Trouble adjusting a 22" Soyo LCD monitor

Hi,

I just got a 22" Soyo LCD monitor. It's a little washed out, the proportions of the desktop background picture doesn't look quite right and I'm having trouble adjusting it properly. The manual is pretty lame.

I'm currently running in 1400x1050, basically because I tried others that didn't work very well, e.g. I tried 1024x768 and the horizontal position adjustment wouldn't bring it far enough to the right. It had a black vertical band on the right and several desktop icons were off the left side of the screen. This is my first LCD and I'm guessing it's because the resolution is for a CRT and not a wide screen.

What resolutions do you suggest running in? Refresh rates?

In Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver> Panel Fit >Maintain Aspect Ratio is checked.

In Display Properties> Settings> Color Quality it lists 32bit as the highest. I thought 64 bit was the highest. Am I wrong and/or do I need update the drivers?

What other adjustments do I need to make? Is there software that helps you make the correct adjustments?

Windows XP Home Edition, version 2002, Service Pack 3
Chipset: Intel 82945G

Are there other settings or hardware info you need to know?

Thanks,
Rock

 

32bit color is the highest; this is a different type of "bit measurement" than the 64bit that your CPU or operating system refers to, so don't worry, 32bit color is normal. When I first plugged in my new 20" wide screen LCD, it also looked washed out and 'pale'. This is because the color "temperature" was set to "cool", changing it to "normal" or "warm" fixed that problem. I also tweaked the bright and contrast a bit. The bright and contrast should be adjusted so that when you have a black window open in the middle of the desktop (opening a command prompt window is good for this), it should be truely black and not black with a light white haze over it, but you don't want the bright/contrast so low that if you're watching a video (for example), things in shadows should still be visible, so adjusting the bright and contrast while watching a video with lots of dark shadows can be helpful (at least that's one way I did it LOL ). As for resolution, because my LCD is smaller than yours, the max resolution I can use successfully is 1680x1050. I can actually go a bit higher but the LCD isn't happy with it and the picture ends up looking really bad. I like my icons small ('cuz I have a ton of stuff on my desktop), so your resolution really depends on how you like the system to look, but with a wide screen, the lower standard resolutions don't work too well. Resolution may also be limited by your video card/chip. On board (built-in) video tends to have a lower max resolution as compared to an add-on video card. According to Intel, the 945 video chip (which is actually GMA950) can handle up to "2048x1536 at 75 Hz". I may be wrong, but I don't think refresh rates are as important with LCDs as they are with CRTs. I have my LCD set at 60hz, but it's the only setting listed, and it works great. Anyway- I hope this helps a bit.... good luck!
:-D

 

Thanks, dlb!

I thought resolutions were, more or less, set in stone to keep the ratios to your screen size consistent. Do you know why the manual lists "Supported Timing", for example, 1440x900 & 1680x1050 and neither are available in Display Properties?

What I chose what 1600x1200. The next down is 1600x900. The next up is 1856x1392.

The manual also states, "Campatibility-PC-Up to 1680x1050."

Am I going to fry something running 1600x1200, or never be able to get the colors quite right because it's not fully supported?

 

No, or hopefully not. I tried to set my LCD to an unsupported resoltion and it went apeshit, I lost the picture, but because WinXP has a timer and you have to click "OK" before it locks in the chosen setting, it reverted back to my previous choice in 15 seconds or so. If I had continued to try to 'force' the unsupported res, then maybe I could have damaged the display. I don't think you can permamnently hurt anything by trying, but just because it was OK with my LCD doesn't necessarily mean it will be OK with yours. You can try 1440x900 or 1600x900. 1440x900 has the same ratio as 1680x1050 (which is 1.6). Just divide the 1st number by the 2nd number; standard wide-screen ratio is 16:9 or 1.777, so 1600x900 would be a perfect match, but if the manual states that you should have 1680x1050, then it should be there. Maybe try to update your video drivers?