I have a new Samsung 216BW monitor, which works correctly
with the modern computer I normally use it with. However,
I sometimes want to connect it to the VGA port of an
older machine. When I do this, the display works for
about a minute then shuts off displaying a "suboptimal
resolution" message. I have to power cycle the monitor.

I'm not worried about the resolution setting being wrong --
it still displays okay -- but how do I get it to keep
from shutting off?

(Hopefully I explained this adequately, it's a little
hard to describe.)

Thanks,

Steve

Bob Knowlden <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>According to the manual:

>http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...521T-00Eng.pdf

>you can get the "not optimum mode" message if something has happened to the
>signal, or the signal is out of range. I don't know why that would be
>affected by power cycling the monitor.

>Is the display set to 60 Hz (in the old PC's control panel)? The 216BW is
>spec'd to allow 75 Hz, but 60 should be safe. I have no idea why the monitor
>should run for any length of time at all with an out-of-range signal, but
>it's worth a look.

>Good luck.

Thanks. As another point of information, this monitor does
not exhibit the shutting-off problem with a different,
not quite as old computer also set for a "non optimum" resolution
(i.e. 1280 x 1024, when the monitor wants 1680 x 1050).
It is only with this very old computer (which I still wish
to use sometimes) that the problem occurs. I'm thinking it
has a quite old rev of the VGA spec on its display card.

Steve

Mike Ruskai <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>You missed the important part of his advice. The resolution is essentially
>irrelevant. It's the refresh rate you need to look at. If the old computer
>is set to 75Hz, but fluctuates, that could explain why the monitor gives up
>after a minute. Make sure the refresh on the old computer is set to 60Hz.

Thanks, sorry for being a bit slow here. I'll look at the
refresh rate.

Steve

Steve Pope <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Mike Ruskai <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>>You missed the important part of his advice. The resolution is essentially
>>irrelevant. It's the refresh rate you need to look at. If the old computer
>>is set to 75Hz, but fluctuates, that could explain why the monitor gives up
>>after a minute. Make sure the refresh on the old computer is set to 60Hz.

>Thanks, sorry for being a bit slow here. I'll look at the
>refresh rate.

That did seem to be the problem. I had to go into
safe mode to get it to function well enough that I could
reset the refresh rate, which I may have had at some very
high setting like 85 Hz.

Thanks for your help!

Steve