How to force Windows 7 to start in 640x480?

[NipRing]

Ok, I'm sure some of the problems of using windows on a vga arcade monitor are experienced by plenty of people. Problems like not being able to get to the apply button in a setting box ect. Well i'm using a Sega Blast City cab that has a tri-res nanao vga monitor but when i built my pc i used a video card that has dual out so i could also plug in a small 15" lcd to extend the desktop so i could overcome some of the arcade monitor hurdles. Anyway my plan is to just use the 15" until i have everything set up properly then unplug that, close up the front machine door and thats the end of it. When i first plugged the new pc into the arcade vga port i expected it would recognize the needed 31hz and adjust accordingly, nope. So i plugged in the 15", booted up windows, right click desktop and chose adjust screen resolution. From there i can see that both screens are connected. Under the arcade monitor settings i selected 640x480, hit apply and the arcade screen came to life. I figured problem solved. When i have both plugged in I can go into adjust screen res and select show on desktop 1 (lcd) or 2 (the arcade) or extend desktop and things works fine. Unplug the 15" and all works fine until i restart. As of right now, i have to have the lcd plugged in in order for the arcade screen to "come in" correctly. How can i fix this? I'm using Windows 7 64-bit ultimate, nvidia 9800gtx+ card. I did have a catastrophe shortly after i had finish building the pc and was testing connecting to the arcade when a user error (me) made me have to completely reinstall windows. Before the reinstall I did fool with the setting of the nvidia control panel to get it to display correctly on the arcade (thats how i know it has that feature) but right now with the newest of the nvidia drivers  custom setting doesnt save. Since the reinstall i havent even opened the nvidia control panel I'm just going through windows.

[DillonFoulds]

try the earliest drivers possible that are compatible with your video card.

nVidia should have a driver archive section on their website.

[Gray_Area]

Hmmm. I'm guessing that the video card sees no EDID from the arcade monitor and isn't sticking with the resolution last run. If this is the case, you should be able to turn this off in the Nvidia control panel. Or, at the very least, use Riva Tuner to do that.

[Howard_Casto]

Seems like a really odd problem considering win 7 is the most "monitor friendly" windows OS yet. 

I know very little about NVIDIA cards (you couldn't pay me to put one in a pc) but with most video cards there is an option to save screen "profiles" trying saving it to a profile, setting that profile as default and then restarting. 

Other possible issues:

Win 7 doesn't offer that resolution on bootup.... this simply means that the screen will be all screwy until you are actually inside windows... no big deal.
Win 7 has that whole "your desktop area is too small" headache.  If this is the case, a google search should tell you how to turn it off. 

[NipRing]

Well, i deleted the nvidia driver altogether and now i can boot direct but there is a ...glitch of some sort. Check the vid

And no that panel is not the finished product, i'm working on a new panel 

[NipRing]

Seems like a really odd problem considering win 7 is the most "monitor friendly" windows OS yet.  

I know very little about NVIDIA cards (you couldn't pay me to put one in a pc) but with most video cards there is an option to save screen "profiles" trying saving it to a profile, setting that profile as default and then restarting.  

Other possible issues:

Win 7 doesn't offer that resolution on bootup.... this simply means that the screen will be all screwy until you are actually inside windows... no big deal.
Win 7 has that whole "your desktop area is too small" headache.  If this is the case, a google search should tell you how to turn it off.  

When you say "monitor friendly" that makes me wonder why 7 lists the arcade monitor as "Generic Non PnP" what ever that means. I didnt have this issue with my old computer in the same cabinet running xp though

[DillonFoulds]

Generic PnP monitor, just means the video card couldn't infer a proper model based on the EDID that it received from the monitor. It is to be expected, since the arcade monitors typically don't send (or have and pins, for that matter) any EDID signals. Arcade monitors accept RGB and syncs, but don't typically send any EDID signals, nor do most have EDID pins. The only exception being POSSIBLY some never tri-sync monitors, but I can't confirm the existence of any. Not that it matters, there's no side effects of incorrectly ID'ed monitors.

Also, that little bit that scrolls funky is the windows 7 loading animation. It's sent at, i believe, an 800x600 resolution, versus the previous XP 640x480 load screen. It's not something that has any proven long-term side effects, unless someone can show otherwise.

My machines boot without any ArcadeVGA cards, or any other signal modifier cards (jpac). So pretty much i get that funky scrolling all through my bootup until Soft15KHz loads.

If you'd like, google for "Windows 7 noguiboot", it'll replace the windows 7 load screen with a solid black screen. You won't get that funky scrolling effect, instead just a solid black screen for 10 seconds.

To enable noguiboot in windows 7, click start, and type "msconfig" in the start menu bar and hit enter. In the new window, click Boot, and check "No GUI Boot".

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah garbage at bootup being harmful to your monitor is a myth.  The voltage and amperage of the video signal being sent to your monitor is the same regardless of resolution... it's the frequency (rate of send) that changes.  The only thing that can damage a monitor is too much juice being sent to it. 

It shows garbage because the monitor literally can't keep up with the signal.  It's not harmful though.

[DillonFoulds]

Here i thought it was from monitors displaying the incorrect pixels per line, and thus carrying pixels over to the next line...

[Howard_Casto]

Here i thought it was from monitors displaying the incorrect pixels per line, and thus carrying pixels over to the next line...

It can be... there are two types of "garbage".

What you just described which is when a monitor achieved sync, but doesn't support the resolution, and what I described... when a monitor can't achieve sync. 

The point remains though...  the only way you can fry electronics (in this case a monitor's chassis) is to send more power than the circuit can handle.  Since monitor resolutions and frequencies only adjust timings, and not voltages, you can't kill a monitor be sending a resolution/frequency it can't handle. 

[schoeps]

have you tried going to msconfig (from the search box) then go to the Boot tab and check "base video", reboot.

[Sniper_Grenade]

Try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;286906&x=9&y=13

For Windows 7 though, go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Display > Screen Resolution, detect your monitor, then go to Advanced Settings, and then it's the same (under the Adapter tab, click "List all modes", choose "640X480, true color (32 bit), XX hertz").

You might have to first slide the resolution to higher ones first before sliding it back to 640X480 before you can apply, and choose "duplicate display/monitor" (either one, I forgot) instead of "extend display".

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Can't you set up a monitor .inf file that limits the resolution to 640x480 and then force that on the display?
A quick google search shows plenty of examples of people modifying an inf to suit a particular need:

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/windows-xp-radeon-display-drivers/74909-creating-monitor-inf-file.html
http://www.videoi.com/~pietro/monitor/