Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Technical Help and How To's Anyone using a big monitor in portrait mode?

I've run into a weird problem. Because most of what I do on my PC is word processing / layout etc. it would be very useful to switch my monitor (widescreen 1680 x 1050) to portrait mode. The PC has a 256mb ATI graphics card and the control program has buttons for it, but when I try it won't let me switch to portrait mode at this or lower resolution.

Is anyone doing this on a PC running Windows XP? If so, what graphics card are you using, if any?

Thanks!

When you go into advanced display settings does it show options for rotating the display or do you have a pivot program showing in the advanced options tabs?

If so, that's what will do it for you. I'm running a Lenovo Thinkcentre (Intel graphics chipset) with a Gateway monitor (1440 x 900). And boy does it look weird running sideways.

I should think the ATI would have enough oomph to do it.

I assume you've checked the various tech boards. There might be a driver issue - see if there are newer drivers for your graphics card.

The advanced tab links to the ATI control program, that has pivot options that don't work. It's certainly possible it's a driver issue, but I don't want to try anything too drastic until I've finished the current book.

later: Forgot to say that it is the latest version of the driver.

The latest is that it appears to be a known bug with Windows XP service pack 3 and quite a few graphics cards, and probably isn't readily soluble. It appears not to affect motherboard graphics, but I need the performance and don't want to give up the memory motherboard graphics need, so for now I'll pass on that one. Not the end of the world but VERY annoying.

I'd go over to Linux, but there are just too many Windows programs I use that don't have good alternatives. Or Windows 7 might fix it, but I really don't want to have to reinstall everything.

Then there's the issue of Win7 not being completely compatible with some XP programs unless you spend the extra money for 'Professional'. (Which is why I'm still running XP for my test server.)

Can't say I'm surprised. I think I'll just have to leave it.

The final PS on this, for now - I'm rebuilding a spare PC which has a slightly better specification than my old one as a dual-boot Windows / Linux machine, starting out with a fresh XP installation. It turns out that it handles a pivoting screen in Windows just fine even after installing Windows Service Pack 3. The graphics card uses the nVidia chip set, not ATI, which may be why. Won't really be able to start using it properly until I've finished the current book and have a bit of time to transfer software etc., but so far it's pretty good, and a 22" 1050 (horizontal) by 1680 (vertical) screen is AWESOME for writing and layout.

But annoyingly Linux won't let me rotate the monitor! The Linux drivers for nVidia are either unaccelerated or don't support rotation, depending which one you use. And since the astronomy software I want to use needs acceleration I don't have much choice...

And the last word on this...

I started using the new super-duper PC in earnest today. And I've already discovered that if I use the monitor in portrait mode for lengthy periods I get a crick in the neck! It's literally too high - if I'm in my normal seat position and turn the screen around to portrait the top is about 3" above my eyes. There are ways to fix this, of course, by e.g. raising the seat or leaning back, but I'll mostly be reserving portrait mode for final layout checks etc., I think.