Intel Extreme Graphics 2 855GME on 12" XGA 1280 x 800. Drivers?

[paulaus1]

Hi, i've exhauseted all search options all over the net.

All Intel Extreme Graphics 2 drivers after 2004 do this: Itsays in display>settings that monitor is digital flat monitor 1280 x 1024, but my screen is 1280 x 800 (XGA) and there is no option to change that. The only resolution that is usable is 1280 x 768, which fits the screen, but the text and icons are slightly distorted.

How can i change it to support my monitor (Digital Flat Panel Monitor 1280 x 800)

Is there a driver i cannot find for this screen size.

Ive searched all intel drivers and the give the same driver for the GM and GME.

I find it hard to accept that Intel would not support this screen size in these drivers after 2004.

The basic driver that came with the computer , regularily when i open a browser window or video window, the screen goes stripey grey. Everything seems to be fine underneath as i can shut down with no problems but no screen until i reboot.

I installed the latest drivers (and tried those inbetween to no avail) and this seems to overcome this problem but there seems to be no support for my screen size.

I'm hoping someone here can help.

Thanks.

[7oby · Accepted solution]

The 855GME Windows support is at it's EOL - i doubt an update will appear.

However there's another driver which will be able to enable 1280x800. Unfortunately it's not an out of the box thing, but requires quiete a lot of configuration. Anyway - the driver is called IEGD and intended for embedded usage:

http://www.intel.com/design/intarch/swsup/graphics_drivers.htm

Unfortunately there are still disadvantages - even when getting this one to run. In those two threads you'll find some experiences with the 855 chipset and the IEGD driver:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=55906

http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/showthread.php?t=59794

The latest IEGD driver is 8.0 that is supported on 855. Beginning with IEGD 9.0 its driver support has been removed.

If you install some Linux distribution, you won't have these problems. The intel linux driver respects the EDID reported resolutios by the displays. I just want to mention that before you throw that device away.

[paulaus1]

Thank you very, very, very much. Thats the most useful information i've heard yet by far.

I will look into IEGD drivers and Linux, and read the threads you reffered me to.

Thanks again for your time and very helpful information.

[paulaus1]

Well, i spent over 8 hours configuring (or learning how to) and i have a successful driver that works.

Although, i could not get a 1280 x 800 resolution. Of all the modes i could select from there wasn't 1280 x 800. The closest i could get was 1280 x 768 and by forcing center i can get a clear resolution of 1280 x 768 with a half inch grey bar across the bottom of the screen. Im happy with that for now, at least the text is clear.

I tried setting a custom mode of 1200x800x32bpp@60Hz but i seem to be missing the appropriate prefix to be able to continue. Is there a prefix i can use to make a custom mode (eg. 0x0 - )

If i can't resolve this, i am happy with the smaller screen usage to be able to read text.

On the whole this is a great solution for me.

Thanks for all the help.

[paulaus1]

Whoops, posted a bit hastily there. After more reading in the user manual, i found how to set cutom modes and i have success at 1280x800x32bpp@60Hz which is what i was after.

I will post any glitches i encounter to benefit future searches.

Thanks again.

Whoo, i need a beer after that.

[7oby]

Great to read that at least the resolution thing works for you by now. As already said the IEGD drivers do have some disadvantages. I don't know all of them - some are mentioned in the links above. Also Fn + LCD/CRT switching on the keyboard didn't work anymore.

I am surprised to read that you were required to create a custom resolution. I would expect the display to promote it's resolutions by means of EDID/DDC2 to the notebook. You can check whether it does so with this tool:
http://entechtaiwan.net/util/moninfo.shtm

Once you know it does, then just include EDID support in the driver and your display should work in its native resolution. This is at least what it did for me, when I enabled 1900 x 1200 on this chipset, which was previously limited by 1600 x 1200. The general problem of this particular Windows driver is that it relys on the Video BIOS if it comes to resolution capabilitities. If the resolution is not contained in the Video BIOS, the Windows driver doesn't allow you to switch to it. This limitation has been removed in later Windows drivers - unfortunately those are no longer compatible with the 82855/82852 chipset.

