OT: Dual Monitor Problem

Jameson_Prod wrote on 3/29/2005, 12:34 PM

OK...me again......sorry if I am getting on peoples nerves!!!

I now have (2) 17" LCD monitors. I purchased an ATI Radeon 9250 AGP 8x w/ 128 mb of RAM which has VGA out and DVI out. I purchased a DVI to VGA adapter. I have both monitors up and running but.......

Monitor one (primary on VGA port) looks OK. Text is fairlky sharp but it has considerable ghosting.

Monitor two (DVI port with adapter) looks crappy at best. Text is very blurry...colors look washed out....some ghosting.

I have the latest driver from ATI, I have doubled check the BIOS and everything looks fine, I have tried different combinations of screen size and refresh rates....nothing makes a difference (except to make it worse). ATI says I don't have the card seated good. I checked that also...seems good to me. Monitors look great on an old GeForce MX4400 but of course it doesn't support dual monitors.

What am I missing? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/29/2005, 7:22 PM

You should run your LCD's at their native resolution which is 1280x1024x32 at 75Hz for the best image. You should also be using ClearType for LCD’s. Right-click on your desktop and select Properties. On the Appearance tab press the Effects... button at the bottom. From the Effects dialog check “Use the following method for smooth edges of screen fonts:” and select ClearType from the dropdown list. Then press OK all the way back to the desktop. See if that helps any.

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB with two Samsung 710N-2 “17 LCD’s and the images are crisp and text is clear. Maybe your ATI card is just defective?

~jr

Jameson_Prod wrote on 3/30/2005, 4:18 AM

Thanks JR.....I was already leaning toward a possible bad card.

Thanks for your time.

logiquem wrote on 3/30/2005, 5:51 AM

75Hz do not works well for me. I got a ghosted image on my Radeon 9250/Samsung 172N LCD until i runned it at 60 Hz. The same was true with Matrox.

BillyBoy wrote on 3/30/2005, 6:04 AM

The horizontal refresh frequency determines how fast the screen is refreshed or redrawn every second. Generally the higher the value the better. Too low a setting can introduce flicker and be more annoying to some people resulting in headache, other creature symptoms and result in a less pleasing image.

Some graphic cards prevent you from running a higher refresh rate then your monitor supports, because doing so can result in various problems, even damage your monitor or computer. Still, you should dig out the monitor manaul and see how high a refresh rate it supports for your selected resolution and set it according.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/30/2005, 6:06 AM

> I got a ghosted image on my Radeon 9250/Samsung 172N LCD until i runned it at 60 Hz.

Wow, you would think the lower refresh rate would have more ghosting. I guess we’re not talking about exciting phosphorus with an electron beam anymore so old thinking needs to be changed. It still sounds like a bad card to me.

~jr

dcrandall wrote on 3/30/2005, 7:28 AM

I think you will find that almost all LCD's look more pleasing if the refresh rate is set to 60Hz. Unlike CRT's there is no flickering problem on LCD's and therefor no need for higher refresh rates.

-Dan

Jameson_Prod wrote on 3/30/2005, 5:27 PM

60, 70, 72, 75....all look about the same.

I took out the card, blew out the slot, brushed out the slot, re-seated card....same problems.

I beginning to think it is just a bad card. Oh well, you get what you pay for!!

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

BillyBoy wrote on 3/30/2005, 7:40 PM

Did you try each monitor seperately and then notice any change?

It could be another Windows thing. Its been a long time since I tried dual monitors. Seem to remember something where Windows asks for you to set priorites, monitor 1, 2, similar to having a master/slave relationship with hard drives. Has Windows nagged about this?

Have you checked the usual stuff like Device Manager nagging about someting it doesn't like, yellow or red flags? If you can, have you tried switching which monitor runs DVI? Have another cable to swap out? The DVI adaptors can have very flimsy pins. If one is bent, broken or not making good contact all kinds of weird things can happen. Many graphic cards when new and first installed tend to fit very tight. You should have felt a fair amount of resistance putting it in. Did you rock it back and worth making sure the entire length of the card include the break in the nose end is seated fully, Its possible to force a card and have a few contacts barely make contact. After all that it could very well be the card is bad. Did you ground yourself when installing? While a reach... damage from a static discharge does happen.

logiquem wrote on 3/31/2005, 4:40 AM

>Generally the higher the value the better. Too low a setting can introduce flicker and be more annoying to some people resulting in headache,

We are talking about LCD monitors here, not CRT. When did you see an LCD flickering?

JJKizak wrote on 3/31/2005, 4:54 AM

With the refresh rate set to 60 you will see increased still picture flicker on the LCD monitors when playing the timeline especially if zooming. Mostly in the horizontal lines in the pictures like railings, siding and such.

JJK