Comment 1 for bug 134963

Similar issues for me.

I have a Sony CPD-G220 17" CRT monitor connected via VGA connector to my PCIe nVidia GeForce 8600. The monitor's best resolution is 1024x768, but can comfortably do 1280x1024 and just do 1600x1200.

X was autoconfigured with 1024x768 and it was working fine. That was OK, but interesting, since previous Linux installs would use 1280x1024.

If I go to the Screen and Graphics control panel to change it, it defaults to Screen 1 having a maximum resolution of 1024x768, with the refresh rate list showing 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 Hz. How bizarre!

If I went to Model -> Detect, it ends up with:
Generic
Plug 'n' Play
Horizontal: 28.0 - 33.0
Vertical: 43-72

This is way below what the monitor is capable of. My manual suggests it should be:
Sony
CPD-G220
Horizontal: 30.0-96.0
Vertical: 48-170

(does it use EDID to determine this information? how can I check what my monitor is reporting?)

The CPD-G220 isn't listed (only the G200 is listed, but that's a smaller monitor). If I try to add my monitor to the list, rather than asking me to type in the horizontal and vertical details, I'm supposed to find a driver file. Where from?

I'm also using the non-free nVidia driver. Perhaps this is one of the problems? It would explain why the resolution was correctly set up at install time but now it detected wrongly.

xrandr -r shows:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 175, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768 50.0* 51.0 52.0 53.0 54.0 55.0

and several lower resolutions.