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I was thinking today that perhaps its possible to fool the eeepc into thinking there is an external monitor plugged in.
After a lot googling i found the answer!
People installing OSX on intel laptops have been having problems with it BSODing if an external monitor was not plugged in.
Someone found a dead simple fix for it, i tried it on my eee.
Here is how to get the eee to think a monitor is plugged in:
Ive inserted peices of a paperclip as per a picture from a mugan on the insanelymac forums.
With this the eee detects a secoundary monitor, meaning it can be set to clone mode, meaning we can get 640x480 stretched or centered as well as scrolling resolutins with the standard driver.
Last edited by ziddan (2008-04-28 5:17:31 pm)
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Would it be better to do the mod on a vga gender so user can choose to remove it and put it back anytime they want?
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some have, i didnt have one of those on hand and this is very removable as well.
Took two pics with my other webcam, the quality is **** for ordinary stuff as ive removed the IR filter but it shows the wires installed in my eee and the interface where two monitors are detected (although very blurry and lowres)
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CyberTron wrote:
Would it be better to do the mod on a vga gender so user can choose to remove it and put it back anytime they want?
External monitor support can be disabled within windows.
Infact it can be disabled with the FN key combo.
This mod is great, unless of course you use an external monitor on a somewhat regular basis, then getting the pin connectors out would be a pain.
Though i have an idea for that. Make the pin connectors longer, and give the U end a twist. so it doesnt go in completely so it can be fingered out.
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Though i have an idea for that. Make the pin connectors longer, and give the U end a twist. so it doesnt go in completely so it can be fingered out.
Or get a small plastic cap for the VGA connector (seen them as packaging on a couple of laptops recently, I seem to recall), and then fit the pins into that- then, it's just a case of putting on the cap, and job done 
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cool mod! excellent work
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can you try uploading a good pic of the desktop with the 640x480 ?
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I can post a printscreen but really you wont see any difference as 640x480 is still 640x480 even if its stretched, the stretching is done by the intel software/driver and therefore windows does not care about it.
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Can you make the resolution above 640x480? Or can it reach 1024x768?
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That's brilliant. I love it.
Re: stretching, does it honor the driver options to display 640x480 without scaling?
I think I may go buy a m->f changer today and jumper it. This is an awesome idea.
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sorry for my ignorance, but what is the purpose of 640x480? Is there something that requires it?
As for the hack, it looks like a simple mod that once I know what its purpose is, even I could do
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siafu wrote:
sorry for my ignorance, but what is the purpose of 640x480? Is there something that requires it?
As for the hack, it looks like a simple mod that once I know what its purpose is, even I could do
It's a more "standard" resolution than the EEE's somewhat offbeat choice, is all. Presumably it would make it easier to run games, among other things.
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tag
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TurnipKing:
It's more than that. It's extremely rare for a graphics card to not support 640x480. Most older games default to that resolution, and just won't run at all if it's not supported. The Eee's graphics drivers only support 640x480x16 as a minimum for Windows installation, but games request true-color and fail to start.
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CrAzY: it cant make a 1024x768 desktop fit the screen, for that you need Lazertags drivers. However i think it scales down larger resolution when handling acceleratet graphics, will check when i get home.
geoelectric: I think you are asking if you can get 640x480 without stretching so ill answer that question, yes you can get 640x480 centered with black on the sides (pillarbox?).
mhthomas: i might, dont think this will be any problem though as i dont intend to wiggle the wires around. Ive put some tape over them.
The Eee's graphics drivers only support 640x480x16 as a minimum for Windows installation, but games request true-color and fail to start.
And thats with the windows standard driver meaning no 3d acceleration.
Last edited by ziddan (2008-01-01 6:17:20 am)
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so we can use the standard driver and have 640x480 stretched correct? AND have standby? i'd love to have 800x600 scaled so i don't have to scroll. does this do that too? prolly not huh?
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n3rdk1d: standby works with this hack. 800x600 scaled does not, i too would love that with this one but i havnt looked at the drivers so i dont know.
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on xandros if you go to a higher res externally then you can pan on the local display.
To make this easily removable, I would definitely solder this into an old VGA plug.
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eFfeM: panning works without a hitch, this mod makes the eee work just like when an external monitor is connected.
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mhthomas wrote:
I need to get a glue gun or something to seal up the exposed end. Maybe something like clay that dries hard?
Suggestions?
Radio Shack is great for stuff like this!
I keep seeing commercials for "Mighty Putty" it dries hard and bonds to anything.
Last edited by siafu (2008-01-01 5:30:15 pm)
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That's great!
Good work on this one.
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I'm definetly going to try this, but here's a question: Is the graphics performance the same ? Or the fact that you enable the fake "clone mode" makes it even slower in games ?
EDIT: I just ran 3DMark 2001SE and the score is the same (actually a little higher, but i'm sure it's just a glitch)
Last edited by RPG0 (2008-01-01 6:53:54 pm)
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This is awesome. I need to try to install some games that failed before.
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Did not have paper clip on hand, I made one by using standard CAT-5E cable.
This hack is simple and it works great, I almost throw my Eee out of the window for not able to display 640x480 games properly... (I hate Intel for this stupid bug (-_-);
Now all of my games works like it should be. Thanks!!!
A side note to all gamers out there, you can switch between stretched-full-screen and unstretched-centered-pixel-mapping 640x480 display by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F11 during your game in real time. You may also setup your own hotkeys by using the Intel graphic control panels.
Thanks again and Happy gaming 2008!! (^o^)/~~~~
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If you're doing a soldering project, you should probably use 75ohm resistors between the looped connections. What you're really doing here is shorting two of the color signals to their grounds. I've found similar stuff on the web, and they all to say to use 75ohm resistors. I assume this is to protect the internal video hardware.
Also, are you sure you need both? Might be enough to short one or the other of the signals, depending on what the drivers are actually looking for.
neko:
There's an option in the graphics drivers to set the screen to stretch or center, which is what I'm guessing that hotkey toggles. It doesn't affect 800x480 at all, since that's native size, and 800x600 isn't affected as a panning mode. So, if you always like one or the other (I'd always want centered) I'm guessing you can just set it and leave it there.
Last edited by geoelectric (2008-01-02 8:50:37 pm)
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