PCA Forums

My monitor, a Viewsonic PF790 is way to dark. Even with the brightness and contrst cranked way up in the OSD it 's too dark. If I crank up the brightness and contrast in ATI control panel it sucks. Can't play any games on it because I can't see. Oh well

I think it's going to die on me. Am I right?

Maybe, maybe not. I had the same problem, then I downloaded Powerstrip and used it to raise the brightness levels. It ended up being a driver problem. Oh, and after using power strip, delete it. It's spyware.

Chances are it's the monitor. Boot into DOS or BIOS - if it's dark there as well it's the monitor.

If it's good monitor and not too old, it would be worth taking to a mom & pop TV repair shop and see if they can brighten it for you. Often it's just dirt on the CRT filaments - there's a device that can cooks the dirt off although there's a chance it may damage it. They might also be able to turn up the screen voltage which will brighten it up and buy you some time.

I had a client who's monitor got struck by lightning. It worked and looked fine in DOS , but as soon as windows would start loading, the power light would stay on and the screen remained black. I even tried it on multiple systems.

It looks pretty good in dos and as it boots. I've tried diferent drivers but that did nothing. I have another Viewsonic pt795 that looks excellent but will randomly shut down. Sometimes turning it off then back on works, sometimes not. Maybe I'll try powerstrip.

thanks

Originally posted by d_b
but will randomly shut down. Sometimes turning it off then back on works, sometimes not.

Pitch it.

It sounds like it is reaching the end of its life unfornately. One thing that has helped with me with an aging and dying monitor is to see if you have the ability to restore factory default settings. It makes no sense, but when I do that with my dimming monitor, it helps for a while.

I wish I had never gotten a 22" trinitron because I will have to buy another one. I am not going back to smaller.

I've restored it to the default settings using the On screen display, if thats what you mean. It didn't help much with the brightness. It did however make the text fuzzy.

I'll probably be looking into another crt, at least a 19 incher.

thanks

Have you fiddled with the color temperature settings?

I've fiddled and diddled with every setting that there is....even gave it a few love taps. About all I've done is make it worse. Still have my trusty Viewsonic viewPanel VA800. It ghosts a little in games but it's better than not seeing anything at all.