Loss of resolution support with HDMI to VGA converter

Question

I purchased a new Lenovo S510P Touch earlier this year, after my Dell was stolen. When I got it, I realised that there was no VGA port, which made me facepalm at a regulated rate.

So, I got myself an HDMI (male) to VGA (female) converter, much like this one, but white, and more expensive.

Now, the display will not allow its native resolution (1366x768 @ 60Hz) to be set. The highest I can get is 1280x720 @ 60Hz. Anything past that (and a few lower than that), and it's rejected.

Specs:

• Display: Acer G195HQV
• Laptop & Graphics: Lenovo S510P Touch, Intel (R) HD Graphics 4400 (10.18.10.3412)

Could it perhaps have something to do with needing specific drivers for the display? Is it the Intel Graphics? Or is it a problem with the converter?

Any help you here would be appreciated. :)

Solution

HDMI is generally designed to work with standard TV resolution : 720×480, 720×576, 1280×720, 1920×1080. VGA (640×480) should also be supported everywhere. Even though there should not be any problem with using other resolutions, your VGA-HDMI (which is an active digital to analog converted, therefore it has his own chipset and firmware with hardcoded values) probably doesn't support those.

Now, most of the time you can set your own resolution, but it depends on your operating system (and graphic driver, but with Intel there's only one). On Windows, you should find something to define special resolution in the Intel HD Graphics configuration software in advanced mode. On GNU/Linux with X.org, Xrandr can probably help.

Comments

[Mike Rockétt]

I thought that might be the case, though it just seems weird to me. I have tried using custom resolutions, even having noted that every single resolution up to 1080p is listed by default, but to no avail. I even though it may have something to do with the refresh rate (through conversion). Not quite sure what the difference between 60Hz and 59Hz is - didn't work either way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm running Windows 8.1.