XP Display Problems and Resolutions
XP Display
problems covers Colour Problems – Display Driver Issues – Fuzzy
or Blurred Images – Resolution and Desktop Size, including Icon
and Font Sizes.
If you have
any video display problems XP does have a lot of settings we can
change to fix this or enhance the look and feel of Windows,
although much of the time its simple changes.
It’s a question of knowing where to look for these.
XP display Problems with Colours
Display driver issue – Always make
sure you are using the latest drivers available for your
graphics card, bugs and problems do occur and the most resilient
and best performing display drivers are usually the latest.
These can be downloaded as part of the general Windows updates,
or from the card manufacturers website, which is preferable as
it will be the very latest available.
Low colours
– the amount of colours you have Windows set for has some big
advantages and disadvantages, using 32bit colour much of the
time is unnecessary it does not make images look sharper, just
uses more memory, check it out, Right click on the Windows
desktop and select properties – settings tab – under Color
quality lower this as much as you can.
It is best to try to find a balance in between using colors as
low as possible and as clear as possible, usually 16bit will
suffice in most cases.
XP Display Problems With a Blurred or Fuzzy
Display Image
Try lowering
hardware acceleration & make sure write combing is enabled. This
can be checked by right clicking on the desktop –
properties – settings – advanced – troubleshoot. *
Note * only lower hardware acceleration as much as you
need, too much will slow down any applications or games.
As above when you select the advanced option
– select the monitor tab – make sure Hide modes that this
monitor cannot display is ticked and then select the highest
screen refresh rate that is listed.
A
fuzzy or blurred image can also be attributed to the monitor –
all monitor have a control panel built into them where changes
to setting such as image, brightness etc can be changed.
If
the monitor looks as though it has a coloured hint or tinge if
you are using a CRT monitor Degauss the monitor, this discharges
all magnetism from the monitor, you will hear a loud buzz or
crack, but this is normal
Horizontal or Vertical convergence – this problem makes any
image or text look very blurred, like it has a shadow. Thos
occurs when two layers of an element on a monitors picture are
not truly aligned.
On older monitors the horizontal/vertical convergence needs to
be adjusted manually, but on newer monitors they should have an
auto button to change this automatically.
The size/resolution of the desktop is too big
or small
If
everything on the desktop is too large or small – right click on
the desktop and select properties – settings tab – look for the
screen resolution slider – now move this to the right to make
everything smaller or to the left to make everything bigger,
once you change the setting and click apply it will change the
setting for 30 seconds, if you do not click ok to the setting
you have chosen Windows will automatically change it back for
you.
As a
general monitor resolutions guide 14 inch or smaller monitor
800x600 – 17 inch monitor 1024x768 – 19 inch monitor 1280x1024
If
you find the current screen resolution is ideal, but you want
everything to be a little bigger or small then you can change
the DPI or dots per inch – right click on the desktop –
properties – settings tab – advanced – general tab – now change
the DPI – the larger the number or dots per inch the
larger things will look.
If
you wish to only change the font size – right click on the
desktop – appearance tab – under font size select your
chosen size.
For more on general settings and XP
display problems - setting up your screens
resolution and refresh rate
computer adviser
xp display problems article |
