Monitor or video card problem?

[Larc]

Fonts have suddenly started looking somewhat "raggedy" (using Cleartype helps
somewhat, but it's not so great with a CRT monitor). There are also occasional
blinks of the screen, almost as if a split-second degaussing is taking place.
But I've not noticed any real degrading of the display such as getting darker,
lighter or losing contrast. Colors are still true. But fonts just aren't as
sharp as they were a couple of days ago. They almost look as if they were
painted with a brush that needed a little more paint on it.

I'm running WinXP with a Matrox P650 video card and a Viewsonic 21" CRT monitor
(G810-2). Any ideas what I should start suspecting first?

Thanks for your help.

Larc



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[Mike T.]

Fonts have suddenly started looking somewhat "raggedy" (using Cleartype
helps
somewhat, but it's not so great with a CRT monitor). There are also
occasional
blinks of the screen, almost as if a split-second degaussing is taking
place.
But I've not noticed any real degrading of the display such as getting
darker,
lighter or losing contrast. Colors are still true. But fonts just aren't
as
sharp as they were a couple of days ago. They almost look as if they were
painted with a brush that needed a little more paint on it.

I'm running WinXP with a Matrox P650 video card and a Viewsonic 21" CRT
monitor
(G810-2). Any ideas what I should start suspecting first?

A power supply in the CRT monitor is failing. -Dave

 

[Larc]

|
| | > Fonts have suddenly started looking somewhat "raggedy" (using Cleartype
| > helps
| > somewhat, but it's not so great with a CRT monitor). There are also
| > occasional
| > blinks of the screen, almost as if a split-second degaussing is taking
| > place.
| > But I've not noticed any real degrading of the display such as getting
| > darker,
| > lighter or losing contrast. Colors are still true. But fonts just aren't
| > as
| > sharp as they were a couple of days ago. They almost look as if they were
| > painted with a brush that needed a little more paint on it.
| >
| > I'm running WinXP with a Matrox P650 video card and a Viewsonic 21" CRT
| > monitor
| > (G810-2). Any ideas what I should start suspecting first?
| >
|
| A power supply in the CRT monitor is failing. -Dave

Could be. It's a rather old monitor. But I think I solved the font problem. I
had upgraded to a newer set of video drivers recently that evidently didn't
agree with my system. I remembered that just after I posted the message here.
Installation of the drivers came during a clean re-install of everything, so the
font problem went unnoticed while I was busy fighting bigger battles. But
reverting to the previous drivers seems to have fixed the fonts. If the
blinking continues, that could well be evidence of a failing monitor power
supply.

Mixed emotions on that: it's always bad when a trusted old friend goes belly up,
but I've been looking for an excuse to buy a nice LCD monitor now that they've
got so cheap.

Thanks for the reply, Dave.

Larc



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[Rod Speed]

Fonts have suddenly started looking somewhat "raggedy" (using
Cleartype helps somewhat, but it's not so great with a CRT monitor).

There are also occasional blinks of the screen, almost
as if a split-second degaussing is taking place.

Thats due to arcing in the FBT that generates the main
screen voltage. You can often hear a click when it arcs.

But I've not noticed any real degrading of the display such as getting
darker, lighter or losing contrast. Colors are still true. But fonts just
aren't as sharp as they were a couple of days ago.

Likely the full voltage isnt available anymore so you need to adjust
the focus if it wasnt for the fact that it likely wont last for long.

They almost look as if they were painted with
a brush that needed a little more paint on it.

I'm running WinXP with a Matrox P650 video card and a Viewsonic 21"
CRT monitor (G810-2). Any ideas what I should start suspecting first?

Its certainly the FBT in the monitor failing.

Its not usually economic to replace that, just buy another monitor.

 

[JAD]

so hard to let a good friend go...I have a KDS 19" that is getting long in
the tooth and doing strange stuff. I replaced two Caps but alas the bad boy
is going. Its funny how much crazy crap you'll put up with just to hold on.
Really hard to game with Call of Duty, when the screen shrinks to a 5x6
screen and then back to full, LOL, anyway start looking, I am going to
move to LCD this purchase as long as I can get color profiles that work
WELL.

 

[DaveW]

It seems that either the video card or the monitor is failing. The only way
to determine exactly which of them is to replace one of the two of them with
a known working one and see if that fixes it. If not, the other one is bad.