XP Screen Fonts Fuzzy

[Tim Martin]

I have a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop with a fresh XP SP3 install, and I'm
having a terrible problem with fuzzy screen fonts on the laptop LCD. I have
read through all the discussion postings and tried everything:

- Enabling ClearType and tuning it both with the power toy and web
interface. Turns out having ClearType disabled looks better but still not
great.

- Using the Advanced tab of My Computer Properties and trying both checked
and unchecked "Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts". Again, unchecked looks better
but not great.

- Trying both on and off for ClearType in IE7 and Office 2007 - again, off
seems to look better.

- Making sure I am running the laptop display at the native resolution.

- Making sure I have the latest video drivers.

When I boot the machine fresh, the initial Windows log on box looks
FANTASTIC - it looks like it was etched with a laser. I log on, and the
desktop starts - again, the text on the desktop icons is crisp and sharp -
exactly what I want. At some point as the desktop is initializing, the text
on those desktop icons flips over to fuzzy - looks like the screen was wiped
with vaseline.

Clearly (no pun intended) it's a software / settings issue, since when the
machine is starting for a short time it looks great.

What else could I be checking?

Thanks!

 

[db.·.. >]

try booting in safemode
and see if there is any
difference.

 

[JS]

Go into the Control Panel and see if there is an icon (usually by brand
name) for your video.
If there is, double click on this icon and check the setting in each tab for
something obvious.

Also if you right click on the Control Panel 'Display' icon, select the
'Settings' tab, click the 'Advanced' button and then check to see if you
have a tab named after the video card/chip, click on this tab check any
check the video setting located here.

I say this because at least on my system I have adjusted Gamma value and
this adjustment does not take effect until a short time after I have logged
on and my Desktop is loading.

I have an NVIDIA card and use their drivers for the NVIDIA web site and not
the drivers from MS Windows Update site as they have been known to cause
problems. You should get your video drivers from Dell's web site.

JS
www.pagestart.com

 

[smlunatick]

I have a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop with a fresh XP SP3 install, and I'm
having a terrible problem with fuzzy screen fonts on the laptop LCD.  Ihave
read through all the discussion postings and tried everything:

 - Enabling ClearType and tuning it both with the power toy and web
interface.  Turns out having ClearType disabled looks better but still not
great.

 - Using the Advanced tab of My Computer Properties and trying both checked
and unchecked "Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts".  Again, unchecked looks better
but not great.

 - Trying both on and off for ClearType in IE7 and Office 2007 - again,off
seems to look better.

 - Making sure I am running the laptop display at the native resolution..

 - Making sure I have the latest video drivers.

When I boot the machine fresh, the initial Windows log on box looks
FANTASTIC - it looks like it was etched with a laser.  I log on, and the
desktop starts - again, the text on the desktop icons is crisp and sharp -
exactly what I want.  At some point as the desktop is initializing, thetext
on those desktop icons flips over to fuzzy - looks like the screen was wiped
with vaseline.

Clearly (no pun intended) it's a software / settings issue, since when the
machine is starting for a short time it looks great.  

What else could I be checking?

Thanks!

This is the major problem with most LCD monitors. They need to be ran
that their "optimal" resolution with the up to date video card drivers
from the PC / video card maker. If you run at a lower resolution than
the recommended optimal resolution or run Microsoft's video drivers,
this can occur.

 

[Tim Martin]

Thanks for the responses, folks. I used msconfig to narrow the culprit down
to igfxpers.exe. If that module does not execute, I get crystal clear text.
Once it does in startup, or once it is executed afterwards - vaseline screen.

It's part of the Intel drivers for the video chipset. I'm running the
latest drivers available from Dell, but there is a later version available
from Intel that I am going to try. If that doesn't help, I'll take the
matter up with Intel. I would just exclude the module from startup, but when
the machine suspends or hibernates, the module runs automatically anyway,
startup or not.

The driver settings themselves are extremely rudimentary... there's nothing
I can find that would obviously affect this behavior.

I'll update this post as appropriate. Thanks for your continued suggestions.

 

[Tim Martin]

The latest drivers direct from Intel fixed the problem. Dell had made quite
a few changes to the driver, many simplifications. Looking at the Intel
drivers, I suspect something with the power management portion of the driver
- I think it was kicking the display into a much lower quality mode.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[JS]

You're welcome.

JS

The latest drivers direct from Intel fixed the problem. Dell had made
quite
a few changes to the driver, many simplifications. Looking at the Intel
drivers, I suspect something with the power management portion of the
driver
- I think it was kicking the display into a much lower quality mode.

Thanks everyone for the help.