Fuzzy display on SyncMaster 710T

  • Thread starter Thread starter gargoyle60
  • Start date Start date
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gargoyle60

I have a Samsung SyncMaster 710T attached to my PC via the digital input.
I have recently reinstalled Windows.

When I boot up, sometimes (not always) the display gets distorted and becomes fuzzy and jittery.
This didn't used to happen before I reinstalled Windows.

I always let my PC equipment warm up by switching on the mains power and only then switching on the
equipment about 20-30 seconds later, so any capacitors/PSU gets sufficiently charged (if I don't do
this then my PC freezes with S.M.A.R.T. failures, even though S.M.A.R.T. is disabled) .

I have looked in device manager and tried to update the drivers (see below) but no newer ones were
found.

Any ideas about what might be causing the fuzzy distortions?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Windows XP Home, SP3, fully patched/updated
Intel Pentium 4 CPU, 3.01GHz, 3.00GB RAM

Devices:
Samsung SyncMaster 710T/701T, SyncMaster Magic, CX713T/CX710U (Digital)
- Driver Provider: Samsung
- Driver Date: 03/01/2005
- Driver Version: 1.1.0.0
- Driver Singer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

Radeon X300 Series
- Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
- Driver Date: 22/02/2005
- Driver Version: 6.14.10.6517
- Driver Singer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher
 
gargoyle60 said:
I have a Samsung SyncMaster 710T attached to my PC via the digital input.
I have recently reinstalled Windows.

When I boot up, sometimes (not always) the display gets distorted and becomes fuzzy and jittery.
This didn't used to happen before I reinstalled Windows.

I always let my PC equipment warm up by switching on the mains power and only then switching on the
equipment about 20-30 seconds later, so any capacitors/PSU gets sufficiently charged (if I don't do
this then my PC freezes with S.M.A.R.T. failures, even though S.M.A.R.T. is disabled) .

I have looked in device manager and tried to update the drivers (see below) but no newer ones were
found.

Any ideas about what might be causing the fuzzy distortions?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Windows XP Home, SP3, fully patched/updated
Intel Pentium 4 CPU, 3.01GHz, 3.00GB RAM

Devices:
Samsung SyncMaster 710T/701T, SyncMaster Magic, CX713T/CX710U (Digital)
- Driver Provider: Samsung
- Driver Date: 03/01/2005
- Driver Version: 1.1.0.0
- Driver Singer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher

Radeon X300 Series
- Driver Provider: ATI Technologies Inc.
- Driver Date: 22/02/2005
- Driver Version: 6.14.10.6517
- Driver Singer: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher
Click to expand...

The monitor has DVI and VGA inputs. It also has the ability to pivot the
display 90 degrees and run in portrait mode. It appears to be about a
six year old design.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SyncMaster-710t-Monitor-Black/dp/B00025O7RA

If you were using VGA, I'd switch to DVI-D and see if the problems
go away or not. VGA would involve an analog to digital conversion
step, and also involves sync signal processing. DVI still has
processing steps, but might not exhibit as many phenomenon as VGA
can. (VGA can get ghosting, if the cables are the wrong impedance.
DVI gives colored snow, if the cables are too long. It's easier
to get a good DVI setup, than a VGA one, as you can never
entirely eliminate VGA signal degradation.)

This is an example of an X300 with a DVI connector (at top).
But they also made some, with only the VGA connector on them,
so there is no guarantee you got a DVI connector on yours.

http://techreport.com/r.x/ati-pcie/x300.jpg

You have to be a little careful with DVI cabling. If you're buying
a cable, make sure it fits on both ends. If the video card has
DVI-I and the monitor has DVI-D, you could use a DVI-D to
DVI-D cable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DVI_Connector_Types.svg

Paul
 
The monitor has DVI and VGA inputs. It also has the ability to pivot the
display 90 degrees and run in portrait mode. It appears to be about a
six year old design.

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SyncMaster-710t-Monitor-Black/dp/B00025O7RA

If you were using VGA, I'd switch to DVI-D and see if the problems
go away or not. VGA would involve an analog to digital conversion
step, and also involves sync signal processing. DVI still has
processing steps, but might not exhibit as many phenomenon as VGA
can. (VGA can get ghosting, if the cables are the wrong impedance.
DVI gives colored snow, if the cables are too long. It's easier
to get a good DVI setup, than a VGA one, as you can never
entirely eliminate VGA signal degradation.)

This is an example of an X300 with a DVI connector (at top).
But they also made some, with only the VGA connector on them,
so there is no guarantee you got a DVI connector on yours.

http://techreport.com/r.x/ati-pcie/x300.jpg

You have to be a little careful with DVI cabling. If you're buying
a cable, make sure it fits on both ends. If the video card has
DVI-I and the monitor has DVI-D, you could use a DVI-D to
DVI-D cable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DVI_Connector_Types.svg

Paul
Click to expand...

Yes, I am using the DVI input using original the DVI cable supplied with the LCD unit.
Despite its age, it has always been a reliable monitor, so I'm guessing the recent fuzziness has
something to do with my reinstallation of XP. I have checked and all the correct drivers are
installed.

If I switch off the monitor and then switch it back on again, the display resolves to normal clear
view and the fuzziness disappears.
 
gargoyle60 said:
Yes, I am using the DVI input using original the DVI cable supplied with the LCD unit.
Despite its age, it has always been a reliable monitor, so I'm guessing the recent fuzziness has
something to do with my reinstallation of XP. I have checked and all the correct drivers are
installed.

