How do I make my monitor run at 1440x900 at 32-bit colour depth without going blurry and off centre?

Question

As far as I know this hasn't been a problem before. I have a 16:10 monitor which can display 1440x900 resolution and a nVidia GeForce 7600 GS card.

I noticed when I ran a game (flight simulator X) which I run at 1440x900x32 resolution, the picture would be very blurry and was also off centre with black bars on the left and I think at the top. I pressed the little buttons on the monitor and the little adjustment box opened saying the screen was at 1024x768 resolution.

So I looked at the screen properties (from the desktop) and it claimed I was running at 1440x900 with 16-bit colour depth. However everything appears to be still at 32 bit colour depth as I thought 16 bit looked noticably poorer. When I changed the colour depth to 32 bit from the dropdown menu (putting the screen at 1440x900x32) everything on the desktop promptly appeared the same way as on flight simulator, and for that matter everything else I choose to run at 1440x900.

Just running at a lower resolution isn't what I was to end up doing, I want to end up sorting this out as something clearly isn't quite right somewhere.

Answer 1

There are three separate issues involved when changing display settings. Resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. Most people completely overlook refresh rate because it is often buried in the advanced menus... simply because the older CRT style monitors could handle a wide range of refresh rates, and they could also handle a much higher refresh rate to reduce flicker. The popularity of LCD screens has caused this issue to pop up a lot in the past year or so.



When you change your resolution to its max, most video cards have enough on-board video RAM to be able to keep the highest color depth allowable. However, selecting a lower resolution will sometimes cause the automatic refresh rate selection to be way, way too high for the monitor you are using. Most LCD screens can only support a maximum of 60 Hz vertical refresh, no matter what resolution you have the desktop/game set to. It sounds like your flight sim is set to display at 1024 X 768, which could cause your video card to automatically select the highest refresh rate it can for that resolution.



Check in the advanced properties for your display setting, make sure the refresh rates for various resolutions are all set to 60 Hz. Once you do this, the screen shift you noticed, as well as the 'blurry' image, should right itself instantly. You might need to make a minor adjustment on the monitor itself if you have already adjusted it, in order to attempt to correct the image.



You should also try to find a monitor driver for your specific LCD screen. It will automatically set the refresh rate limits for each resolution for you.

Answer 2

I am a Christian and actually there is a degree to which I agree with you. You are able to live a rich, rewarding, loving , happy life without Jesus. Jesus in your heart does complicate things and causes every action to be reconsidered. This is actually very draining sometimes. But I will tell you it is worth it because even though there are times without the wonderful, the rewarding , and the richness, the peace in my heart is what gets me through. So if you are at the bottom of the barell without the peace that is when it concerns me. To each his own and truly if you are living right and are a kind loving person why do you think you are being judged by Christians. It's not the business we are suppose to be in! If you are being judged they are wrong! I am not ticked off that you don't believe in "the sky fairy", I am not ticked off at all! I love you regardless! Michele

Answer 3

It's an old card that's not really up to the job. That model is mostly passively cooled (no fan) too, so that won't help and it's probably developed a fault because of overheating.



Time to get a new graphics card IMO

Answer 4

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_197.13_whql.html



Download and install the latest drivers from above. :D