Adjusting Video Displays

Don't like the picture on your monitor? Fix it!

Video adjustments are made by adjusting monitor or display properties, either on the monitor or with the Windows Display Properties sheet. Depending on the monitor, it might be necessary to make changes whenever the picture type changes or the monitor itself can memorize the settings and recall them on demand.

Some portable computers running Windows XP, particularly those with discrete graphics chips instead of integrated graphics, might support DualView, which uses any monitor plugged into the VGA port as a secondary display. To learn more about DualView, see "Video/Graphics Circuitry," in Chapter 12, "Portables."

Adjusting Picture Size and Quality Settings with Monitor Controls

Although very old monitors often required the user to manually change horizontal and vertical picture sizes when changing resolutions or switching from VGA graphics (640x480) to VGA text (720x400) resolutions , or from one graphics resolution to another, more recent monitors have built-in, digitally controlled settings for each supported resolution. You can adjust the horizontal and vertical settings as well as screen geometry and other settings with onscreen controls (see Figure 9.7) on most recent monitors. These are activated with push buttons on the front of both CRT and LCD displays, and provide a greater number of adjustments than older types of digital display controls.

Figure 9.7. Typical OSD adjustments for CRT and LCD monitors. A portion of an LCD monitor's OSD is shown in the inset at lower right; the other images are from a typical CRT's OSD.

Typical picture adjustments available on virtually all monitors include

• Horizontal picture size

• Horizontal picture centering

• Vertical picture size

• Vertical picture centering

• Contrast

• Brightness

Recent CRT and LCD monitors also offer settings for color balance, color temperature , degaussing ( removes color fringing in a CRT display caused by the magnetic fields in the monitor), and options for the language and position of the onscreen display (OSD).

When the vertical and horizontal pictures size and centering controls (sometimes combined into a single zoom control) are used to fill the available screen area on a CRT display, barrel (outward curving image sides) and pincushion (inward curving image sides) distortion can take place (see Figure 9.8) as well as other problems. Use the OSD controls on recent monitors or the interactive push-button geometry controls on older monitors to fix these types of picture distortion. Note that you might need to make these adjustments for each resolution you use. The good news is that monitors "remember" the changes you make for each resolution.

Figure 9.8. Typical geometry errors in monitors that can be corrected with digital or OSD controls available on most monitors.

Adjusting Display Properties in Windows

Installing a better video card or bigger monitor is only half the battle when it comes to providing the display quality you need. If you need to adjust

• Screensavers

• Desktop backgrounds

• Color scheme and font sizes

• Resolution and color depth settings

• Multiple monitors

• Vertical refresh rate

• 3D graphics properties

• Color quality

• Desktop theme

it's time to open the Display Properties sheet in Windows.

To open the Display Properties sheet, open the Display icon in the Windows Control Panel or right-click on an empty part of the Windows desktop and select Properties.

Adjusting Backgrounds, Screensavers, Color Schemes, and Font Sizes

Want to put your favorite photo on the desktop? Click the Desktop tab and select a graphic; use Browse to look in other folders as desired. You can use .BMP and other graphics file formats. You should also choose a color to use for the background. You can also use a color without a photo if you prefer.

To adjust the type of screensaver , its settings, and how long it waits before starting, click the Screen Saver tab, select a screensaver, and click the Settings button. The Screen Saver tab also has a button for monitor power saving; it opens the general Power dialog on some versions of Windows.

Click the Appearance tab to select the style and color scheme to use for Windows. If you are working with a user with limited vision, you can enable larger-than-normal font sizes and high-contrast black or white color schemes through this dialog. Use the Effects button to enable various special effects such as onscreen font smoothing and large icons.

Adjusting Resolution, Color Quality, and Multiple Monitor Support

Click the Settings tab to adjust the resolution and color quality ( color depth ) of any display, or to enable multiple displays on a system with two or more monitors (see Figure 9.9).

Figure 9.9. The Settings tab is "Control Central," the single-most important tab in the Display Properties sheet when you upgrade to multiple monitor support or install a bigger monitor. The Windows XP version is shown, but Windows 98 and others are similar.

Note that until you enable the additional monitor(s) shown in the Settings tab, Windows can't use them. Windows 2000, by the way, has poorer multiple monitor support than Windows 98, Me, or XP: It doesn't support different resolutions or refresh rates with most multiple-display video cards. If you use Windows 2000, you're better off with separate cards.

tip

If you've just replaced a tiny monitor with a big one, don't make the all-too-common mistake of forgetting to adjust the screen resolution to make the most of your new display. If you keep the same settings your old display used, your graphics and menus will be enormous (Windows might even complain it can't show you all your menus if you like to install lots of software!), and you'll still be scrolling around and through long Web pages and documents. See Table 9.3 for my picks.

If you're switching to a larger monitor, check out Table 9.3 for the recommended resolutions to use with various sizes of CRT and LCD displays.

Many CRT monitors in the 15-inch to 19-inch size ranges support higher resolutions than those shown in Table 9.3, but in most cases these resolutions produce poor screen quality. Stick with these recommendations to get easy-on-the-eyes results with both cheap monitors and high-quality displays.