If I switch off the monitor and then switch it back on again, the display resolves to normal clear
view and the fuzziness disappears.
Click to expand...

Being digital, eliminates some styles of defect (VGA analog cable
reflections, or sync detection problems). The old TV sets suffered
from all manner of sync problems (flipping, whack the side of the set
and so on). With digital interconnect, most of that kind of thing
should be gone. Even when DVI is suffering from transmission
errors (colored snow on screen), it takes a lot to lose sync.

I don't think it's this (PVP). As far as I know, making the display fuzzy
on purpose, started in Vista or later. Vista and Windows 7 not only
have the Protected Video Path, there are also provisions in the
video driver to detect certain kinds of tampering. I don't know
if this is well documented anywhere, but I run into the odd
complaint that aligns with the notion (like a monitor with DisplayPort
and HDMI, the DisplayPort ends up fuzzy, the HDMI doesn't). When
two digital paths don't behave the same, it's fun to blame
software for it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_Video_Path
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd407266(VS.85).aspx

At the display level, the signal fed to your monitor is progressive
scan. And that rules out some of the refusals to sync, that you might
see on an interleaved display.

If your monitor has 6 bits per pixel, instead of 8 bits per pixel,
the LCD panel uses "temporal dithering" to create intermediate colors.
This sometimes leads to "banding" on the display, if not done well.
I don't know if a malfunction in such a feature, would lead to
a fuzzy picture or not.

The thing is, the pixels on an LCD, don't move about. They're fixed
in place. Driving the monitor at "native resolution" gives the cleanest
picture, because one pixel in, equals one pixel out. The situation
changes a bit, if you drive at a non-native resolution. For example,
if I drive my 1280x1024 monitor at 1024x768 resolution, the panel has
to re-scale that and the boundaries of the sent pixels aren't very precise.
If you're seeing that kind of effect, go to the Display control
panel and check the resolution being used. There is no reason,
that switching off the monitor, and then back on again, would
make a difference when scaling is involved. (Where it gets tricky, is
if you own a 1366x768 monitor, where the 1366 is not a multiple of eight.
Some weirdness is seen sometimes there, depending on how the video card
is instructed to deal with such a situation. For example, a slightly
"off" resolution on such monitors, leads to a "virtual tear" in the
screen image.) The OSD (on-screen display) in the monitor, and its
associated processor, check the resolution (dimensions) of the picture,
when a "new" picture is detected, so switching off the monitor and
then back on again, forces a fresh "re-detection" of the sent
resolution. If the monitor was getting it wrong for some reason,
power toggling might clear it up.

If you have a digital camera, you could take a picture of the most
distorted corner of the display, when it's fuzzy and when it is clear,
and post it on imageshack.us . (Paste the two pictures, side by side,
so they're captured in the same posted image.) Then post a link here
to where the image is located on imageshack.us, and perhaps someone
will recognize the effect you're seeing. You can try changing the
display resolution, to something non-native, and see if the kind
of fuzziness present is the same type or not.

Actual failures on LCD monitors, take the form of:

1) Backlight failures are pretty high up on the list. Black screen.
2) Bright pixels. Dead pixels. Or bright vertical lines (where a
display driver signal is stuck in some state). Those are panel
related defects.
3) Very infrequently, the input/scaler board can fail. The scaler
may have a dead DVI/HDMI due to static discharge. Or you might find
the monitor in some weird mode, where the image no longer fills
the screen. If the monitor uses memory internally to hold one or
more frames, a RAM failure can cause some visual effects.
4) The internal power supply can fail, due to bad capacitors.
But the frequency of the defect there, should be measured
in seconds, like seeing the whole screen flash once a
second or something.

So whatever your monitor's problem is, it's a bit more subtle.

Paul
 
Additional info...

My PC is dual boot, Win XP and Ubuntu 10.10 Linux.
I only get the fuzzyiness problem in WinXP and so far it has never happened in Ubuntu.

I also have an older PC attached via the analog cable and running Win98 and XUbuntu 6.
I have also never had the fuzzyiness problem with either of these.

Hence my suspicion that the problem is software-related rather than any type of hardware failure.

I shall try to take photos the next time it happens and post them as suggested.
 
gargoyle60 said:
Additional info...

My PC is dual boot, Win XP and Ubuntu 10.10 Linux.
I only get the fuzzyiness problem in WinXP and so far it has never happened in Ubuntu.

I also have an older PC attached via the analog cable and running Win98 and XUbuntu 6.
I have also never had the fuzzyiness problem with either of these.

Hence my suspicion that the problem is software-related rather than any type of hardware failure.

I shall try to take photos the next time it happens and post them as suggested.
Click to expand...

Windows has ClearType, which is antialiasing for fonts. I don't
remember the details now, but sometimes that does weird things to
the fonts. There are some adjustments for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClearType

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx

Paul
 
I think I may have identified the underlying problem.

The monitor has a setting in the menu to "auto-detect" which signal it is receiving, either analog
or digital.

I usually set it to auto-detect but I have disabled that and now select the signal manually using
the "Source" button on the font panel. Since doing this there has been no fuzziness even in XP.
 
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