedious experiments.

The geewhiz killer board I had put in to help solve the problem had only compounded it by having a long list of supported, but unusable, higher resolutions. It would be nice if the powers that be inserted an explanation into the FAQs. I can't be the only clueless upgrader on the planet. (I hope.)