Brendan Hughes

Just got my PC back from repair where they had to reinstall the OS (XP Home) due to the DVD hanging halfway through films.

Apart from having to reinstall Office, users, Cable modem (just done) and all the other stuff that was on it (WHY don't tecchies leave it as they found it after fixing bugs?), the fonts displayed, most noticeably black on white background, look out of focus.

I have a Sony S51 TFT monitor, GeForce 2 graphics card, and PCTV, FWIW. I like to run the monitor on 800x600, rather than the 1024 that some people seem to like, and of course the problem is more obvious. But it wasn't like this before the PC went, so I don't understand why it should be like this now.

I've set the phase and pitch adjustment on the monitor, so it ain't that.

Can anyone help? It's like watching an out of focus film, it's 'orrible!!

Edited to add - I don't think the whole picture is out of focus, but it's particularly obvious with text - some of it looks like it's in bold when it shouldn't be.

Thanks
Brendan

[Edited by Brendan Hughes - 9/7/2002 10:08:03 AM]

super_si

could try just deleting drivers and installing them again?

I had a similar problem with that too.

Found lead wasnt fully pushed in.

si

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

check lead (into pc, and into tft), remove the monitor that is installed in xp, re-install the tft monitor drivers

Scooby-Doo

You should have a parse option on the monitor, try adjusting this.

what would scooby do

go into display properties, look for the "effects" setting - there is an option which allows you to set text as "standard" or "clear type" - change it and the problem should go away

Brendan Hughes

Thanks for the suggestions.

I'm going to try the plug theory. Clear type didn't work, and I can't find any instructions on parse - where would it be? I read the manual, honest!! Plug suggestion is interesting as my graphics card wobbles slightly - when I first put the monitor plug in there was no screw holding the card in, so I pushed the card back into the computer. Stole a screw from the unused modem card and thought I had fixed it, but it still wobbles slightly, so perhaps I should try to get it really firm (oo-er missus). I'll have a go tomorrow and let you know. Many thanks.

BJH

Big Col

Sounds like an EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) problem. The graphics card needs to be seated properly. There is sometimes an EMC shield between options cards and the PC chassis.

Brendan Hughes

Thanks everyone. Re-seated the graphics card and it certainly seems better. Can't say it's perfect though, but perhaps now my eyesight's permanently buggered from looking at it the last few days.

EMC - uh-oh. The tower is beside a desk, I've coiled up all the cables and squashed them in between the tower and the flat side of the desk so we can't see them from behind. So all me cables are 4mm away from the graphics card. Bad idea? Cables strewn all over the living room (nowhere else to hide them) will NOT go down well...

BJH