Need help with NEC FE2111 CRT

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Namelessme

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2012
Messages
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Hello,

I recently purchased a decent condition NEC FE2111 from someone on Craig's list, but need some help getting it set up correctly. My main problem is getting my computer to play nice with a CRT.

To confuse matters, my computer is a mac mini (2011) (w/Lion and Windows 7 installed) using a mini display to VGA adapter, which may cause some problems on its own.

Key problems so far:

During initial boot sequence, the Win 7 logo doesn't appear. Instead all I get is a black screen, then the log-on screen pops up. Not a major, major issue, but if I ever need to go into safe mode, I'll just be guessing at what I am clicking... can't see anything.

Second issue is that my computer thinks my CRT is a LCD, with a native res of 1600x1200. I tried updating the drivers (Intel 3000HD), but it didn't help. I strangely have the choices of 800x600, 1024x768 and 1600x1200 in which to use display scaling. All other options can either be centered (squashed) or stretched (blurry... not good).

The monitor can go up to 1920x1440, and can do much higher refresh rates than my computer is currently allowing me to do. To be honest, I probably won't be running it at super high resolutions or refresh rates anyway, but I'd at least like to be able to use 1152x864 without any resizing weirdness.

When I first hooked up the monitor, win 7 chose a generic non-plug and play driver for it, and I was able to use any resolution I wanted, no stretching, etc. But Naviset (NEC calibration tool) wouldn't work. I then boot into the Mac side of things, and I guess the Apple EFI got reset, as now Win 7 knows it's a FE2111, and it chooses the generic plug and play driver. Naviset even works now. All good, I thought, until I tried to change the resolutions, and the above sizing/refresh rate issues came into play.

So... any advice suggested? Changing the monitor driver may work, but the NEC one doesn't seem to be compatible with Win 7. Anyone know of a newer driver out there? I found someone here in these forums who made a Vista X64 driver for said monitor, but would that work in Win7? Or could it possibly just cause more problems?
 
I have a FE2111SB right now with Win 7, no problems whatsoever... Have used Naviset in the past but this install I didn't even bother with it.

I'm sorry that I am no help, but at least I can tell you that is does work for me...
 
What monitor driver are you using?

The NEC one, or the generic windows PNP driver?
 
Does this make sense?
Generic PnP 6.1.7600.16385 from 06/06/21, Microsoft, with a sweet ATI Radeon HD 4800 :D
 
Hmm...

Yeah, it does. But unfortunately that means it's my graphics driver. And there aren't a whole lot of options for me there, I think.

I'm using that same exact monitor driver. But have an Intel 3000HD. I can try rolling back, see if it helps at all.
 
Excuse me for bumping my own thread, but I noticed something unusual after a bit more testing.

The resolutions that my monitor seem to be able to do in Win 7 (without resizing):

800x600 (75, 85 refresh rates)
1024x768 (75, 85 refresh rates)
1152x864 (75 refresh rate only. 85 will cause it to resize from 1600x1200)
1280x1024 (75, 85 refresh rates)
1600x1200 (75, 85 refresh rates).

The question I have is, where did it come up with these bizarre numbers? They seem almost arbitrary. 1280x1024 is of course 5:4, so no idea why it considers that a 'good' resolution. 1280x960 should be used instead, but my drivers think that is 'non-native' and decide to resize from 1600x1200 if I try it.

Also no idea why 1152x864 only works at 75 mhz and not 85. I've been running it at 1024x768, 85mhz, which is acceptable (at least it makes everything really super readable), but I would like to once in a while use higher resolutions or refresh rates. This thing should be able to go to at least 1920x1080 using VGA, and technically up to 1920x1440 according to monitor specs... with refresh rates over 100 for several resolutions.
 
I really think you need to install the proper NEC drives for the monitor, I had the NEC MultiSync FP2141SB 22 inch CRT Monitor. It acted weird until the proper driver was installed. I remember at 1600*1200 the refresh rate was 160hz. Find the right drivers.

It was one bad ass monitor.

Found a driver i think it is an NEC site with a crt driver installer. It looks like your driver is there I hope this helps.
http://www.necdisplay.com/monitor-installer/downloads
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the quick reply.

I did find the correct driver, but it is XP only. I tried it anyway, but Windows 7 won't take it.

I also wrote NEC, asking if perhaps I could use a different NEC CRT driver, or alter their original in some way so it plays nice with Win 7, but no reply yet.

But yeah, I think you are right in the fact that I don't think I'll ever get this thing working with all resolutions and refresh rates until I get the monitor driver issue fixed. I just have no idea how to fix it.
 
You might not be able to use the installer but I seem to recall you can extract the raw files and maybe use them, you will have a couple different types, I think an .inf, .cat
and one or two others but I cant remember, you might get those to work by putting them all in a folder and then going into device manager\monitor\update driver and point to that folder. It's worth a try.
 
Oh, I have the exact driver for my monitor already. It's available from NEC's site, under that specific model. It was one of the first things I tried.

Issue is it's not Win 7 compatible. I just received an email back from NEC too, saying since the monitor is no longer supported, no driver solution is available from them. They just suggested trying the generic drivers, which is what I am using now, and it's causing the issues I mentioned above.

Any other ideas on things to try? Any way to force an XP driver to play nice with Win 7?

I guess the graphics driver is getting that weird info from the EDID or something? There are only two graphics drivers available to me that I'm aware of, and neither of them make a difference either.

Only other option I thought of was making custom resolutions. But they list all sorts of weird things, like required timings and such, and not sure what to set there. Also probably won't work well for changing resolutions within games.
 
Im using XP Pro with a NEC FE2111SB and didnt have to install any driver.
Works perfectly.
 
Have you ever tried the ToastyX Custom Resolution Utility, to force-install a resolution and refresh rate?
 
Thanks for the replies, but I am not sure you noticed I posted this request over a year ago. I have long since moved on to a different monitor.

The solution I did use, if I recall correctly, was simply pull a pin from the VGA cable so I could use any res/refresh rate I wanted.
 
Namelessme said:
Thanks for the replies, but I am not sure you noticed I posted this request over a year ago. I have long since moved on to a different monitor.

The solution I did use, if I recall correctly, was simply pull a pin from the VGA cable so I could use any res/refresh rate I wanted.
Click to expand...

What monitor did you get ? Please dont say LCD !
 
Afraid so. I got tired of trying to hunt down a decent CRT from Craigslist. And the NEC was rather lousy with text (as are all CRTs to be honest), so it was time to move on.

I ended up with a NEC 2490, which is basically the closest I could get to a CRT regarding angles. Overall, it is much better than the NEC FE2111 I owned, but some of that could be chalked up to the fact that my CRT was rather ancient.

I wouldn't dismiss all LCDs like they are evil ... it's basically trade-offs with monitor technology.
 
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