Table 9.3. Recommended Resolutions by Display Size and Type

Display Type/Size	15-inch	17-inch	19-inch	20-inch
CRT	800x600	1,024x768	1,280x1,024	1,600x1,200
LCD	1,024x768	1,280x1,024	1,280x1,024	1,600x1,200

Adjusting Vertical Refresh Rate, 3D, and Color Quality

To make more advanced changes for your display, click the Advanced button. If you have multiple displays, select the one you want to adjust before you click Advanced.

The menus you see vary somewhat with the Windows version, driver version, and video card used on a particular system, but Figure 9.10 is representative of what you'll see on a Windows XP system (other versions vary a bit).

Figure 9.10. The Troubleshoot tab on the Windows XP Advanced Display Properties sheet configured to disable DirectX acceleration.

Systems that use plain- vanilla , Microsoft-provided video drivers have the General, Adapter, Monitor, Troubleshoot, and Color Management tabs shown in Figure 9.10. The others shown in Figure 9.10 are proprietary to the driver provided by the video card vendor. However, most recent video card chipsets offer similar features if you download the drivers from the vendor Web site.

Need to fix your display or your system won't start or crashes a lot? Use Tables 9.4, 9.5, and 9.6 along with Figure 9.10 to help you choose the right dialog to make the adjustments you need to make for best display quality or to fix startup problems and crashes.

Note that at sizes below 19-inch that LCD displays support higher recommended resolutions than CRT monitors do; this is because the usable screen size of a CRT monitor is an inch or so smaller than its total measurement, and because LCD displays don't have problems with misalignment, flicker, or poor focus the way CRT monitors can. Note also that many CRT monitors don't support flicker-free refresh rates (72Hz or higher) at their maximum resolutions.

Table 9.4. Advanced Adjustments for Display Quality and Features

Adjustment Needed	Tab	Menu Item or Button	Notes
Icons and text too small	General	DPI setting	Custom lets you select the setting you want.
Need to update video card driver	Adapter	Properties	Click Driver tab to update driver.
Need to adjust vertical refresh rate to eliminate flicker	Adapter or Monitor (varies by Windows version)	(Screen) refresh rate	Use 72Hz or higher refresh rate (up to limits of monitor) to reduce or eliminate flicker.
Graphics or mouse pointer problems	Troubleshoot (Windows XP) or Performance (other Windows versions)	Hardware Acceleration	Drag to left to reduce acceleration; download and install new mouse and display drivers as soon as possible (refer to Table 9.5).
Colors don't match between screen and printer	Color Management	Add (color profile)	Get color profiles from printer or graphics software vendors .
3D game performance too low	OpenGL or Direct3D	Adjust settings for performance	If not available on your system, download the latest driver from your 3D graphics card vendor.
3D game image quality too low	OpenGL or Direct3D	Adjust settings for quality	If not available on your system, download the latest driver from your 3D graphics card vendor.
Color balance, brightness, and contrast need adjusting	Color	Adjust options as needed	Many 3D games are very dark; use Full Screen 3D option (if available) to adjust display for 3D gaming only.

Troubleshooting Frequent Lockups or Startup Problems

A computer that won't start except in VGA or Safe Mode or has frequent lockups or screen corruption when you move your mouse needs upgraded display, mouse, or DirectX drivers. Time to start downloading!

However, as a workaround, you can reduce the video acceleration as shown in Figure 9.10. Use Table 9.5 to determine the best setting to use for the display problem you're having with Windows XP and 2000. With other Windows versions, use Table 9.6 to determine how to adjust the Performance tab's acceleration settings.

Table 9.5. Using Graphics Acceleration Settings to Troubleshoot Windows XP and 2000

Acceleration Setting	Left	One Click from Left	Two Clicks from Left	Two Clicks from Right	One Click from Right	Right
Effects of Setting	No acceleration; use when system won't start except in Safe or VGA Mode	Disables all but basic acceleration	Disables DirectX, DirectDraw, and Direct 3D acceleration ( mainly used by 3D games)	Disables cursor and drawing accelerations	Disables mouse and pointer acceleration	Enables full acceleration
Long- Term Solution	Updates display, DirectX, and mouse drivers	Updates display, DirectX, and mouse drivers	Updates DirectX drivers	Updates display drivers	Updates mouse drivers	N/A
Disable write combining, a method for speeding up screen display, whenever you select any setting other than full acceleration to improve stability (see Figure 9.10). Re-enable write combining after you install updated drivers and retry .

Table 9.6. Using Graphics Acceleration Settings to Troubleshoot Other Windows Versions

Mouse Pointer Location	Left	One Click from Left	One Click from Right	Right
Effects of Setting	Disables all acceleration	Basic acceleration only	Disables mouse pointer acceleration	Full acceleration
Solution	Updates display and mouse drivers	Updates display and mouse drivers	Updates mouse drivers	N/A

Lots of settings, but which one to use? If you're not sure which setting is the best for your problem, try this procedure:

1. Start the computer.

2. Open the Troubleshooting or Performance dialog box as described in the previous section.

3. Slide the acceleration pointer one notch to the left from its current position.

4. Click Apply, OK, and then OK again to close the Display Properties dialog box.

5. Use your normal software and perform typical tasks .

6. If the computer now performs acceptably (no more crashes), continue to use this setting until you can obtain and install updated drivers. If the computer continues to have problems, repeat steps 25 and move the pointer one step to the left each time until the problems go away or until you can install updated drivers.