Can this driver damage any hardware?

Hello
If I install on an Asus Mini Eee pc a driver that will force the display to a higher resolution than it's default maximum resolution allowed by the native driver is there any chance to damage the display adapter or the display?

It may sound dumb but I heard a lot of opinions and I need to know if it's true or not.

Thanks

 

Not IF it's the CORRECT driver for the video card.

On my computer, when I re-install Windows, it shows up as the native Windows VGA resolution until I install the video driver for my video card (in my case an nVidia Quadro FX Go 1400) and then I'm able to get the full resolution from the monitor.

However, is there a setting in your current driver that allows for changing the resolution? If there is, work with that. Sometimes "updated" drivers can cause problems including BSODs.

 

I don't see how it can damage the adapter or the display because I don't see how either can be forced into a resolution they don't support. When you select an unsupported resolution, typically you get nothing (a blank screen) or some sort of "out of range" error, or a distorted or improperly sized display for your screen size (where you might see only the upper-left quadrant of the image on your screen, for example).

The problem becomes the fact you cannot see the buttons or menu options on the screen to undue the incorrect setting. The solution to that however, is to simply boot into Safe Mode, which forces the OS, the adapter and the monitor into an industry-standard VGA resolution that ALL operating systems, monitors and graphics solutions (card or integrated) MUST support. I say must because operating systems and graphics hardware must be able to communicate at basic levels so the user can see what is happening BEFORE specific drivers are installed.

BTW, monitor "drivers" are not drivers at all and you really don't need to install them. This is because monitors and operating systems don't communicate with each other. The OS communicates with the graphic card (or integrated) and the card, then communicates with the monitor.

All a so called monitor driver does is report to the OS the brand and model number of the monitor, and resolutions it supports, or rather, it does NOT support by graying out unsupported resolutions in the display's properties menu. Without a monitor driver, the monitor shows up simply as a PnP (plug n play) monitor and all resolutions the card supports are displayed.