I don't know how much time you have, but it would be great if you blog here at ISN how to setup the IEGD driver with 82855/82852 chipset:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/

I can't do that since I don't have access to this hardware anymore.

[paulaus1]

I will certainly blog the setup for IEGD, i just want to get an IT friend of mine to look at it first, there are a few things i just guessed. It was my first attempt at any such thing so i really just dummied my way through it.

The issues with this driver are very similar to what you pointed out and in the threads you reffered me to: Minor graphical glitches when moving files, some delays when opening windows. As i'm only using this laptop for internet and photoshop the other issues don't affect me, also i don't plan on using dual monitors.

This brings me to a major revelation i have discovered.

My issue isn't the driver, it is overheating.

After reading this thread http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/video-card-support/151975-solved-intel-extreme-graphics-having-problems.html i installed SpeedFan and CoolCPU. My ACPI temperature reading would start out in the 40 degrees celcius and once the fan stopped it would slowly creep up to 70-80deg before the fan would kick in and quickly cool it down to an acceptable level. Then the fan would stop and creep right up there again. The screen freezes are definately only happening when the heat is above 80deg as i have been monitoring it in the taskbar. It also happens regardless of which driver i have installed. I have check i have all the other latest drivers and everything looks good. There is no option in BIOS for fan control and i have searched for an update to what i have to no avail. (currently have Phoenix NoteBIOS 4.0 ver 6.0).

The fan doesnt come up in SpeedFan and all the cooling options in CoolFan don't make any difference to my fan issue.

All the hardware seems to be working fine, the fan and cover is clean and heatsink is fine. It cools fast when the fan is running.

I basically need to know if it is possible with software to engage the fan at a lower temperature than it currently kicks in,(currently 70-80deg) i'd be happy with the fan running all the time even, as i only use the latop plugged in. Or any leads?

(battery clocks the cpu down to 600mhz from 2ghz no matter what software or settings and battery doesnt last me long anyway)

Thanks.

[7oby]

You'll find a feature call ACPI Thermal Zone. It is designed to enable Operating System based thermal management. Although it is partially implemented by most ACPI modules that come with a given BIOS version, the part that doesn't work is setting a particular thermal threshold for fan activation. You can poke values values in the ACPI Thermal Zone structure, but those most likely won't change the fan activation or speed.

Okay, if ACPI Thermal Zones don't work - what else works? Speedfan and similar tools directly read and write on the SMBus and try to access the various fans directly. This only works if you know the particular fan control circuit used in your notebook. In practise I've never seen tools like Speedfan working on laptops.

Okay, if Speedfan doesn't work - what else? I guess one of the reaons why ACPI Thermal Zone management doesn't work is probably because vendors want to provide fail safe thermal management to prevent damaging components e.g. if the OS hangs. Therefore I have to have a second automatic control mechanism in place anyway. What they use is the System Management Mode. In this mode they talk to the various fans and exchange events. Anyway - some self diagnostic code has been hacked (= reverse engineered) to allow direct fan control. Unfortunatly it only works for specific notebooks. One of those tools is

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/i8kfan.html

If none of the above methods help you, then the only way to reduce temps is indirectly. It definitely helps to lift the back of the notebook an inch off the table. This help having air circulate underneath the notebook and prevents e.g. heating up of the wood table your notebook is sitting on. Better solutions incorporate the use of a notebook stand. An often recommended one is this one:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=130

If the CPU heat is the source of the problem (or the heated CPU heats up a cooling device or heat pipe and this one again heats up other devices), the undervolting the CPU is a good solution. The best tool for the 855GM chipset is probably NHC:

http://www.pbus-167.com/

By the way: NHC not only includes a quick testing mode that allows to stress test a particular undervolting (google for a guide), it also display the above mentioned ACPI Thermal Zone entries (and if you google you'll even find out how to set those with NHC). For more recent platforms other tools such as RMClock and CrystalCPUID are recommended.