Help! My eyes blurry or monitor?

I know this is a tough one to ask since there's no way anyone can actually look at my monitor in person and see if affects you, too, but my eyes have been really irritated the past 2-3 weeks.

Here's pertinent background info that you should know:

The monitor is only a couple years old (Samsung SyncMaster 2494), 23" inch LCD....I've been using it just fine with no eye issues up until 3 weeks or so ago when I had to swap out my old dying HDD and put in a new HDD. I had to reinstall everything including the drivers for graphics card etc. At first, the monitor setup didn't match so everything was out of proportion and it was blurry. When going to screen resolution, there was no option for my native resolution which is 1920x1080 ...so i had to go and download AMD Catalyst Control Center. My graphics card is AMD Radeon HD 6870.

From the control center I was able to tinker with some settings and finally found a way to use 1920x1080. It looked to be proper now just like before.

But for some reason my eyes started to feel strained and blurry and you know how you get those teary eyes when something is just not right? Maybe it's focus, maybe it's brightness, sharpness....but whatever it is, something most likely isn't right since my body is telling me that. My head says everything is proper. The settings on paper look to be exactly what they should be, but my body is telling me that something is not right which is why I'm getting blurry and teary eyes (I have to squint sometimes just to look at my screen). Now I don't wear glasses, but my vision is not as good seeing far away objects. I think that means I'm nearsighted right? Basically, I never have any problems looking at things that are close to me. So it's not something about my eyes suddenly going blind and needing glasses. I can look away from my monitor and read a book or look at a printed sheet of paper and everything is crystal clear with no straining or blurry vision. But when I glance back at my monitor, it's like I can't see sharply focused anymore...it makes me tear up.

I've tried adjusting both the settings on the computer and the settings on my monitor itself, but still my eyes feel very strained and vision is blurry that I have to squint. I NEVER had to do this before.

So I'm trusting my body instead of my head right now. Something is wrong with either my monitor or the computer settings and my screen must be on some incorrect setting that is hurting my eyes.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot? Can you suggest what I should take a look at it? If you need any answers from me, please ask me and I will try my best to answer.

I would like to get to the bottom of this and save my eyes. Right now it's even painful just to type this out cuz my eyes hurt like hell and I'm squinting and my eyes feel like they are constantly tearing up (like crying).

Thanks

 

Your eyes are invaluable.
I suggest you first consult an Optometrist. If your eyes are given a clean bill of health, return and then someone can help you with the monitor.

 

Yes, my eyes are fine. Nothing bothers me except for when I look at this particular monitor. I've set up another monitor (21 inch) for now and it's fine...my eyes don't bother me when I look into this one. So clearly it has something to do with the settings on the 24" monitor...don't know what it could be. Its 1920x1080 native which is what I had it on.

 

Good to know your eyes are fine! Most regular (not 3D) monitors require no additional driver files, unless there's a graphics card. The problem is with the AMD Catalyst Control Center. Check if you can reset the settings (everything) to default. Also ensure you have not accidentally adjusted the 3D settings.

I just checked my Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel. There's a setting for Custom Resolutions but, it carries a warning. And although I don't have a 3D monitor, there's settings that can be adjusted.

 

You didn't say what version of Windows.

In W7 and W8, if you search for cleartype you should see "Adjust ClearType Text". Run that and make sure it is enabled then run through the adjustments and see if that helps.

 

And you just answered your own question.

I had a GE monitor that was "fuzzy". I removed it and bought another. I don't need eye strain.
I attached the GE to another computer and it was crisper on that one. I guess it just didn't like the video card on the one computer. If it had been fuzzy on the 2nd computer too, I would have e-cycled it.

 

Except that monitor used to be fine before his HD died and he had to reinstall the graphics card drivers. So that would suggest it is NOT the monitor.

 

sorry, yes I am on windows 7. Yes, I have used cleartype several times to adjust it but it still seems to be a tiny bit off, just enough that it's causing my eyes to get watery.

Yes, based on my physical feelings, I don't believe it's my eyes just suddenly failing me in a matter of a couple days. The problem now is because I've been looking at this fuzzy text (graphics/pictures look exactly the same, good quality clear and crisp, sharp, but only text is a bit fuzzy for some reason), I don't know anymore if maybe I am not having some eye trouble because I've been looking at this fuzzy text for 3-4 weeks now maybe my eyes are trying to adjust to that and when I look at a monitor that has no issues, maybe it looks fuzzy to me now.

Is there anything else I could check?

 

Yes, that is correct. It never bothered me at all for the 2 years I've used this monitor....some days I might be looking at it for 12+ hours in a single day and I wouldn't ever have teary eyes or squinty eyes where I had to look away just to feel better.

It just occurred after I put in a new HDD and had to reinstall everything and try to get all the settings back to how I had it....but I don't know if they are exactly how I had it. The thing that is confusing me is the AMD Catalyst Control and my own Monitor's settings. It seems that they sort of either conflict or overlap. For example, on my AMD control center, i can manually adjust brightness/contrast etc and it might say brightness is 0 and contrast 50. But on my monitor itself when I go into the settings, the brightness is like 87 and contrast 57 so I'm not sure which one I should use.

Would using a HDMI to HDMI cable affect anything?

 

True Black and White

I am running 2 monitors side by side but when I view an image, on monitor A it looks like it could be pink, but when I see it on my monitor B it looks like its red. I could use any other colors and they are slightly different from each other....so what I don't know is which monitor is actually showing me the real/most accurate color? Is there a way I can test it against something online as the true standard?

 

How is it connected now? Note when you go full digital, it is not uncommon for several adjustment options to no longer be available.

I personally don't like HDMI at all in computer systems. HDMI came out of the home entertainment electronics industry and the migration process has not gone well. Since the digital video within DVI is exactly the same as within HDMI (but without all the 5.1 surround sound and HDMI control channels), I would recommend DVI, if you your system supports it. Or DisplayPort.

You might try resetting both the monitor and Catalyst Control settings back to their defaults, then start over with the adjustments. FTR, I only use my monitor's adjustments.

 

Re: True Black and White

http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-calibrate-your-monitor/