posted
I've noticed my monitor is acting a bit strange lately.... When working in PS or opening a new window or program the color gets all weird like an LSD trip! (no, never had one of those...) and now I notice a slight wiggling of the screen. Oh horrors!! Don't tell me the thing's dying!! I bought it about 3 yrs ago exactly...a Sony Trinatron, cost me about $350!! I'd hate to have to spend that much again after only 3 yrs. A
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Posts: 4868 | From: Port Angeles, Washington, USA | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
First, if you have a Degauss option for your monitor settings (most are in video overlay menus now), try that.
If that doesn't work, try wiggling the cord that goes from your video card to the monitor at each connection. This seems to be a fairly common problem. It may just be a loose wire, or possibly that the video card isn't seated correctly.
Are you sure it's a wiggle or is it more of a flicker? Or maybe even a funky horizontal pattern combined with a high pitch whine?
A wiggle is caused by noise in the electrical circuits in the house. You could see the whole screen slowly "hula dancing" back and forth. It could be caused by a dimmer switch somewhere in the house or even some other noisy appliance.
Flickers and the horizontal pattern/whining sound is usually caused by the Refresh Rate and Resolution/Color Depth settings in the video card. Changing any one of these can produce symptoms like you mentioned and you dont even need to change any setting for it to happen.
Go to Start>Settings>Control Panel>Display and click on the "Settings" tab. Click on the "Advanced" button near the bottom of that tab (hopefully it isnt greyed out).
There will be yet another window (I know, I'm gettin sick of paging through windows to write these directions..hehe) and this window has a tab labeled "Adapter". Click on that tab.
Towards the bottom of that tab there's a box labeled "Refresh Rate". There's probably going to be several numbers in there and with any luck there will be a setting that reads "Optimal". Select the "optimal" setting which lets the video card find the best refresh rate on its own. This rate should work but on occassion it doesnt. If not, try selecting the other rates if there are any listed.
Something to keep in mind is that the Refresh Rate is VERY important! If you choose the wrong refresh rate for your monitor/video card combination, you will experience frequent headaches because the slight variance in the screen is detectable by your eyes although you cant really see it. If the screen has the horizontal pattern with the whining sound (it's really obvious, impossible to miss) this setting can cause damage to your monitor if you leave it like that. It's OK if you find this setting during "testing" to see which refresh rate works best, just dont let it go very long.
Check all the cables to make sure they are tight and you might even want to download the latest drivers from your video card's manufacturer cause that can have an affect as well. Updated drivers usually do fix little buggers like you're experiencing.
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics Lake Havasu City, AZ http://www.stickerpimp.com
Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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