OT : Computer stuff : DVI & TFT problems

I've just got one of Dells 24" TFT monitors, 1920x1200 res.

Graphics card in the PC is an Inno3D GeForce FX 5900 XT which has VGA
and DVI outputs.

Connecting with VGA and there's no problems, everything works great,
apart from text isn't as sharp/clean as DVI.

Connecting with DVI and there's a very nice improvement in the quality.
*But* there's a really annoying problem, which is hard to describe.

On say a dark grey background with a dialog box, the right (and
sometimes left) sides of the dialog box will slightly "tear" by maybe 5
pixels. If you move another dialog box around ontop of the first one
the "tearing" moves round. The tearing sparkles all the time too, like
TV static, weather you're doing nothing or not.

Another way this problem shows is when you have slight changes in
colour in an image, say you've got the standard Microsoft
"TellyTubbies" hill wallpaper set, open a window and move it around and
you can see bright cyan 'lines' coming and going and sparkling in the
sky and clouds of the wallpaper.

Also text looks shite sometimes.

The effect seems to be triggered when there's a solid line of different
colour to the rest of the back ground, to the right of this line its as
if the pixel clock looses lock and the line is shifting right/left fast.

I'm aware that 1920x1200 is actually beyond the spec of a single DVI-D
link, and they need to tweek the timing settings, etc, to fit the extra
res in, but could this be down to a cheapo graphics card? Poor quality
DVI cable? Monitor problem? Graphics card problem?

I'm going to have a play with powerstrip and see if that can improve
things, but there's so many timing settings it could take me ages :-(

Anyone close by got a GeForce (or ATI) card with DVI output I could
borrow for half a day or so?

 

Which drivers do you have? a new set were released yesterday, so give
these a shot. Also what refresh rate is it set to? It might have
defaulted to 75 for example depending on your previous screen, most
screens will get pissed off with anything over 60.

1920 is safely within the single dvi link specs, any card made in the
last 4 years or so will drive that size perfectly fine. Its also
possible youre picking up interferrence from somewhere, a power cable
running parallel with the dvi cable, or something within the computer case.

 

Spike scribbled:

Hmm, under a year old too.

Nope. Been fine upto now.

Milton Keynes, south east side.

 

Also, drivers from http://www.omegadrivers.net/ may be worth a try.

 

Try running this, it helped sort mine out

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx



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Mash scribbled:

Tried em, made no difference.

60Hz (or rather 59.950Hz)

From what I've researched 1920x1040 is the max bandwidth using proper
timing signals, 1920x1200 is just outside the spec, but as you say most
cards can handle it.

I've been told that it might just be a crummy DVI cable (its a single
link cable) so I'm off to PC Wank to aquire a decent one hopefully and
see what that does.

Could be. I've tried wiggling the wires around and that made no
difference so it must be inside interference if it is. The PC and
monitor are running off a UPS which whilst not online all the time, it
does filter the power coming in.

 

...... that changes the font antialiasing settings, like trying to cure
cancer with a screwdriver.

 

<snip>

IANAE but it sounds to me eeither it's a duff cable, or a crappy panel.

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B-O-R-G scribbled:

Interesting beastie. I never knew ClearType could be tuned to minimize
its fuzziness.

It won't make any difference cause the problems random interference and
not just dodgy text, but cheers

 

I bought a 19" TFT monitor a couple of months ago which had a terrible
picture

The cause was the cable

 

raden scribbled:

A decent Belkin cable is approx £20 inc from Aria/Scan. PC Wank want
£50 for the same thing. Cunts.

<mail orders from Aria>

 

belkin dont make decent cables, they sell overpriced trash. order a no
brand name oem jobbie which looks chunky and ugly.

 

Mash scribbled:

I had fun finding a good D-SUB <-> 5 BNC cable when I got the 22" Sony
monitor years ago. Went through the supplied one and three others
before I found a decent one.

All the crap ones gave me bad ghosting/double imaging.

Just don't want to go through the same hassle again.

Any known good recommendations?

 

Contradiction in terms IME

You're *surprised*??
I decided I needed some case fans for my server on Wednesday. Thought I'd
drop in the local PCW cos I figurred they couldn't be that much more
expensive.
*400%* more expensive than ebuyer. I mean, it's only a tenner in total, but
it's the principal

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<predictable>

They're useless cunts

</predictable>

 

Catman scribbled:

You're not the first to say that. What about Profigold cables?

Exactly. Which is why I didn't get one from there.

I should have remembered the last time I went there to get a cable, a
USB2 5m one, it was about 5x the normal web price.

Maplin are flogging a 2m DVD-I Profigold Pro cable for £45, which seems
to go for about £40 on the web, so thats not too bad a price.

 

Boots Blakeley scribbled:

Heh. Actually I never got round to it, they only have Belkin ones. So
getting one from my local Maplins instead.

 

When I had the 21" crt, the cable i used from my old 15" screen caused
ghosting, so I bought a nice looking belkin one for £20, it was even
worse, so I took it back and got the uber expensive £45 gold plated
belkin cable, this was back to the quality of my original cable. After
taking this one back I took a trip to maplins and bought a boring,
unbranded chunky looking cable for a fiver, it was the volvo of cables.

The picture was perfect.

Just avoid any curvy futuristic looking pretty cables with transparent
sheaths, quick snap release and 1 carrat gold on them.

However, I would first try using another computer on the screen first to
see if the problem is still there.

 

Personally I've never used them for PC related stuff. The SCART that I had
once was rather good, and the audio stuff gets good reviews (or used to).
You'd probably be just as good getting the chunky, ugly ones that people
are talking about.

Worth a punt at least.
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I got one of those, after doing much the same thing.

Difficult as I've only 1 computer with a decent card with DVI out on it.

When used via D-SUB there's no interference.