Refresh rate with Ubuntu Restricted Driver

[alisonnic]

I have just installed Ubuntu 7.10 on a desktop with an nVidia 6800 XT. I need help in finding a way to control the refresh rate being sent to my monitor by the nVidia Restricted Driver for Ubuntu.

At certain times the Restricted Driver arbitrarily switches to a refresh rate of 50 Hz, but my monitor does not support this refresh rate. It needs a minimum of 56 Hz.

How can I prevent the Restricted Driver from using a refresh rate below 56 Hz?


Here are some details about what happened:

After installation, which went smoothly, I ran the Restricted Drivers Manager and enabled the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (latest cards). After installing the driver, this asked for a reboot. I waited until the system updates completed and then rebooted.

When I did, all went well until Ubuntu got to the login screen. At that point, my monitor complained that the signal it was receiving was not supported, and displayed nothing.

I unplugged the cable from the monitor and plugged it into another monitor. This monitor displayed the login screen, and i was able to log in.

I went to System/Preferences/Screen Resolution Preferences and found that the resolution was correct, at 1440x900, but the refresh rate was at 50 Hz. I switched the refresh rate to 56 Hz (the only other option here) and then switched the cable back to the original monitor. Now all seemed well.

However, then I tried to watch a movie using Totem, the movie player that came with Ubuntu. This worked until I switched to Full Screen mode. At that point the monitor went blank, again complaining that the signal was not supported.

Swapping to the other monitor, I found that the refresh rate had switched back to 50 Hz.

Apparently my monitor (a Dynex 19 inch LCD TV) does not support a refresh rate of 50 Hz. I need to keep the refresh rate at a minimum of 56 Hz in order for the monitor to work correctly.

I've done some experimenting, including playing with System/Screen and Graphics Preferences (which, incidentally, would not allow me to send a signal to a second monitor plugged into the other jack on the video card) and also duiong a sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. So far nothing's worked.

How can I keep the nVidia Restricted Driver from arbitrarily switching to a refresh rate of 50 Hz?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

-------------------------------------
Here's my system configuration:

Asus A7N8 Deluxe motherboard
eVGA 6800 XT
Athlon XP 3000+ Barton
1 GB memory
Dynex DX-LCD-19 monitor (reports as HISENSE)

[AaronP]

Please see the forum sticky posts and also http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...html#id2546809 ("Why is the refresh rate not reported correctly by utilities that use the XRandR X extension (e.g., the GNOME "Screen Resolution Preferences" panel, `xrandr -q`, etc)?")