Monitor Color Off! Help!

[matt719]

Ok, my monitor has been like this for almost a year and a half and i just put up with it but now i have another monitor hooked up (dual monitors) and the difference is so bad i can't take it. I'm talking about my 19" Sony HMD-A440 CRT Trintron. I should be careful when i say that the color is off, because it displays colors perfectly. As in, if i went into mspaint the black looks like black. However, in certain situations, the colors look faded. The black looks almost olive green, and other colors have a faded look. Some examples are Windows boot screen and games, however, it is always noticable when i display dark colors. My friend has the exact same monitor and his is fine, just like the 17" sony trintron i have sitting right next to this. I have tried this with multiple video cards (Radeon 9600 Pro, G3 Ti500, G2 Pro) and it all produce the same results, and it happens when it is not in dual config, so i'm positive it is the monitor. So what i'm hoping is it is just a software setting or something that i can correct it with. The monitor isn't under warranty so there is nothing i can do there. It's not the contrast/brigthness setting on the monitor, because i set it to the same as the 17" and it still looks faded. I hope someone out there knows what i'm talking about and i'm not the only one. Thanks in advance for your help.

[FlyingPenguin]

You can manually set the RGB settings on the monitor's controls to try to closely match the other monitor.

The settings might be called Color Temp in the monitor OSD (on screen display).

The best thing to do is put a full screen window with a white background on both monitors and then adjust as necessary. If your white looks a bit grrenish, turn down the green. If it looks yellow turn down the green and blue, etc (remember your primary colors from junior high school art class?).

[matt719]

Hmmmm, well, like i said... white works fine. In fact, it can display all colors accurately. But with things like the background, boot screen, and 3D games it looks faded. I can only notice it with dark colors, which is pretty self explainatory i guess.

My monitor doesn't have RGB settings in its OSD. In fact, both of them don't. They both have exactly the same menu.

For the record, while irrelevant, the 17" is a Multiscan E200.

Also, i have the drivers from Sony installed on my 19" monitor which allows me use 100Hz @ 1152x786, which is what i run. The 17" is at 60Hz which is limited by the DVI port i assume, because setting it higher doesn't change the frequency (when i check in the OSD, and of course, i can't notice a difference like i would be able to).

[pseizure2000]

Are you sure there is nothing in the OSD that might fix it? If there isn't then based on everything you've said previously it seems like your monitor has crapped out on you.

[FlyingPenguin]

There's always an RGB adjustment in every monitor. It's usually not in the main menu - see if there's an advanced menu. It might be called Color Temperature (pictogram will usually be color bars). Selections will be 9300K, 6500K, 5500K and User. Select user and you'll be able to manually adjust the RGB levels.

[matt719]

There is 9300k, 5000k, and three dots, which i assume are RGB. However, it is just one setting to adjust. I can't change the colors seperately. And the monitor didn't "crap out" because it has always been like this.

[pseizure2000]

You'll have to play around with the OSD then....the answer lies within it. It's hard to help you with this sinec most OSDs are different.

[FlyingPenguin]

It'll be those 3 dots. You probabkly need to select the dots to get into another sub-menu where you can adjust the 3 color levels individually.

ALL monitors with OSDs have this feature. Never seen one that doesn't.