NA - Monitor Help please - NA

[Skip Miller]

With apologies to Murphey!

My computer monitor seems to loose its good resolution periodically. If you look at the attached file, you will see that in the first panel, parts of the text look like the font has changed somewhat. Although you can see it in this example, it can get a lot worse than this.

In the second panel, you can see that just by highlighting the text, the resolution improves back to normal.

In the third panel, un-highlighting the text and the trouble does not re-occur. It is then a few screens later the problem recurs.

What is going on here?

Thanks in advance for your help. -Skip

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

Skip I cannot tell from the screen print, possibly I do not have high enough resolution.

While this could be the monitor, I'd start by looking at connections and the video card on the computer. Then the settings to see if I could find a better setting that the computer seems to like.

First question is when did it start and what has changed about that time?

Typically we tighten the cable to the pc, clean the cable with anti static cloth (or fabric softener) once in a while.

Have you observed any heat related issues? when does this happen most offen? IS it repeatable?

If your system is on 3 years I would suspect heat. If it is newer but in a dusty or pet environment it could be dander slows the video card fan and there is a steady build up of heat until it goes wonky for a while and then cools and returns to normal.

 

[John221us]

Try updating your video driver. Make sure cables are all well seated.

 

[inactive15]

I notice you are using firefox, try Internet Explorer to see if the same problem occurs. I recall coming across a similar problem long time ago and I am sure it was not hardware related.

Is this only isolated to firefox? Does it occur in other applications?

 

[RJM62]

All of the above. Then report back.

-Rich

 

[Skip Miller]

I will report back.

Yes, the problem is isolated to Firefox.

The desktop is about 5 years old, the flatscreen monitor about 10. Yes, old....

I don't believe heat or dust is the problem. I did not report that the monitor is also going into uncommanded sleep mode about every 10 minutes (and the windoze software settings are not commanding this!), and a move of the mouse brings it back. I wanted to get your unbiased list of things to look at before I revealed this symptom. Your feedback is consistent with my theory: I suspect hardware connections or a failing video card.

Doubtful I can get to this in the coming weekend. I will eventually let you know what I find, and Thanks! -Skip

 

[Skip Miller]

Problem solved - at least for now. The problem proved to be isolated to Firefox. I found (in the help menu) a way to reset Firefox to default settings and it seems to be working now.... I must have fat fingered something, who knows?

Thanks as usual to all.

-Skip

 

[JOhnH]

Glad you fixed it, but I was going to emphasize updating to the manufacturers latest driver (not the generic windows driver). Even if it was an age related hardware problem, error correction code in the latest drivers may be able to detect these occurrences and do a software reset before you are aware of them.

 

[oldShar]

One comment:
If you can capture it via PrintScreen, it is NOT the monitor. The O/S grabs the contents of the memory file for the screen content appearance, not from the actual screen.

(And I agree that Firefox has been getting awfully flakey as of late --- must have something to do with their near weekly version updates)